The Falmouth Fund of The Cape Cod Foundation Announces Distribution of Nearly $75,000 in Grants

The Falmouth Fund of The Cape Cod Foundation is pleased to announce that $74,990 was awarded to local organizations at an event hosted by the West Falmouth Library on Wednesday March 16th, 2016.

The grant review committee of The Falmouth Fund awarded grants to twenty-six local organizations that fell into one of two categories: Strategic Focus and General Grantee. According to Eileen Miskell, Chair of The Falmouth Fund, this brings the total awards from The Falmouth Fund to nearly $300,000 in its seventh year of grantmaking.

“Our 2016 grants are going to organizations from across Falmouth who represent human services to historic preservation to education and beyond. We are so proud of the work being done in our community and are grateful to our donors whose support helps these organizations realize their goals,” said Ms. Miskell.

The Falmouth Fund of The Cape Cod Foundation was started to build a permanent endowment and award grants to support the Falmouth community. The Falmouth Fund makes grants to nonprofits that are responsive to community needs and opportunities, work in collaboration with others, think innovatively in their solutions and work strategically to enhance the quality of life in Falmouth for all its residents.

2016 Strategic Focus Grantees:

Falmouth Historical Society, $10,000
The circa 1730 Conant House, on the National Register of Historic Places and the oldest existing structure along the Falmouth Town Green, is a keystone of the Museums on the Green. It acts as the offices for the Falmouth Historical Society and is used as a research library and exhibit space. It is in dire need of restoration and renovation work, having not undergone major repairs in over 50 years, and serious structural issues must be addressed in the 18th century portion of the building.  This grant will support restoration of the 1730 Conant House.

WE CAN Corporation, $5,000
WE CAN is a Harwichport-based organization whose mission is to empower Cape Cod women with services that inspire hope and bring increased opportunity, self-sufficiency and stability to their lives. This grant will support the planning and replication of the highly successful PathMakers Mentoring Program on the Upper Cape.  PathMakers is a 10-month mentoring program where women seeking support (PathMakers) are matched up with women wishing to guide them (Mentoring Partners). The program includes monthly workshops for all; regular 1:1 meetings between mentoring pairs and monthly Mentor sessions to provide support to the Mentors.

2016 General Grantees:

Audible Local Ledger, Inc., $1,000
To support Connect Falmouth. This grant will fund the yearly cost of the radio reading service provided free for the blind, visually impaired, and print disabled seniors residing in Falmouth.

Boys & Girls Club of Cape Cod, $4,000
To support the 174 Falmouth children who attend the Boys & Girls Club, including providing summer camp scholarships and membership fees as needed.

Buzzards Bay Coalition, $1,500
To support two outdoor exploration programs for each of the 16 fourth grade classes at the elementary schools in Falmouth during the spring of 2016.

Duffy Health Center, $3,000
To support In From The Streets (IFTS). IFTS provides short term motel shelter (from one day to several weeks) for persons who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Duffy case managers work on a housing stabilization plan with the client during the temporary stay.

Falmouth Band Parents, Inc., $2,098
To support two additional iMac computers for the Music Technology classes at Lawrence Junior High School.

Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra, $1,000
To support underwriting of key players in a Baroque concerto, specifically the Concerto for Oboe, Violin and Orchestra in C minor BWV 1060 by J.S. Bach to be performed April 1 and 2, 2016 at the John Wesley United Methodist Church in Falmouth.

Falmouth Chorale, $2,500
To support Concert of Psalms at Lawrence School auditorium on Sunday, March 19, 2017.

Falmouth Housing Trust, Inc., $9,140
To support roof replacement at the Gerald Flynn House, FHT’s program for the chronically homeless, dually diagnosed (substance abuse disorders with mental health issues).

Falmouth Service Center, $3,375
To support volunteer infrastructure, including purchase of a kiosk stand, touch screen computer and printer for volunteers to sign in and out, as well as to manage other functions provided through the Volgistics system.

Falmouth STEM Boosters,  Inc., $1,000
To support school bus transportation costs for Falmouth Public School classes planning local STEM-related field trips.

Falmouth Together We Can, $826
To support fire retardant decorations for the Celebrations after prom party, which is held annually at the Falmouth (Gus Canty) Recreation Center.

Falmouth Volunteers In Public Schools, $1,500
To support a comprehensive needs assessment. This activity will represent the culmination of a multi-year process undertaken by the VIPS Board of Advisors and staff, to create a strategic plan, an implementation plan, and form board-driven subcommittees to ensure that programming is effective, meeting district and community needs, and sustainable.

Falmouth Water Stewards, $1,275
To support the Falmouth ‘Skip the Straw’ campaign, which aims to reduce the amount of single-use plastic straws and, ultimately, other plastic trash entering the coastal environment in Falmouth.

Gosnold on Cape Cod, $5,000
To support continuation of the School-Based Counseling Program at Mullen Hall Elementary School.  This grant will allow Gosnold to continue providing three days of counseling each week and supports community-wide efforts to enhance prevention and intervention efforts related to substance abuse and mental health.

Highfield Hall & Gardens, $1,075
To support designing and printing an educational interpretive children’s brochure for Kanreki: A 60-year Journey – a contemporary print art exhibit.

Mass Audubon Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary & the Sanctuaries of the Mid and Upper Cape, $1,500
To support a new education program for 7th grade students at Lawrence Elementary School that connects students with a new habitat restoration project. The project is a partnership between five conservation organizations including the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Neighborhood Falmouth, $2,401
To support ‘Year of the Volunteer’. The foundation of The Year of the Volunteer plan is a combination of marketing and staff training efforts throughout the year, with the hope to make volunteering with Neighborhood Falmouth a regular activity that virtually everyone in the community participates in.

North Falmouth Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization (NFEPTO), $7,000
To support replacement of the outdated, unsafe wooden and metal playground equipment in three areas on the school grounds with innovative, ADA compliant structures and surfaces.

Salt Pond Areas Bird Sanctuaries, Inc., $2,500
To support updating the Land Management Plan for the Knob parcel, in collaboration with the Quissett Harbor Preservation Trust. This land management plan will update the original plan from 1997 and will include a comprehensive permit as well as annual monitoring activities on the property.

Samaritans on Cape Cod and the Islands, $2,400
To support A Second Chance Suicide Attempt Survivors Group in Falmouth. The goal of the program is to provide unconditional emotional support to individuals who have attempted suicide and to help them gain courage and strength from one another.

Sight Loss Services, Inc., $1,250
To support monthly Self Help Support group to Falmouth residents. The Cape Cod area is one of the fastest growing regions in the state for visual impairment, largely due to our elderly population, and Falmouth is no exception.

The 300 Committee Land Trust, $2,800
To support new initiatives in land stewardship through the purchase of a towable trailer and materials for the construction of information kiosks and several types of bird boxes for nesting populations of birds in decline–kestrels, wood ducks and bluebirds.

West Falmouth Library, $1,350
To support West Falmouth Archives Project. The goal of this project is to arrange and rehouse these archive collections using boxes, folders, and other proper enclosures so that they can be cataloged and then described using finding aids that are written in compliance with current archival standards.

Woods Hole Film Festival, $500
To support continuation of the program “Bringing Science to the Screen” and support a new program, “Film Falmouth” at the Falmouth Academy venue.

For more information about The Falmouth Fund, please visit www.capecodfoundation.org.

The Falmouth Fund is a permanent endowment of The Cape Cod Foundation, a community foundation whose mission is to build permanent charitable resources for community betterment through informed grantmaking and civic leadership. The Foundation has distributed more than $55 million in grants and scholarships since its founding in 1989.