CFCF Announces May Grants
May 7, 2015
CEDAR FALLS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES GRANTS TO LIBRARY
The Cedar Falls Community Foundation Board of Directors approved grants totaling $32,955.00 at its April 30, 2015 meeting. Grants to the Cedar Falls Public Library were approved from three funds: the Kathryn Ray Fund for the Cedar Falls Public Library; the Cedar Falls Public Library Building Fund; and the Robert and Shirley Berg Fund for the Cedar Falls Public Library.
The Kathryn Ray Fund grant of $21,380.00 will enable the library to provide a summer library program for Cedar Falls youth. Grant funds will be used for special performances, for books to give away as incentives (children can earn up to two books during the program) and to hire two summer interns to assist with the huge increase in library patrons during the summer. Library Director Sheryl McGovern noted, “The giveaway books are an important component of nearly every library’s youth summer library program – we are encouraging the habit of coming to the library, in this case weekly, and reading.”
The Cedar Falls Public Library will use $10,000 from the Library Building Fund to purchase and install additional cabinetry in the story time area to house paper, “big books,” and containers. Finally, $1,575.00 from the Robert & Shirley Berg Fund for the benefit of the Cedar Falls Public Library will be used for set-up and cloud-hosting of software to run the summer library program record keeping software. McGovern said, “The software, customizable for our library, allows patrons to create an account, track their progress through their summer library program, and it allows staff to run statistics reports about participants, their degree of completion of the program, etc. The software is for all ages, children through adults, with tabs leading to separate pages for each age group.”
Cynthia Sweet, executive director of the Cedar Falls Community Foundation said, “The Foundation is delighted that they are able to help fulfill the wishes of community members to benefit the library and other local organizations. Through estate and planned giving, anyone who loves Cedar Falls can create a memorial that will keep these cherished institutions strong for many generations.”
The Cedar Falls Community Foundation serves as the leading philanthropic organization in Cedar Falls, Iowa, using the resources entrusted to its stewardship to support projects that enhance the community’s quality of life through cultural, scholarly, recreational, literary, and artistic endeavors. The Cedar Falls Community Foundation encourages community philanthropy and collaboration. For more information about the Cedar Falls Community Foundation, please visit www.cf-communityfoundation.org or contact 319.243.9170 or cfcf@cfu.net.
