The Guilford Foundation (TGF) is pleased to announce grant awards to six organizations serving Guilford. The grants ranged from $1,200 to $5,000 and support kids, the environment, and basic needs.

Kids HUGS, an organization founded by a Guilford woman, helps families with the changes that come along with a parent facing serious illness and chronic disease. TGF provided its first-ever distribution from the Thomas Ginz Fund for Children to support Kids HUGS’s request for funds to provide a series of Process Painting Workshops to encourage self-expression and healing. TGF fully funded a $2,500 request to enable an artist and educator from Maine to lead the sessions.

TGF also supported scholarship assistance for two organizations to help Guilford kids attend summer camp: Muscular Dystrophy Association and Camp Hazen. TGF fully funded $1,600 to the MDA Summer Camp program, which provides a safe, week-long overnight camp experience for Guilford children with muscular dystrophy who, due to medical complications, aren’t able to attend traditional overnight summer camps. TGF also fully funded Camp Hazen’s request for $1,000 to provide financial assistance for Guilford children to attend camp. In 2015, with help from TGF, Camp Hazen was able to grant 39 Guilford children financial assistance.

Two local environmental organizations also received full funding for their requests. Menunkatuck Audubon Society works to preserve natural ecosystems, and one of their most recognizable efforts is the osprey platform. TGF used funds from Michael & Maryann Bracken Family Fund to support replacement of osprey platforms in Guilford—the total grant was $1,200. TGF also provided a $5,000 grant to A Place Called Hope, which is a raptor rehabilitation and education center in Killingworth. They specialize in the care of Connecticut’s injured, orphaned or ill birds of prey. The grant, taken from the Helen E. Downing Outdoor Education Fund, is to help complete a red tailed hawk double aviary, which will house the organization’s most commonly seen raptor.

Finally, TGF fully funded a $5,000 request from the Community Dining Room (CDR) to purchase food products and packaging materials necessary to the preparation and distribution of meals to clients who are working yet struggle financially to feed their families and themselves. CDR provides nutritious free meals to low income individuals and families to assure all families in our community have access to food every day. TGF was pleased to support their take out dinner programs for families.

The Board was pleased to support these worthy programs that support Guilford and those who live, work and play here.