Community Pulse: Youth Philanthropy program hits $150,000 donation milestone

As move into summer from another school year, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the work of Community Foundation in collaboration with local schools and donors.

CFGC is in our 9th year of our Youth Philanthropy Program. Coal City, Gardner-South Wilmington, Morris, and Seneca High Schools graciously allow CFGC staff time with their students to talk about philanthropy and the nonprofits serving their communities.

Throughout those nine years, the number of youth involved has increased from 6 to just over 100! Even more impressive, the youth have thoughtfully granted out more than $150,000 to local non-profits! While this program makes an immediate impact on both students and local nonprofits, our hope is that students will continue to be philanthropic as they move into adulthood.

The Youth Philanthropy groups work a little different at each school; however, essentially, students volunteer to be a part of the group just like they would any other club within the schools. Students then meet monthly with CFGC staff to learn what it means to be non-profit and to explore what each student group finds important. Once students have identified areas of importance and/or interest, we discuss nonprofits that work within those topic areas, and from there students choose nonprofits they want to hear from. Organizations then come in to present on their programs, services, and current needs. After hearing from all organizations, students decide how to allocate the $5,000 CFGC provides to each group. On May 12th, we hosted the 2025 Youth Philanthropy Awards Night where students had the honor of presenting grants to the organizations those chose this year.

The 2025 Youth Philanthropy Grant recipients are:

· Angels of Hope $3,500

· Beans-and-Bites $2,950

· Breaking Away $1,500

· Catholic Charities $1,300

· GSW Student Assistance Fund $700

· Heroes & Helpers $1,000

· Jason Clearwater Fund $500

· Jump Start $250

· K-9 for Veterans $2,850

· NAMI Will Grundy $2,500

· Safe Journeys $2,500

· We Care of Grundy County $450

Congratulations to all the grant recipients, your dedication to our community does not go unnoticed!

The Community Foundation is grateful for our donors who have trusted us with administering their scholarship funds. Scholarships are often created to honor the memory of a loved one, but can also be created by a service organization, business, or individual to impact students from certain high schools, pursuing degrees in a specific area, or other qualifying factors set in place by the donor. While CFGC has several scholarship funds, these are the ones CFGC accepts

applications for, prepares for committee review, and ensures scholarship payment is sent to each college or university in the recipients’ names. This year’s scholarship recipients are:

· Grabowski-Olson Automotive Scholarship for GAVC in the amount of $1,000 went to Kohen Gross

· Jacob Perry Scholarship for Morris High School in the amount of $1,000 was awarded to Connor Ahearn and Julia Knoblich

· McCormack-Hill Scholarship for Seneca High School in the amount of $1,000 was presented to Audry McNabb, Payton McDonald, Christopher Smith, Lauryn Barla, Clara Bruno, Grace Beland, Casey Klicker, and Benjamin Biros

· Minooka Women’s Club Scholarship for Minooka High School in the amount of $1,000 was awarded to Taya Gummerson, Evan Kiper, Palmer Calvey, Mark Rodeghero, Taylor Rodriguez, Rhiannon Curiel, Gracie Anderson, Elizabeth Frazier, Brielle Taylor, Aubrey Laken, and Courteney Cranston

· Pete Muffler Scholarship for GAVC Fire Science in the amount of $1,500 went to Owen Novinski

· Roy & Mardell Carter Music Scholarship in the amount of $500 was awarded to Shelby Welsh Duckwitz

The Community Foundation of Grundy County would like to congratulate all of the 2025 graduates, especially our scholarship recipients, may your futures be bright!

It is because of the generosity of our donors that the Community Foundation of Grundy County is able to offer scholarships to local students and budget for programs such as Youth Philanthropy. If you are interested in donating to CFGC visit https://cfgrundycounty.fcsuite.com/erp/donate or contact us at 815-941-0852.