GILROY
– You can call it the gift that keeps on giving, at least for
five years.
Calpine Energy made good for the third consecutive year on its
promise to donate $50,000 annually to charitable organizations in
Gilroy until 2006.
GILROY – You can call it the gift that keeps on giving, at least for five years.
Calpine Energy made good for the third consecutive year on its promise to donate $50,000 annually to charitable organizations in Gilroy until 2006. The giant energy provider announced this week its 2004 grant winners – 16 local organizations, from public schools to health clinics, that will receive between $1,000 and $7,500 for the community service they provide.
Topping the list was the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation with a $7,500 grant for recruiting high-tech businesses.
Bill Lindsteadt, the agency’s executive director, said the grant will fund mailings and site visits to high-tech firms that may want to relocate or start business in Gilroy.
“What we’re after is the production side of the bio tech, high tech and the medical industries,” Lindsteadt said. “We’ve already kicked off our marketing campaign, so this will help a great deal.”
Combined with two $5,000 grants from Pacific Gas & Electric and CM Capitol Foundation, the EDC now has a $17,500 budget for recruitment efforts of these kinds.
The donation is the EDC’s second in the last two years. In 2003, the agency landed $5,900 for a compact disc business card.
The Gilroy Historical Society will combine its $3,000 Calpine grant with a $2,000 grant from the Rotary Club. The total $5,000 will go toward the purchase of a microfilm reader, the final item in a total $13,000 project to put its old newspaper collection on microfilm and provide a way to read the articles.
The historical society has Gilroy Dispatch newspapers, then called The Advocate, dating back to 1868.
Nine of the 16 grant winners this year won money from Calpine in 2003. Repeat winners include South Valley String Academy ($2,500), for a children’s violin program; St. Joseph’s Family Center ($5,000), for financial assistance to poor families; Community Solutions ($3,000), for its restorative justice program; and Leadership Gilroy ($1,500), for an educational trip to Sacramento.
Only five applicants did not receive grant money this year. Last year, six had to be passed on.
A Community Grant Board – consisting of two Calpine representatives along with representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, City Council, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and South County Community Collaborative – make the award decisions based on need in the community.
This year’s awards will be formally handed out on Jan. 14 at 2 p.m. in the Chamber of Commerce boardroom.
