On June 16, at a reception for its 25 spring grantees, the Watertown Community Foundation (WCF) celebrated by distributing checks totaling $74,050. In the twelve years since WCF was founded, WCF has awarded over $600,000 in grants to organizations serving Watertown.
WCF Grant Committee Co-Chair, Rob Kelly, stated, “The Foundation is extremely happy to be able to recognize and financially support the outstanding contributions that these programs and organizations make to our vibrant community.”
All of the grants are funded from WCF’s Arsenal Education Income Fund.
13 Educational Program Grants totaling $23,550 were given to:
- Friends of Watertown Music to ensure that instruments are available for Watertown’s free instruction program that starts in fourth grade.
- Historical Society of Watertown to publish a Watertown self-guided bicycle tour booklet, “Wheels Along the River.”
- Improbable Players to present six theater workshops about substance abuse prevention and healthy choices for Watertown Middle School eighth graders.
- Perkins School for the Blind for their Watertown newspaper accessibility project.
- Revels for “Twelfth Night, Saturday, January 6, 2016” – a multi-disciplinary, family event celebrating winter solstice traditions.
- Watertown Community Gardens for educational workshops, its summer youth crew, and its organic garden tour.
- Watertown Cultural Council to support a WHS student-painted mural in Coolidge Square.
- Watertown Free Public Library to help fund the HATCH Makerspace.
- Watertown High School so special education students can attend Appalachian Mountain Club’s Mountain Classroom.
- Watertown High School Drama for sound/light equipment for the WHS auditorium.
- Watertown High School Library to continue its book club.
- Watertown Middle School for its “Empower Student Writers through Inquiry” curriculum.
- World in Watertown for the 2016 Watertown Unity Breakfast on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
12 Institutional Support Grants totaling $50,500 were given to the following to support their ongoing operations in Watertown:
- Arsenal Center for the Arts
- Beaverbrook STEP
- Friends of Project Literacy
- Metro West Collaborative Development
- New Repertory Theatre
- Parent Child Home Program – Watertown
- Sancta Maria’s Windsor House Adult Day Health
- Springwell, Inc.
- Watertown Boys and Girls Club
- Watertown Family Network
- Watertown Prosperity, Inc.
- Wayside Multi Service Center