Linn County awards $80,000 in community grants for nonprofits

The Linn County Board of Supervisors recently awarded $80,000 in grants to 19 nonprofit organizations.

The grants, from the Witwer Trust Fund, aim to give money to organizations that benefit Linn County residents and were selected through the annual competitive grant process. The supervisors received more than $286,000 in grant requests for the $80,000 available.

The annual Witwer Trust cycle begins Nov. 1 each year. The trust was established by Weaver Witwer, a prominent Cedar Rapids grocer and landowner. Witwer, who died in 1979, owned and operated a food processing plant, local farms and what became known as the Me Too grocery stores.

Applicants each year have to submit a plan on how the funding will be used for a certain project the applicant proposes.

Grant applications get scored based on potential for long-term impact, how it serves a broad segment of at-risk populations and how it addresses an emerging need in the community.

The 2022 grant recipients include:

• African American Museum of Iowa: $5,000 for “We Are Here to Educate!”

• Alburnett Lions Club: $3,000 for community sign

• Area Substance Abuse Council: $3,500 for youth residential updates

• Catherine McAuley Center: $3,000 for Offering Hope and Opportunity to Women in Crisis

• Cedar Rapids Community School Foundation: $1,650 for McKinley Outdoor Learning Lab

• Cedar Rapids Public Library Foundation: $2,500 for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

• Central City Senior Dining: $5,000 for walk-in cooler repairs

• Community Health Free Clinic: $3,000 for dental services

• Families Helping Families of Iowa: $2,500 for providing shoes for children in foster care

• Kids First Law Center: $3,500 for Restorative justice prevents youth violence

• Mount Mercy University Jump Start Academy: $4,500 for Jr. WNBA and Jr. NBA

• Peer Action Disability Support: $3,500 for ADA celebration

• Refugee Immigrant Association and Hoover Community School: $7,000 for Linn County Integration Project for Emerging Communities

• Riverview Center: $5,000 for Sexual assault/abuse crisis intervention project

• Tanager Place: $5,000 for 2022 Freedom Schools

• The Academy for Scholastic and Personal Success Expansion Program: $9,000 for program support — setting goals, planting seeds and sowing dreams (gardening and conservation)

• Troy Mills Historical Society: $5,000 for UV protection for museum windows

• Willis Dady Homeless Services: $5,000 for homelessness prevention and street outreach

• Young Parents Network Incorporated: $3,350 for Eastern Iowa Diaper Bank

Comments: (319) 398-8255; gage.miskimen@thegazette.com