Awardees and board members of the Petersburg Community Foundation. (L-R) John Birks, Mysti Birks, Brandi Heppe, Karen Malcom, Cindy Lagoudakis, Dave Berge, Carin Christensen, Annette Wooton, Tom Abbott

Awardees and board members of the Petersburg Community Foundation. (L-R) John Birks, Mysti Birks, Brandi Heppe, Karen Malcom, Cindy Lagoudakis, Dave Berge, Carin Christensen, Annette Wooton, Tom Abbott

Six community organizations are getting a little financial help from the Petersburg Community Foundation. The non-profits are sharing $15,000 in grants. KFSK’s Angela Denning reports:

The Petersburg Community Foundation puts money back into the community through annual grants to help maintain the quality of life in the area. Since the Petersburg Community Foundation started eight years ago it has awarded $67,000 dollars in grants to community organizations. The grants this year fund programs addressing early childhood education, childhood hunger, domestic violence, arts, and journalism.

The six organizations sharing the money are: The Petersburg Children’s Center, Petersburg Arts Council, Petersburg Corps of the Salvation Army, Mitkof Island Dance Troupe, WAVE, and KFSK.

David Wallen is the Chairman of the foundation’s board.

“This year was easy,” Wallen said. “It was a fun year because we really didn’t have to deliberate. Going into it we knew that we had somewhere 14-15,000 dollars to pass out and lo and behold our grants totaled $15,000.”

The Petersburg Children’s center will use $3,400 to complete safety upgrades for a classroom expansion project. The center has had a long wait list in recent years and the expansion will allow an additional 20 children to enroll.

Petersburg Arts Council is receiving $3,000 to replace the movie screen in the Wright Auditorium.

The Salvation Army in Petersburg will use $3,000 to help fund weekend food assistance for students who are fed by the school during the week.

WAVE or Working Against Violence for Everyone was granted $900 to continue its operation of the 24-hour crisis hotline.

KFSK will use $3,200 to establish a community archive and digital public record.

And the Mitkof Island Dance Troupe is getting $1,500 for needs based scholarships.

The Petersburg Community Foundation is now looking forward to the next grant cycle. Like last year, the organization is trying to get another match from the Rasmuson Foundation. Wallen says it requires $5,000 dollars from new members.

“And even at our donor party which we just had Saturday there were a couple of new members that showed up and helped out,” Wallen said.

“Everyone counts right?” I asked.

“Everyone counts, everyone does count, yeah,” Wallen said.

The foundation has about 125 businesses and individuals as donors. Last year they donated about $39,500.