FOX VALLEY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Thanks to a COVID-19 community fund, 106 local nonprofit organizations are getting help.
The fund is a joint effort by the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region and United Way Fox Cities.
“Without this fund, I’m not exactly sure what would have happened last March, April, May,” said executive director for the Child Care Resource and Referral Judy Olson.
For Olson’s organization, the $8,000 of the $1.6 million put into the COVID-19 Community Respond Fund helped families and child care providers tremendously, especially during a pandemic.
“When you’re used to getting paid for 150 children a day, and now their capacity’s down to, you know, 20-30; the max was 40 in some places, for multiple months. They lost quite a bit of money, so we thought this will help them.”
Olsontells FOX 11 they couldn’t assist providers with enrollment numbers, so they did what they could.
With the funds, from the grants awarded to them, the organization put together hundreds of baskets, with things like hand sanitizer, soap and even bleach – things child care facilities need, and now no longer have to pay for.
“When I dropped off the bleach in the basket, I almost had somebody in tears. They were very appreciative that somebody, number one, was thinking of them during this time, and it also helps them out financially, as well, that they don’t have to go purchase cleaning supplies.”
The two organizations established this fund last March, so they really had no idea just how much strain the pandemic would cause, or just how much those funds would be needed.
“Businesses were closed, people were at home, they had no resources, they didn’t know what to do, volunteers couldn’t go in and help, so dollars there really helped them access food, for example, and then make that available to their own people in their own small communities,” said Peter Kelly, president & CEO at United Way Fox Cities.
The funds were awarded to organizations like Olson’s, as well as food pantries, mental health facilities, and several others.
More than 400 people, businesses and foundations stepped up to contribute to the fund.
“When COVID started early on, some people were receiving the stimulus checks,” said Community Foundation’s president & CEO Curt Detjen. “They sent us little notes, along with their contributions and said, ‘We’re paying this forward.’”
Thirty-one percent of the grant dollars went to nonprofits serving people in northern Winnebago County, while 29% went to Outagamie, 23% to Calumet, 11% to Waupaca and 6% to Shawano County.
The grants are awarded on an ongoing basis.
A full list of the recipients can be found here.
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