The Walter Cerf Community Fund, a component fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, announced 2011 grant awards totaling $115,823 to 40 organizations. Since 2001, the fund has made grants to organizations located in Addison
County or Brandon, or that have a statewide reach and make a unique contribution to Vermont. Priority interests are the arts, education, historic preservation, and social services, reflecting the pattern of giving established by Walter Cerf during his lifetime.
Cerf, a native of Germany who made Leicester, Vermont his home in his later years, gave more than $10 million to organizations and projects in Vermont before passing away in 2001. Cerf focused much of his giving within his community of Addison County and Brandon; grants from the Walter Cerf Community Fund reflect that focus, with two-thirds of the grants reserved for Addison County/Brandon projects and one-third reserved for statewide projects. Each grant awards up to $5,000.
Each year, the fund awards one grant up to $25,000. This year, the Preservation Trust of Vermont received $20,000 to help repair and rebuild Vermont’s historic covered bridges and other critically damaged historic buildings throughout the state that sustained damage from Tropical Storm Irene. The grant aligns with Cerf’s love and appreciation of historic buildings in Vermont.
Statewide Grants
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Vermont
$1,500 for operating support, including legal and education programs.
American Precision Museum
$2,500 to support exhibits marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Central Vermont Community Action Council
$2,000 to support the Vermont Women's Business Center and their "Painting with Numbers" classes to provide hands-on learning to help artists build their business through strong financial management.
Chandler Center for the Arts
$2,500 to support a statewide contest to encourage Vermonters' writing plays on current social issues and promote public dialogue.
Curtains Without Borders
$1,000 to support preservation of historic theater curtains in Vermont.
Goddard College
$2,000 to support planning for preservation and renovation of three early examples of Vermont's design-build movement into a multi-use arts center.
Preservation Trust of Vermont
$20,000 to help repair and rebuild Vermont's historic covered bridges and other critically damaged historic buildings throughout the state that have sustained damage from Tropical Storm Irene.
St. Albans Historical Museum
$2,500 to help the Board and community develop resources to sustain, improve, and grow the services provided by the museum.
Upright Steeple Society
$2,500 to replace the roof as part of a structural restoration project on an 1829 Greek Revival building in Lyndon, Vermont.
Vermont Arts Council
$2,000 to support "Breaking into Business", a business training and support program for Vermont artists.
Vermont Community Loan Fund
$5,000 to support Project SUCCESS, providing technical assistance to home and center-based child care providers who want to start, grow, or improve their business.
Vermont Historical Society
$1,500 to support Vermont History Day.
Vermont Humanities Council
$2,500 to support the Never Too Early program, which provides early literacy training for needy childcare providers and parents.
Vermont Land Trust
$2,000 to support historic preservation of the George Washington Reed House.
Vermont Public Television
$2,000 to support a documentary and associated programs about Burlington's ultra-traditional Jewish community in the late 1800s.
Addison County and the Town of Brandon Grants
Addison Central Teens & Friends
$3,000 to develop and implement an ongoing and sustainable leadership training program for teens.
Addison County Readers
$2,000 to expand Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to more infants across Addison County through collaboration with Porter Birthing Center.
Community Health Services of Addison County (d.b.a. Open Door Clinic)
$4,000 to support diabetes clinics for uninsured Addison County adults.
Everybody Wins! Vermont
$3,000 to support the Everybody Wins! Vermont Power Lunch children's literacy and mentoring program at Neshobe Elementary School in Brandon.
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
$3,000 to subsidize tickets for low-income students from Addison County to attend the 2011-12 Flynn Student Matinee Series.
Foxcroft Farm Harvest Program
$3,000 to support the expansion of the Growing To Know Project to provide after-school educational enrichment and service-learning opportunities for Leicester School students.
Leicester Central School
$5,000 to support a school improvement project to continue student arts experiences, upgrade Guided Reading leveled readers, and upgrade and improve the safety of the school and community playground.
Living Well Community Care Home
$2,000 to create outreach materials documenting a pilot project other care homes can replicate to improve nutrition and their local farm economies.
Mary Johnson Children’s Center
$5,000 to support the installation of an AllSun Solar Tracker.
Middlebury Area Summer Lunch & Recreation Support Group
$1,000 for general support.
Middlebury Cooperative Nursery School
$1,000 to support energy efficiency at the Middlebury Cooperative Nursery School.
Middlebury Transitional Care Coalition
$3,000 to support facilities improvement for emergency and transitional housing.
Otter Creek Child Center
$2,000 to support the purchase of new cribs.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England
$3,000 to support the Middlebury health center.
Porter Medical Center
$2,000 to support the establishment of an "End of Life Room" in Middlebury.
Robinson Elementary School
$2,000 to support second year of implementation for the Words Come Alive Program.
RSVP & The Volunteer Center
$2,000 to support and expand the RSVP Bone Builders exercise program.
The Hub Teen Center & Skatepark
$2,000 to support teen center programming with staff, materials, transportation, workshops and presentations, music, and food.
Town of Middlebury
$5,000 to support the roundabout centerpiece public art/monument design process.
Vermont Adult Learning
$2,323 to establish a music program at Vermont Adult Learning Childcare.
Vermont Folklife Center
$2,000 to support Invisible Odysseys, autobiographical dioramas by Mexican migrant workers in Vermont.
Vermont Symphony Orchestra
$1,000 to support the Vergennes concert of the 2011 Made in Vermont Music Festival statewide tour.
Vermont Youth Conservation Corps
$2,000 to support trail restoration work in the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area.
Vermont Youth Orchestra Association
$2,000 to support the Middlebury concert of the VYO Chorus and Concert Chorale.
WomenSafe
$2,000 to support volunteer training.
The Vermont Community Foundation has been helping donors give to the causes and organizations they care about since 1986. We are Vermont’s largest and leading homegrown grantmaker. Together, our family of over 600 funds provides more than $18 million annually in Vermont through grants, loans, and other investments. In addition, we help keep Vermont’s nonprofit community vital by offering endowment management and planned giving services, and providing leadership in charitable giving of all kinds. For more information about the Foundation, visit www.vermontcf.org or call 802-388-3355.
11.4.2011