Gilroy
– The Gilroy Foundation is doling out a record $154,000 in
grants tonight to Gilroy schools, hunger programs and other local
organizations.
Gilroy – The Gilroy Foundation is doling out a record $154,000 in grants tonight to Gilroy schools, hunger programs and other local organizations.
The biggest of 36 grants this year is $54,000 and will help improve choir programs for kindergarten through fifth-grade students within Gilroy Unified School District. The grant is the first to be awarded from a $1 million endowment earmarked for the grade-school choir programs by the Connell family, long time supporters of local music programs.
The latest round of giving outstrips last year’s grant awards by more than $20,000, according to Donna Pray, executive director of the foundation created in 1980.
“Most of our growth has happened in the past 18 months,” Pray said, pointing to the Connell’s $1 million endowment as one of several major gifts in recent years. “We just reached $1 million in assets in January 2004. Now we’re at $5.6 million. We’ve had tremendous growth.”
And that bodes well for local nonprofit organizations such as GUSD, which also is receiving a second $3,500 grant from the Connell family to add music to its summer school programs.
The bigger gift not only puts GUSD “on the map” when it comes to its music programs, but the gift has inspired a broader effort to craft a long-term fine arts program for all grade levels in the district, according to GUSD spokesperson Teri Freedman.
“You have to get them young to have a world-class music program,” Freedman said, quoting Gilroy High School’s choir director Phil Robb.
Most grants handed out tonight during a ceremony at Gilroy Gardens range from $500 to $5,0000, Pray said. The foundation plans to dole out another $45,000 in educational scholarships in May.
