May 20, 2021
CHEBOYGAN—The Straits Area Community Foundation Youth Advisory Council (YAC) recently awarded $6,015 in a new round of community grants for youth programs in Cheboygan County and Mackinaw City.
New Youth Advisory Council grants are:
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$1,000 to St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church for their “Together Lifting Children” (TLC) program;
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$800 to Michigan Arts Access for the Artists Arts Access program;
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$500 to PoWer! Book Bags to purchase full book bags with reading and writing materials for Cheboygan County youth;
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$450 to Mackinaw City Area Arts Council for their Summer Writing and Art Journals for Tweens and Teens project;
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$450 to Harbor Springs Festival of the Book to purchase books for Wolverine and Inland Lakes Schools;
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$315 to the City of Cheboygan for the Children’s Trail of Cheboygan.
The Straits Area Youth Advisory Council also awarded a total of $2,500 specifically to address programs that help their fellow youth with issues that have come from pandemic-related changes to school, summer activities, and access to basic necessities. Those grants include $1,000 to the Church of the Straits Food Pantry; $487 to Mackinaw City Area Schools to purchase summer take-home art kits; and $253.25 each to Cheboygan Area Schools, Inland Lakes Schools, Mackinaw City Area Schools and Wolverine Community Schools to support the schools’ food pantries and student closets. These grants were made possible through a grant to SACF’s YAC from the Michigan Community Foundations Youth Project Committee.
The Straits Area YAC is a group of young people ages 12 to 21 from Cheboygan County and Mackinaw City. Working with adult advisors, these youth work to improve the lives of other children in their communities through the allocation of grant money. With initial funding support by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, YAC encourages young people to learn how philanthropy can help meet the specific needs of their community.
The next opportunity for submitting grant applications is through the Straits Area Community Foundation’s Health Care Grant Application. The deadline to apply is June 1, and applications are available at sacf.net. These grants are for projects and programs providing health care services and activities for residents of Cheboygan County and/or Mackinaw City. This can include general health care, mental health services, counseling, wellness programs, access to care, and other health care-related projects and programs. Any nonprofit medical facility or other nonprofit organization providing general health care services for the residents of Cheboygan County and Mackinaw City are eligible to apply for up to $2,000 in funding. (No grants are made to individuals.)
The Straits Area Community Foundation serves Cheboygan County and Mackinaw City. SACF is an affiliate of the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan (CFNEM), which holds combined assets of over $60 million. CFNEM serves as the legal entity and administrative arm for its affiliate foundations. SACF is led by a volunteer board of local citizens committed to providing people who care about the future of the region and its communities with unique and effective ways of supporting their community now, and for generations to come. The foundation oversees a group of permanently endowed funds from a wide range of donors. Gifts of all sizes from individuals, families, businesses and agencies are invested in a balanced, well-managed portfolio to build endowments, enabling support for local community nonprofits now and forever.
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