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Annual CCF grants strengthen community
By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
November 1, 2007
The Catholic Community Foundation awarded more than $360,000 to 73 recipients at its second annual grants reception Oct. 17 at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.
The grants support the work of schools and organizations in the diocese that promote Catholic education, formation, communication and work among the poor.
The foundation has awarded more than $4 million in grants since 1985.
“This is where we want to be every year, giving each one of you money to be able to promote who we are as Catholics and who we are in our mission,” Cindy Ketcherside, chairman of the 2007 grants committee, said at the luncheon.
The grants help organizations like the Our Lady of the Lake soup kitchen in Lake Havasu. That group serves meals three times a week and served more than 12,000 guests last year. They also give away bread and other food after each meal.
Other recipients included St. Joseph the Worker, a group that helps homeless men and women find employment, the Missionaries of Charity and Maggie’s Place, a home for pregnant women.
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said that the reception was an opportunity to bring together the Catholic Community Foundation and the organizations that benefit from the foundation.
“Every good gift is multiplied when it’s given away in love and when it’s received,” the bishop said. “God bless the Catholic Community Foundation and those who are served through its many, many programs.”
Every year, local Catholic schools rely on the foundation’s grants to alleviate the burden of tuition that many poorer families feel. This year was no different, with 33 Catholic schools receiving grants.
But the gift of Catholic education and formation goes beyond the schoolroom, too.
The religious education department at St. Daniel the Prophet Parish in Scottsdale will be able to purchase Bibles and compendia to the Catechism because of the grant they received.
The All Saints Catholic Newman Center at Arizona State University in Tempe benefited this year with a communications grant it will use to “expand and enhance outreach to Catholic college students,” said Mary Macuga, director of development at the Newman Center.
The grant will allow the Newman Center to provide a more interactive Web site and electronic newsletters.
“There are 51,000 students on the main campus at ASU. We estimate about 12,000 of them are Catholic,” Macuga said. “You need extraordinary methods of communication to effectively reach such numbers.”
Because of this year’s grant, she thinks the Newman Center will be able to expand its ministry and invite more students to get involved.
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