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The Winery Kids Foundation picks its first grant recipients
By Kara Chalmers
Board members of the Mountain Winery Kids' Foundation on March 15 picked three San Jose organizations that help disadvantaged, at-risk youth as recipients of the foundation's first grants, totaling $45,000.
The Eastside Learning Center of the Boys and Girls Club of Silicon Valley will receive $25,000. The foundation will give $10,000 each to the Discovery Workshop division of The 21st Century Community Learning Center and to MACSA, the Mexican American Community Services Agency.
The goal of the nonprofit Kids Foundation, which was organized in December, is to help fund existing programs for children at or below the poverty level in Santa Clara County schools. The foundation concentrated on after-school programs that feature strong adult role models and that help children realize their potential.
Nancy Bussani, president of the Mountain Winery, is the foundation's executive director. Before joining the winery, Bussani was the director of contracts and grants at San Jose State University and was a grant writer for housing and homelessness activities in Santa Clara County
According to Bussani, the three organizations are examples of programs that improve the odds for some children to succeed in work and in life. But she stressed that the foundation's efforts to help programs like these are only just beginning.
The executive director of the Boys and Girls Club, Adolph Lopez, said the $25,000 grant would go directly to the club's Eastside Learning Center. The center offers both an after-school and a summer educational program, led by certified teachers and college-age tutors.
At the center, children can get help with homework and can learn computer and reading skills. The $25,000 will specifically fund a new teacher and a few more tutors. While the center now serves 20 to 30 children per day, Lopez said that the funding would allow the center to open its doors to an additional ten to 20 children.
The after-school program will expand from two to four hours per day and will now offer math and science once a week rather than once every two weeks. The center also will offer a seminar for parents on how they can support their children's educational needs.
According to Lopez, the real impact of the funding will be more attention to students. "It's going to give us an opportunity to work more one-on-one with the children and in small groups," he said.
The Discovery Workshop at San Jose High School, part of the 21st Century Community Learning Center, will begin two new programs with their $10,000 grant. The learning center is a partnership between the San Jose Unified School District and SJSU and has locations throughout the city. The program targets at-risk middle- school children and offers activities that focus on science, technology and literacy. Staff members are college-age tutors.
One program will allow 30 to 35 children to participate in six group science projects. Each child will get a 'science kit' and the group will work together during several months to complete their projects.
According to project director Dr. George Castro, some examples of activities are building a gas-powered car, dissecting a frog, and building a rocket with a propellant. "It's a way of giving them science that is typically more fun and interesting than what they're getting at school," he said.
Castro said the program will give children confidence in their math and science abilities.
The other program is called 'Build Your Own Computer,' in which children make new computers from the parts of old ones. Besides getting interested in technology and learning about computers, Castro said, that at the end of the program each child gets a computer of his or her own to keep, along with an inexpensive printer.
The $10,000 grant for the youth center of MACSA, the Mexican American Community Services Agency, will be used to improve two of the organization's programs: the computer literacy program and the Zero-Drop-out Youth Academy.
The computer literacy program currently focuses on computer skills such as library skills, and the youth academy is an after school program that provides tutoring and activities designed to improve self-esteem, academic achievement and transcultural awareness.
Bussani said she and the executive director of MACSA, Esther Medinas, are still working on how the programs at MACSA will be improved.
The foundation had its first fundraising event on New Year's Eve at the winery, where it raised $24,000. Winery owners have already donated $30,000 to the foundation and they have also provided Bussani's time to work on the foundation and all the foundation's start-up costs.
Bussani said the board of the Winery Kids Foundation hopes to raise additional money through individual donations and events in order to provide more grants with each new year. For more information, call 408.741.2820.
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