| SEARCY, ARK., June 21 – The White County Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory recently gave out
$3,698.61 in grant money to local nonprofits. The foundation is an affiliate of the Arkansas Community Foundation, which partners with donors to build charitable funds and award grants that help make our community stronger. The White County Community Foundation YAC is a subgroup of the foundation made up of high school students from Searcy High School and Harding Academy.* Youth Advisory Council members spend the school year planning fundraisers and learning about local nonprofits that might be grant recipients. The 2020-2021 YAC members from Searcy High School are Emily Provence, Chandler Meadows, Nick Saunders, McKenna McMulllin, Jon Thomas Simmons, Mikayla Jones and Hadia Choudhary. Mitzie Cannon is the SHS Sponsor and Debbie Elgen is the White County Community Foundation’s YAC Chair/Representative. “I’m proud of the way this group of student leaders worked together to keep the program on track— collaborating on goals, raising funds, grant request reviews—mostly in a ‘virtual’ setting,” said Elgin, an Edward Jones Financial Advisor. “We were fortunate to be able to present the grant funds in person.” The YAC awarded the following grants to White County nonprofits:
AHLF Jr. High EAST Helping Hands Food Pantry. The pantry serves approximately 30 students and students remain anonymous because the program runs through the counseling office. The school is around 40 percent “free and reduced lunch,” and they try to target this population. This grant will be used to purchase food and hygiene items for the pantry, which is running low due to COVID 19.
Arkansas Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization that promotes smart giving to improve communities. The Community Foundation offers tools to help Arkansans protect, grow and direct their charitable dollars as they learn more about community needs. By making grants and sharing knowledge, the Community Foundation supports charitable programs that work for Arkansas and partners with others to create new initiatives that address the gaps. Arkansas Community Foundation engages people, connects resources and inspires solutions to build community. Contributions to the Community Foundation, its funds and any of its affiliates are fully tax deductible. Junior Auxiliary of Searcy is “covering kids” by helping with Day of Caring and helping local schools with clothing and essential daily hygiene items. JA also founded the Sunshine School and all events for the school such as birthday parties and holiday events.
Brandon with Sparrow’s Promise for SOAK (Sparrow’s Organized Activities for Kids). This program is designed to create weekly engagement between the organization and families with whom they collaborate to make foster care homes available and possible. This program aims to provide relief for foster parents and positive experiences for kids during the summer months (May–July). Sparrow’s Promise will provide a summer intern to oversee and organize these efforts and offer a weekly activity, meal and avenues of entertainment for any child(ren)/teen in the foster parent household.
The Imagine & Believe Foundation will assist with the purchase of clothing needs in certain sizes/age groups that are in high demand.
*Harding Academy was unable to participate in the 2020-21 YAC program due to COVID concerns. White County Community Foundation was established in 2003 and is an affiliate of the Arkansas Community Foundation. The organization partners with donors to make a difference in our community and has awarded more than $500,000 in grants. White County Community Foundation provides a means to make our community stronger by building charitable funds and engaging people in issues that matter. |