Falmouth Fund Awards Second Round of Grants

Falmouth Enterprise

The Falmouth Fund of the Cape Cod Foundation announced it has made its second grant distribution of $21,840. This is an increase over the $15,890 The Falmouth Fund distributed in 2010. Once again the focus of fund grants was to support organizations serving the community of Falmouth.

The 2011 Grant Review Committee members are: Robert Ament, Jodee Bishop, Eileen Miskell, Sarah Pring, Victoria Lowell, Tucker Clark, Mindy Todd, Janet Buckingham, Carolyn Andersen, Todd Duffany, Christopher Leboeuf, Eric Turkington, JoAnn Fishbein, Ronald Garcia, James Lloyd, Megan Jones, Jeanne Adams, and Steven Haddad.

“The grant review committee struggled with two areas of funding this year,” said Eileen Miskell, chairman of The Falmouth Fund. “The first debate was over the shortage of state and town money to support organizations that should be receiving funding from these sources. The second area was the arts. The Falmouth Fund wants to be connected with supporting the arts as the arts play such a key role in the life of our community.”

The Falmouth Fund will continue to favor grants that are innovative and show a collaboration among organizations. This year the Friend of Fairwinds grant supports the group’s innovative approach to being self-sufficient by the purchase of the Peter Kirwin Building on Katharine Lee Bates Road. Friends of Fairwinds will have a tenant in the building, defraying the cost of operation and allowing them to put more money to direct member services.

Robert Ament summed up the grant review committee’s sentiments by saying, “There are many people in Falmouth working very hard to support their neighbors; by making these grants we recognize and encourage their dedication.”

2011 Grants:

• Falmouth Council on Aging—$3,000 to network their computers providing for more efficiency and reducing delays in the delivery of services to the senior population.
• Falmouth Volunteers in Public Schools—$2,750 to support the VIPS school-based mentoring programs for at-risk students in the Falmouth Public Schools. VIPS’ mentoring programs match trained volunteers with students who benefit from a one-on-one relationship.
• Falmouth Service Center—$2,500 to support the implementation of the service center’s strategic plan. Specifically, the grant will purchase small shopping carts and a corral for the carts. This will increase the efficiency of the FSC’s operations.
• The Friends of Fairwinds (in partnership with Falmouth Housing Corporation)—$2,000 to support the operation of the Friends of Fairwinds by providing funds to reduce the mortgage on their recently purchased building. This new building will stabilize the Fairwinds program by providing them with space to operate in and rental income from a tenant. This will allow Fairwinds to provide consistent services when state aid is frozen or cut.
• Hospice & Palliative Care of Cape Cod—$2,000 to support grief workshops for children in the greater Falmouth area. The workshops are held at Coonamessett Farm in East Falmouth.
  Samaritans of Cape Cod and the Islands—$1,500 to help support the training of volunteers for the crisis line, outreach and facilitators for support groups.
• AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod—$1,000 to support a program run by the AIDS Support Group of CC and Parents Supporting Parents that provides resource information, public health education and support parents whose children are addicted to opiates.
• Sight Loss Services Inc.—$1,000 to support two monthly self-help support group meetings for visually impaired Falmouth residents.
• Concerned Black Men of Cape Cod and the Islands—$1,000 to support the Lead by Example program at Rocky’s Gym that provides health, fitness and life-style education to high school age youth in Falmouth. The program promotes health through the achievement of a healthy body weight and increased self confidence through shared experience, exercise, nutritional counseling, direct coaching and personal training, healthy eating and life style awareness.
• The 300 Committee—$1,000 to design and produce a new townwide conservation land map.
• WCAI, Cape and Islands NPR Stations—$750 to purchase recording kits that will be used by the community. Some of the sound captured will be edited and used on the air at WCAI.
• Plan It Network—$500. The mission of Plan It Network is to provide opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities to meet new friends, to take a leadership role in planning the club’s activities and to become valued participants in their neighborhoods. The Falmouth Fund grant will support hiring a creative arts coach to work weekly with Plan It Network members to discover, develop and promote their social skills, self expression and strengths.
• Falmouth Artists Guild—$500 to provide support to the guild’s programs for children
• Soundfest Chamber Music Festival—$500 to support the efforts of Soundfest to provide music to Falmouth residents that cannot travel to concerts by defraying the cost of the group’s performances in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.
• Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra—$500 to help support the April 2011 production of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.”
• Arts Falmouth—$500 to provide support for the Arts Alive Festival being held June 18 through 20 on the Falmouth Public Library lawn. The three-day festival is held to celebrate the arts in the Falmouth area. All arts are represented through performances and exhibits.
• Together We Can—$500 to support the Celebrations After Prom event for Falmouth High School attendees and their friends.
• Falmouth Garden Club—$340 to replace the window boxes at the Falmouth bus depot.

The Cape Cod Foundation is a community foundation whose mission is to build permanent charitable resources for community betterment through informed grantmaking and civic leadership. It has distributed more than $36 million in grants and scholarships since its founding in 1989. For more information on the Cape Cod Foundation or The Falmouth Fund, visit capecodfoundation.org or call 508-790-3040.