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05/24/2018 12:01 AMThe Essex Community Fund, which distributes funds to 23 different non-profit organizations focusing on food and meal programs, health services, education, preservation, fuel assistance, public safety, arts and culture, held its annual Day of Giving on April 24 at Essex Meadows.
The fund’s 2018 grant recipients are:
Bikes for Kids
36 Plains Road, Essex, CT 06426
For nearly three decades, Bikes for Kids (BFK) has refurbished, repaired, and safety tested more than 21,000 bikes that were given (each with a new helmet) to those in need. Kids and teens are always welcome at the BFK Wheelhouse. BFK provides a safe, supportive environment where teens come to learn about bike repair and hone social skills. Community service hours are available; local boy scout troops have also worked toward badges, sponsored local bike collections, and volunteered at the Wheelhouse. BFK has donated 15 bikes for Essex residents.
Bushy Hill Nature Center/Incarnation Center
P.O. Box 577, Ivoryton, CT 06442
Bushy Hill Nature Center at Incarnation Center offers people of all ages the chance to learn and grow. Located on 700-plus acres encompassing Deep River and Ivoryton, the diverse surroundings offer the perfect setting for school programs, indigenous studies, summer camp, team building, and workshops. Funding from Essex Community Fund will help provide scholarship aid to Essex children for summer camp.
Camp Hazen YMCA
204 West Main Street, Chester, CT 06412
Founded in 1920, Camp Hazen YMCA, located on Cedar Lake in Chester, offers resident camp, day camp, leadership training, and group camping programs to thousands of young people each year. Funding from the Essex Community Fund will provide financial assistance for youth in Essex, Centerbrook, and Ivoryton.
Community Music School
P.O. Box 387, Centerbrook, CT 06409
Community Music School provides music, education, and outreach programs that enrich the community and bring music and joy to Essex residents. Funding is used for scholarships for local families.
Essex Boy Scout Troop 12
A beneficiary since 1949, The Boy Scouts of America is one of the nation’s largest and most prominent values-based youth development organizations, providing programs for young people that builds character, trains them in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and develops personal fitness. Funding will provide financial assistance for scouts that need help with annual dues, uniforms, day hikes, and summer camp.
Essex Cub Scout Troop 4
Essex Cub Scout Troop 4 is an opportunity to learn life lessons, form a foundation, embrace opportunity, and overcome obstacles in life. Funding from Essex Community Fund will support scouts and their families who might not be able to participate in scouting.
Essex Elementary School Camperships
108 Main Street, Centerbrook, CT 06409
Essex Summer Camp is for children aged 5 to 12 at the time of camp. Camp meets at Essex Elementary School with programs that are designed to benefit the camper with a positive experience both developmentally and socially. Programing focuses on science and the environment. Funding provides 35, one-week scholarships.
Essex Fuel Assistance Program
Essex Town Hall, 29 West Avenue, Essex, CT 06426
Essex Fuel Assistance is an ongoing matching grant program stewarded by the Essex Community Fund and dispersed through the Essex Social Service Department. It is available to Essex residents who meet the funding criteria and provides a one-time fuel drop to aid with winter heating needs. Peter Berrie, a friend to Essex Community Fund, along with St. John’s Episcopal Church community, are top supporters annually.
Essex Housing Authority
16 Main Street, Centerbrook, CT 06409
The mission of the Essex Housing Authority is to provide the residents of Essex Court with a safe, social, reasonable place to live. A resident service coordinator is also available to help the residents with their paperwork and provides social activities and meals, including a weekly lunch. Funding supports the resident service coordinator initiatives.
Essex Police Union Fund/DARE
P.O. Box 385, Essex, CT 06426
Drug Abuse Resistant Education (DARE) is an education program that seeks to prevent use of drugs, membership in gangs, and violent behavior. Funding helps support programing for 6th graders at Essex Elementary School.
Essex Veterans Memorial Hall, Inc.
P.O. Box 142, Centerbrook, CT 06409
The Essex Veterans Memorial Hall was established in 1946 with the continued purpose to provide refreshment, entertainment and social diversion for its members and guests as well as provide a meeting place, club rooms and equipment for the furthering of community activities and civic interests. Essex Veterans Memorial Hall has an inherent responsibility to financially or otherwise assist veterans, their families and the community. Funding will be used to support ongoing building improvements.
Estuary Council of Seniors, Inc
220 Main Street, Old Saybrook, CT 06475
Estuary Council of Seniors is a community resource for the nine-town Estuary Region’s residents aged 50 and older providing nutrition, transportation, health support services, education opportunities, and socialization. Approximately 175 Essex residents took advantage of one or more services or activities that the Estuary Council has to offer. Home to Meals on Wheels, the Estuary delivered 5,387 meals to Essex residents, 70 percent of whom are 80 or older. Funding will support new meal delivery equipment.
Friends In Service Here (FISH)
25 Essex Hills Drive, Essex, CT 06426
Friends In Service Here (FISH) is a non-profit, all-volunteer driving service that provides free transportation to and from doctors’ or dentists’ offices, clinics, and hospitals in the area roughly bounded by Guilford, Middletown, and New London. The service is available for ambulatory residents of Essex, Centerbrook, Ivoryton, Deep River, and Chester who do not have other means of transportation. The service is available five days a week (except holidays) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. There are 60 volunteer drivers of whom 42 are Essex residents. Drivers provided 675 free round-trip rides, of which 44 percent went to Essex residents. Funding supports its dispatching service.
Gilead Community Services
222 Main Street Ext., Middletown, CT 06457
Gilead Community Services provides broad access to a wide range of high quality and recovery-oriented community mental health services to the greater Essex community and Middlesex county. Gilead has outpatient clinics with locations in Middletown and Chester. Funding will subsidize mental health services for residents of Essex who are under and uninsured. This number has been increasing annually.
Ivoryton Library Association
P.O. Box 55, Ivoryton, CT 06442
One of the oldest libraries in Connecticut, established in 1871, the Ivoryton Library is a free library open to all. Funding will support areas of increased interest in large print and audio books.
Ivoryton Playhouse
P.O. Box 458, Ivoryton, CT 06442
The Ivoryton Playhouse is a historic treasure for Connecticut, a cultural asset that enhances the lives of thousands of people each year. The Playhouse Foundation produces a year-round season of highly respected professional theater, while its diverse season of comedies, musicals, and dramatic productions continually win critical praise. The theater welcomes more than 31,000 people to Ivoryton a year. Funding will support community outreach, specifically the Little Wonder Program for cancer patients and their families, providing an opportunity to enjoy a show at the playhouse.
Region 4 Education Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 187, Deep River, CT 06417
Region 4 Education Foundation augments programs and projects not funded by the school’s annual operating budget. Funding will help create a magazine for the student literary board.
Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries
P.O. Box 804, Essex, CT 06426
Shoreline Soup Kitchen & Pantries (SSKP) provides family-oriented hot meal and pantry food distribution sites for families on the Connecticut shoreline. Essex has two meal sites and Centerbrook has one; sites provide hot, nutritious meals and fellowship for residents. In the first 10 months of 2017, 1,876 hot meals were served. This past year, 500 families visited the meal site locations. Funding will provide enough food for more than 15,625 meals at SSKP pantries.
Tri-Town Youth Services
P.O. Box 897, Deep River, CT 06417
Tri-Town Youth Services focuses on raising a happy and healthy community. Services include mental health services, family counseling, information resources, prevention, and support for all ages. Funding will support further counseling hours and provide services at little or no cost when client circumstances make therapy otherwise unattainable.
Valley Shore YMCA
201 Spencer Plains Road, Westbrook, CT 06498
Valley Shore YMCA has been serving the Connecticut shoreline since 1917 and is committed to helping people become healthier, more confident, connected, and secure regardless of age, gender, race, background, or ability to pay. The Y’s programing focuses on building healthy spirits, bodies, and minds. Funding will support the Hope is Power program, a 12-week wellness program for those diagnosed with cancer; 25 percent of Hope attendees are Essex residents.
Valley TV
267 Kelsey Hill Road, Deep River, CT 06417
Valley TV recruits, trains, and employs students in the production of live television streams to the web. Students work collaboratively to film sporting events, concerts, and select community events. Funding will be used to continue to acquire and maintain equipment used in the production of live TV streams/broadcasts (e.g., wiring, cameras and camera accessories, tripods, audio, and video production equipment).
Visiting Nurses of the Lower Valley, Inc.
61 Main Street Suite 5, Centerbrook, CT 06409
Visiting Nurses of the Lower Valley, Inc., serves the community through education, community outreach, telehealth, and the transitional care liaison. These programs and services are the foundation on which visiting nurse organizations were founded. Grant monies and donations allow the non-profit VNA to continue with community programs for which there is no financial reimbursement.