Recent Grants Awarded
The Community Foundation of the Verdugos has given to a number of very worthy grant applicants over the years and we are excited to inform you about our most recent grantees. If you would like more information about the organizations or on ways to contribute feel free to call us at (818) 241-8040 or email us at info@communityfoundationoftheverdugos.org. 2011

• Burbank Arts Education Foundation (dba Burbank Arts For All Foundation) $3,500
• Lions Clubs of Burbank, Crescenta-Canada and Northwest Glendale $8,000
• McGroarty Arts Center $8,000
• Wellness Works $3,500
• Door of Hope $10,000
• Kids' Community Dental Clinic $9,600
• The Boys & Girls Club of Burbank and Greater East Valley $10,000
• Glendale Association for the Retarded (GAR) $10,000
• PATH Achieve $8,910
• Providence Saint Joseph Foundation $25,000

2010

• Burbank Community YMCA $15,000
• YMCA of Glendale $5,500
• Hathaway Sycamores Child & Family Services $10,000
• Verdugo Mental Health VMHCare $7,000
• Boy Scouts of America $6,350
• New Horizons Family Center $4,400
• Verdugo Hills Hospital Foundation $12,000

2009 College View School $10,000 toward a new playground structure
College View School serves a unique niche in our region as it provides disabled students with special needs, from ages 3 through 23, with learning opportunities that cannot be obtained at a general education campus. College View, which is part of the Glendale Unified School District, accommodates students from Glendale, Burbank, and the surrounding Foothill areas with an educational setting that is the least restrictive within the District. Students requiring additional support, beyond what College View's specialized campus can provide, attend non-public schools which cost the District additional funding (exceeding $60,000 annually per student in some instances). By funding College View's needs for a playground that can accommodate students with special needs, the school is better equipped to increase its capacity to serve students in our region, and thereby helps save costs on the needs for students to go elsewhere for their education. Mary Ann Plumley, Distribution Committee Chair and Board Member, participated in the site visit to this location and explained that the $10,000 will go toward the first phase of the playground's construction. The Foundation's grant will now enable College View to obtain additional funding from other granting sources to complete the other phases of this playground system. "This school certainly fills the needs of our community and provides us with a chance to support something that will have long lasting effects," said Plumley, adding that our Foundation is very happy to be a part of creating impact and growth in this way for College View School. Glendale Adventist Medical Center $15,000 toward the costs of an Giraffe OmniBed
This grant for $15,000 to Glendale Adventist Medical Center is historically important for the Foundation, according to President Michael W. Deaktor, because it is the largest single amount granted to any organization in the Foundation's 50-plus years of operation. "We are very proud of the fact that we are able, as a Foundation, to begin moving toward larger, more impactful grants," said Deaktor. GAMC's request covered the partial cost of one Giraffe OmniBed for the newborn intensive care unit. The rest of the cost is being covered by the hospital's Auxiliary, spearheaded by President Georgiana Wu, and their fundraising efforts. Total cost of one Giraffe OmniBed is $35,000. This is the fourth Giraffe OmniBed for the hospital, and with this additional bed, it will increase our community's capacity to serve our resident babies. This equipment is the standard now in hospitals because it increases the quality of care that a newborn is given because it reduces the amount of disturbance on a newborn as x-rays, weighing, and other medical procedures can be done without lifting the baby out of the bed. This reduces stress on these frail and critically ill newborns. Overall, GAMC is a state of the art facility and the Foundation's funding will help move it to being a better full-service center with the latest technologies in all areas, including those that serve our most tiny and vulnerable residents. Glendale Association for the Retarded $10,000 toward car washing program
Glendale Association for the Retarded's grant of $10,000 is for a second year of car washing collaboration with the Glendale Police Department. Since this program's kickoff early in 2009 due to our Foundation's initial funding in 2008, GAR made inroads in acquiring additional funding via a Community Development Block Grant to cover the costs of further implementation of this program. This program is important for a number of reasons. The Police Department does not have the funds for GAR clients to wash their cars and if GAR clients are not able to do this, the Police Department would need to go back to using people doing community service as part of their jail time – which most often results in police cars being vandalized. This program, according to GAR's Executive Director Sandy Doughty, has potential to expand into a larger service that GAR clients would provide to the community. It also provides a balanced outside/community job site along with in-house jobs such as newspaper rolling for the clients. Clients are also in need of ongoing and varied job training skills so that they are prepared to take on employment opportunities should they come their way. The Foundation is proud to assist with funding of this program as it not only helps GAR clients, but helps the community at large by having clean police cars, and helping to create civic pride among our officers as well as our residents. With this grant, GAR staff will now focus this second year on securing additional funding sources beyond CDBG, thereby helping to create impact and building capacity for a secure program in the upcoming years. Salvation Army Glendale Corp. ZONE Program $10,000
Former Board member Mary Rough conducted the site visit to learn more about this after school program at the Salvation Army's Glendale location which serve low-income and at-risk children. The resulting $10,000 grant will be used toward maintaining this program which assists with student homework, access to computers, arts and crafts activities, as well as sports and recreation time. On average, 35 to 40 students participate daily, Monday through Friday. "ZONE is a wonderful asset to the children and all of Glendale," said Rough, a former educator. "The children become better students and get information on an upward spiral of greater successes in school and their lives," she continued, "and they are not in danger by being on the streets and are in a nurturing atmosphere." There is no doubt that the Salvation Army deeply appreciates all of the support that the Foundation has provided over the years through grants as well as donations made to them by donors with funds at the Foundation. Staff and board members of the Foundation are confident that the support given to this program will have lasting effects on the students being assisted, helped, and guided through ZONE, thereby creating a positive and lasting effect for our community's future. San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity $10,000 toward handicapped lifts
This is another organization that the Foundation is proud to be affiliated with as Habitat for Humanity provides individuals currently living in substandard housing with an opportunity to become homeowners which have lasting effects in so many different ways for so many different people. In this instance, the Foundation's $10,000 grant is going toward the costs of two handicapped lifts which will service two families slated to be housed in the Kenwood Avenue site. Nyree Kolanjian, board member and local attorney, had the pleasure of visiting the project in her site visit to this 11-unit condominium complex still under construction. What makes this project unique is that two of the units are being built specifically for families with handicapped, wheelchair-bound sons, which includes two wheelchair lifts – one between both units which goes from the ground floor to the second level where the bedrooms are located, and another in the subterranean garage to provide both families with accessibility from the garage to the ground floor. According to Sonja Yates, executive director, this project is extra special because it is the first time that Habitat for Humanity has designed its construction project to accommodate handicapped residents in one of its Glendale-area projects. It is hoped that this will also set a precedent for future developments as an example that any situation can be accommodated for. This project also indirectly benefits the community as a whole whether it is through the proud new residents, the children of these residents who are able to excel in school and have strong futures, the volunteers who have helped, or the surrounding community which benefits from increased property values.