For more about the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Care Foundation, please visit www.schnitzercare.org.
For more about CommuniCare, please visit www.communicareor.org
The annual Astoria and Warrenton CommuniCare Program Grant Recipient Award Ceremony was held Monday, May 2nd, 2016, at the Barbey Maritime Center at Columbia River Maritime Museum. CommuniCare is a program that is designed to introduce young people to the importance of community service and the role of nonprofit organizations in the state of Oregon and in their local communities.
Through a collaborative effort between the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation and each participating local high school, a “mini-foundation” is created representing the students. The students make grants to organizations that best address the critical concerns of their student body. The students are challenged to raise $500; if they are successful, the CARE Foundation awards a matching grant of $7,500 with up to $500 in additional money raised matched at a 5:1 ratio. If students do not meet their goal, the Foundation matches dollars raised at a 10:1 ratio. Since the program’s inception in 1998, over $880,000 has been granted by students to in-school programs and nonprofits in their communities.
This year’s CommuniCare Program at Astoria High School and Warrenton High School granted a total of $15,000 for nonprofit organizations doing great work in their communities and $7,000 for school programs. Over the past three years, the Astoria and Warrenton CommuniCare students have been responsible for granting over $64,000 into their communities and schools. The participating schools and the organizations that each chose to support are as follows:
Astoria High School (pictured above, with Jordan D. Schnitzer and Astoria Mayor Arline LaMear): Friends of the Astoria Armory ($750), Clatsop Community Action ($1,800), SMART ($1,200), Assistance League ($1,500), Healing Circle ($1,125), The Harbor ($1,125)
Warrenton High School: Astoria Arts & Movement ($1,000), Warrenton Kids Inc. ($2,000), Assistance League ($1,000), Camp Kiwanilong ($1,250), FisherPoets Gathering ($1,000), Warrenton-Hammond Healthy Kids ($1,250)