READING, PA (August 25, 2021) – This summer, Berks County Community Foundation awarded $312,494 in grants to local nonprofits through three special programs in an effort to ease them through the pandemic.
The Community Foundation’s board of directors approved these special grant programs to help organizations in the community as they begin to ramp up activities again.
These grants are funding:
- Arts and culture programs, exhibits, or events to be held in the fourth quarter of 2021 or in 2022.
- Planning initiatives for nonprofit organizations seeking to better map their futures.
- Projects aimed at connecting community members to each other in ways that help Berks County residents get to know their neighbors, whether in the same town or across the county. This program is known as “You Are Here.”
Some of these grants were the sole source of funding for these programs or projects while some of the other grants provided partial funding.
Grant recipients, by category of special grant program:
Arts and culture
- Berks Arts, $10,125
- Berks Opera Company, $1,500
- Berks Sinfonietta, $1,500
- Boyertown Area Historical Society, $2,500
- Centre Park Historic District Inc., $1,500
- Foundation for the Reading Public Museum, $2,500
- The Friends of Chamber Music of Reading Inc., $1,500
- GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, $5,000
- Kutztown Community Library, $1,000
- Mifflin Community Library, $1,000
- Muhlenberg Community Library, $1,000
- Muhlenberg Township, $5,000
- Opus One Chamber Choir, $1,500
- Our Town Foundation (Hamburg), $15,000
- Reading Area Community College, $15,000
- Reading Area Firefighters Museum, $1,500
- Reading Choral Society, $1,500
- Reading Civic Theatre, $2,500
- ReadingFilmFEST, $3,000
- Reading Pops Orchestra, $1,500
- Reading Theater Project, $1,500
- Ringgold Band Inc., $3,000
- WCR Center for the Arts, $1,500
- West Reading Community Revitalization, $10,000
- Widoktadwen Center for Native Knowledge, $3,000
- Yocum Institute for Arts Education, $5,375
Category Total: $100,000
Planning
- Berks History Center, $25,000
- Christ Episcopal Church, Reading, $4,500
- GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, $10,000
- Greater Reading Alliance of Community Theaters, $10,000
- Kutztown Community Partnership, $5,000
- Our Town Foundation (Hamburg), $5,000
- Reading Area Firefighters Museum, $5,000
- ReadingFilmFEST, $8,000
- Reading Public Library, $3,000
- Reading Theater Project, $5,500
- Rock Hollow Woods Environmental Education Center, $10,000
- Twin Valley Community Education Foundation, $6,500
- West Reading Community Revitalization Foundation, $5,000
Category Total: $102,500
You Are Here
- Barrio Alegria, $8,800
- BCTV, $7,500
- Bring The Change, $5,000
- Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust, $12,700
- Common Ground Recovery Community, $10,200
- Fleetwood Area Public Library, $4,000
- Immanuel United Church of Christ, $8,747
- Jewish Federation of Reading, $10,000
- LGBT Center of Greater Reading, $2,500
- State Theatre Preservation (Boyertown), $5,000
- Twin Valley Community Education Foundation, $5,811
- VOiCEup Berks, $24,936
- Yocum Institute for Arts Education, $4,800
Category Total: $109,994
EXAMPLES OF PROGRAMS/IMAGE GALLERY
Some examples of the programs that have been funded and have already been announced are pictured in the gallery below. Each image contains a clickable link for more information. They are, in order of images:
The GoggleWorks’ Arts Festival Reading & Holiday Market (1st and 2nd photos), Bring the Change’s Berks Cultural Diversity Festival (3rd photo), the Jewish Federation of Reading’s Anti-Hate Summer Reading Program (4th photo), the Berks Social Justice Youth Initiative (5th, 6th, and 7th photos), Barrio Alegria’s Timebank project (8th photo), and ReadingFilmFEST (9th photo).
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Berks County Community Foundation is a nonprofit corporation that serves as a civic leader for our region by developing, managing and distributing charitable funds aimed at improving the quality of life in Berks County. More information is available at www.bccf.org.
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Jason Brudereck, Director of Communication, jasonb@bccf.org, 610.685.2223
