Wellington school's Eagle After Hours program receives $12,000 grant from Bohemian Foundation

Bohemian Foundation announced May 9 that 32 local nonprofits working to improve the well-being of children, teens, and families and promote community engagement, were recipients of Spring 2014 Pharos Fund grant awards. Wellington Middle School’s Eagle After Hours received a $12,000 grant for transportation.

Since its inception in 2001, Bohemian Foundation has awarded over $13.5 million in Pharos Fund grants to a wide variety of nonprofits serving the Fort Collins area.

Pharos Fund is part of a larger commitment by the foundation to support organizations that play a role in helping the community thrive. Pharos Fund looks to meet the needs identified by local nonprofits and that align with the Pharos Fund goals.

“We recognize that there is never going to be a cookie-cutter solution to the range of issues faced by our community,” said Sara Maranowicz, Bohemian Foundation’s community programs director. “And we look to nonprofits to let us know what is most impactful and most needed for their organization. We believe in the nonprofits and programs we support, and value each organization’s unique approach to improve the quality of life in our community.”

Pharos Fund is a responsive grant making initiative of Bohemian Foundation that awards grants up to $30,000 to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations with programs that serve as a catalyst for public awareness or encourage and enable our youth to become productive members of society.

Grants provide support for program, general operations, equipment/capital, and technical assistance requests. Examples of programs supported previously through Pharos Fund include: youth mentoring, financial literacy training, youth arts apprenticeships, literacy enrichment activities and civic engagement forums.

Two examples of 2014 Pharos Fund recipients that demonstrate the breadth of organizations and programs supported by Bohemian Foundation Community Programs:

• Launch: Community Through Skateboarding opened its doors in November 2012 as Fort Collins’ first nonprofit indoor skate ramp, skateboard museum and skateboard library. Launch Community Center is an indoor, supervised, drug free skate park that houses this unique after school program geared toward at-risk teenage boys. The center is not your normal skate park. With after school and weekend drop-in hours for skateboarding, Build Your Own Skateboard workshops, and City skate park clean-up days, youth are given the structure and guidance not typically seen at city skate parks. Transportation from school to the center is available. Participants can purchase memberships or pay an hourly drop in fee of $1. Youth also have the option to participate in “pay it forward memberships” which swap hourly fee for hours spent volunteering.

• The Early Childhood Oral Health Project is an initiative of Poudre School District’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) program. The project recognizes that children’s dental needs must be met at a young age to help them become productive students. In the classroom, providers teach children how to brush their teeth and about other dental hygiene skills. Providers distribute dental hygiene information for students to take home and share with their families. The program aims to connect families to a dental home in the community which allows for continued follow-up treatment and wellness screenings. The project reaches ECE students of all backgrounds in hopes of fostering a healthy next generation.

A total of $510,000 was awarded to 32 organizations. Bohemian Foundation will begin accepting applications for the next Pharos Fund round starting in early August 2014. Visit BohemianFoundation.org for more information.