Cameron Foundation's latest $860,000 grant cycle helps fund 25 organizations in the Tri-Cities

PETERSBURG - The Cameron Foundation awarded $863,021 in grants to local organizations and nonprofits across a wide array of fields and priorities.

Previous grant cycles have targeted issues like food security and public health. This most recent grant cycle in October focused on organizations across the Foundation's six funding interests - health and human services, education, community and economic development, arts and culture, historic preservation and conservation.

“The contributions that philanthropy and the nonprofit sector make across so many areas underscores the integral role that these partners play in our quality of life here in the Tri-Cities,” said Cameron Board Chair J. Tolleison Morriss, VI.

The Foundation’s catchment area spans across seven localities, including Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg, southern Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Prince George, and Sussex.

Several of the grants in this cycle are directed towards new initiatives.

The Virginia Repertory Theatre received a grant for one of these new initiatives targeted at the local area. The $40,000 grant will go toward the Disney Musicals in Schools afterschool enrichment program. The initiative will engage students at two southern Chesterfield schools to produce their own 30-minute Disney musicals.

Another new initiative is the installation of a book locker, makerspace and multimedia studio at the Ettrick-Matoaca branch library. The enhancements will make the library the first in the region to have a book locker, and the cures in the county's library system with a multimedia studio. Chesterfield County Public Library was awarded $47,088 for that project.

In Hopewell, a $50,000 grant was awarded to help with a feasibility study and plan for the adaptive reuse of City Point House-Shiloh Lodge. The building was known as Shiloh Lodge No. 33, an African-American Masonic Lodge, for 130 years before it was purchased by the City of Hopewell in an effort to rehabilitate it. The lodge counted many distinguished leaders, including former City Mayor and Civil Rights leader Reverend Curtis W. Harris, who also also led it at one point.

“All three of these grants illustrate the wide range of projects supported by Cameron to foster vibrant local communities,” explained Cameron President J. Todd Graham. “The Cameron Foundation has an important role in furthering these types of efforts.”

See the full list of grant recipients for The Cameron Foundation's 2021 October grant cycle below:

• American Red Cross – $25,000

• Big Brothers & Big Sisters Services Inc. – $10,000

• Boy Scouts of America – $45,000

• Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond – $46,980

• Chesterfield County Public Library – $47,088

• Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Alliance for Social Ministry – $18,225

• City of Hopewell - Department of Development – $50,000

• City of Refuge Hopewell Inc. – $25,000

• Colonial Heights Food Pantry Inc. – $42,120

• Crater Community Hospice Inc. – $40,500

• Downtown Churches United Inc. – $29,991

• Family Lifeline – $28,350

• Friends of the Army Women’s Museum Association – $14,420

• Gateway Homes Inc. – $50,000

• Great Aspirations Scholarship Program Inc. – $20,000

• Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Virginia – $110,000

• MBL (Metropolitan Business League) Foundation Inc. – $15,000

• Metropolitan Richmond Sports Backers Inc. – $15,000

• Petersburg Library Foundation Inc. – $37,615

• Pretty Purposed – $18,600

• Reach Out for Life – $25,000

• Serenity – $45,000

• Southside Virginia Emergency Crew, Inc. – $53,782

• Virginia Dental Association Foundation – $10,350

• Virginia Repertory Theatre – $40,000

You can reach Sean Jones at sjones@progress-index.com. Follow him at @SeanJones_PI. Follow The Progress-Index on Twitter at @ProgressIndex.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: The Cameron Foundation awards $860,000 to 25 organization in Oct. 2021