Catholic Leadership Circle Awards $124K in Grants
From left: Ryan Hanning, Greg Kruzel, Kathy Kruzel, John Campo, Janine Campo, Rev. Matt Lowry, Bob Stockley, Molly Stockley, Sharron Blazic, Tim King, Anne King, Joe Wurtenberger, Lee Wurtenberger, Cathy Bergmann, Pete Bergmann, James McGettigan, Donna Olson, JoAnn Holland, Tim Holland, Chris O’Gara, Christy O’Gara, John Even, Rebecca Even, and Bob Benincasa.
The Catholic Leadership Circle hosted its 3rd annual Grant Awards Ceremony on May 17 and awarded $124,000 to eight local Catholic organizations.
2017 recipients include:
- Aid to Women Center – $25,000 to create a greater awareness and impact through relocation of their organization.
- Andre House – $24,000 to install a handwashing and drinking station, which will address profound hygiene challenges.
- Franciscan Friars of the Holy Spirit – $22,000 to ensure Native American youth do not enter into a culture of darkness.
- Life Choices Women’s Clinic – $5,000 to strengthen the bond between struggling mothers and their unborn children.
- Mission of Mercy Mobile Medical Clinic – $10,000 to give the hopeless hope through medical services and a path to health.
- Our Lady of the Lake Community Soup Kitchen – $8,000 to help feed and nourish the homeless in Lake Havasu City.
- Paz de Cristo – $20,000 to provide dignity and love through hot showers.
- Society of St. Vincent de Paul – $10,000 to help veterans, disabled and homeless men and women improve their diet and restore their oral health.
The ceremony took place at Mount Claret Retreat Center.
In 2014, Trish Stark, now chairman of the board of directors for the Catholic Community Foundation, brought a dozen like-minded people together to launch the Catholic Leadership Circle. The circle is an innovative program of the Catholic Community Foundation inspired by a new generation of philanthropists. Every member is an active participant in the community grant-making process.
With each family or individual member making a minimum gift of $1,000-per-year, contributions are pooled together to create real transforming power. One hundred percent of the gifts are redirected back into the community each year in the form of grants and based on the voting power of the members.
Having just completed their 3rd grant-making cycle, members from the Valley now number nearly 100, including 2016 co-chairs Molly and Bob Stockley and Janine and John Campo.
Circle grants are made to Catholic-aligned nonprofit organizations registered in Arizona whose primary populations served is within the Diocese of Phoenix, including 36 Catholic schools and 98 parishes.
Info: www.ccfphx.org/circle.
