MSHF grants nearly $850,000

PALMER — The Mat-Su Health Foundation announced its list of major grantees for the first and second quarter of this year and the total contributed comes in at just under $850,000 spread across nine organizations.

“It’s a huge local contribution,” said Nancy Bertels, who heads up the Sutton Library that scored $125,000 for its project to build a new Library/Community Center. “For a local funding agency to be able to give that much to a project is wonderful, and I think that helped us get the support from the governor.”

Gov. Sean Parnell released his capital budget vetoes last week, and the library’s $1.7 million survived his veto pen.

Bertels said the money from the health foundation, coupled with the state’s and added to what the Mat-Su Borough has kicked in, plus money the community has raised, puts the project very close to the projected $3.3 million the facility will cost. There are two still grant applications pending, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Rasmusson Foundation.

“Those are the two that will complete our funding if they smile on us,” she said. And if they do, the library can break ground this summer.

The health foundation’s contribution to the library was actually the third largest grant given in this round of granting. Tops on the list was Co-Occurring Disorders Institute, which will use the money to help expand its Family Resource Center. The institute manages the Bring/Keep the Kids Home project to treat mentally ill children in state. The $268,000 will help the facility assist families with life skills, communication, behavior difficulties and substance abuse issues, according to a press release from the health foundation.

Second on the list is The Children’s Place, which netted $150,000 in health foundation grant money. The center provides assistance to families and children who have been the victims of sexual or physical abuse — a one-stop shop for assistance. It wants to build a wing onto its building to house the Alaska State Troopers’ Valley-based child crimes investigators.

The center provides a place for those troopers to interview children in a friendlier venue to help prosecute their abusers.

Also on the list of the foundation’s grantees:

• Links Parent Resource Center, which got $84,000 to help run its operations.

• The Chickaloon Traditional Native Village will use its $75,000 to help build a kitchen and meeting facility for an elder nutrition program.

• The Palmer Hockey Association got $47,795 to build handicapped access to the Palmer Ice Arena.

• Mat-Su Services for Children and Adults received $25,000 to install a new computer-based phone system.

• The HeartReach Pregnancy Center netted $20,000 for its Fatherhood Initiative.

• Covenant House received $50,000 for its nurse practitioner program.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.