First Federal Community Foundation Announces Fall 2019 Grant Awards

Port Angeles, WA, November 1, 2019– The Board of Directors of the First Federal Community Foundation announced that it will make the following grant awards to nonprofits that are making a difference in our communities:

• Best Dental Help: $5,000 Community Support grant to expand the delivery of dental services to an additional 400 low-income children in Jefferson and Clallam counties.
• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula: $25,000 Community Development grant for construction of a new Clubhouse that will allow more at-risk and disadvantaged kids to receive the benefits of membership.
• Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship: $50,000 Economic Development grant to deliver the First Steps business training program to emerging entrepreneurs from low-income and underserved communities in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
• College Success Foundation: $5,000 Community Support grant underwriting a portion of the costs for 80 low-income, minority, and first-generation students from Bremerton and Port Angeles to go on college campus tours in Washington.
• Jefferson County ReCyclery: $5,000 Community Support grant, funding a collaboration with Community Arts & Recreation Alliance and the Jamestown S’kallam Tribe’s Teen Work Readiness program to provide career guidance and support – as well as bicycles and bike maintenance skills – to low-income and minority youth.
• Composite Recycling Technology Center: $50,000 Affordable Housing grant to construct the first of 24 tiny homes for Pennies for Quarters, a nonprofit providing assistance to homeless veterans and their families in Port Angeles.
• Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Capital: $75,000 Economic Development grant to create the Emerald Coast Opportunity Zone Prospectus, a marketing tool aimed at maximizing investments in designated opportunity zones in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
• Junior Achievement of Washington: $5,000 Community Support grant to bring financial education and career awareness programs to 20 elementary schools and 450 students in Whatcom County.
• Kathleen Sutton Inspirational Fund: $5,000 Community Support grant to fund transportation services for women undergoing cancer treatment and for whom these costs are a burden.
• Morningside: $5,000 Community Support grant for critically-needed repairs to Morningside’s Port Angeles offices, so it may continue to offer on-site employment support and services to people with disabilities.
• Northwest Maritime Center: $50,000 Community Development grant supports the establishment of the new Port Townsend Maritime Academy Skills Center, offered as part of the public education curriculum, and provides for its initial equipment needs.
• Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding: $25,000 Economic Development grant to fund scholarships and state-of-the-art equipment for Marine Systems Training Programs that provide vocational training and career services for low-income students from Jefferson, Clallam and Kitsap counties.
• Olympic Media: $5,000 Community Support grant funds two basic emergency two-way radio systems that will provide for the field-gathering and dissemination of vital information to the community in the event of a disaster.
• PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center Foundation: $25,000 Community Development grant to support the new palliative care assistance program for those struggling with chronic and serious illness.
• Puget Sound Voyaging Society: $5,000 Community Support grant funds Shelter from the Storm, a job-training and paid internship project for 18- to 25-year-olds who will construct tiny homes that Bayside Housing will use to address homelessness in Jefferson County.
• Roxy Bremerton Foundation: $25,000 Community Development grant will fund replacement of the historic theatre’s original and incapacitated “swamp cooler” with a modern HVAC system.
• South Kitsap Helpline: $5,000 Community Support grant for the purchase of foods needed for Helpline’s food programs that served more than 8,000 low-income children, adults and seniors in 2018.
• Sustainable Connections: $25,000 Affordable Housing grant to launch the Bellingham for Everyone campaign, aimed at helping the public understand and connect homelessness and affordable housing issues with solutions.
• Western Washington University Foundation: $5,000 Community Support grant will fund a program that engages community members with WWU faculty and students to address real community challenges in a low-income, rural community in East Whatcom County.

“The Foundation board continues to be impressed by the breadth of organizations improving the quality of life in the communities we serve.  While this makes our decisions as to where to allocate our funds challenging, we are excited to watch the impact that will unfold as a result of this Fall’s grants,” said Foundation board chairman Norman J. Tonina, Jr.

About the First Federal Community Foundation: First Federal Community Foundation is a private 501(c)3 charitable corporation launched in 2015 with a generous gift of stock and cash from the parent company of First Federal Bank, when the bank was converted to a publicly traded company. With this gift, First Federal Bank made clear its commitment to continue its tradition of supporting the communities it serves.

In that same spirit, First Federal Community Foundation’s mission is to improve the quality of life in the communities in which First Federal Bank maintains full-service branches. Committed to creating broad impact, the Foundation has contributed more than $3.6 million since 2015 to qualified organizations that provide community support, address the availability of affordable housing, and deliver economic and community development projects in Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap and Whatcom Counties.

 

About First Federal: First Federal is a subsidiary of First Northwest Bancorp (FNWB). First Federal is a Washington-chartered, community-based savings bank headquartered in Port Angeles, WA, and serves Western Washington with 13 banking centers in Clallam, Jefferson, King, Kitsap and Whatcom counties. Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender. www.ourfirstfed.com / (360)417.3204 / (800)800.1577

First Federal Bank and its Foundation are proud to have been ranked by the Puget Sound Business Journal as one of the top two of 25 mid-sized corporate philanthropists in the Pacific Northwest in both 2017 and 2018.