Community Foundation Awards $70,000 in Grants

The Outer Banks Community Foundation awarded more than $70,000 in grants this month to 25 local charities. Nonprofits from Hatteras, Roanoke Island, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, Kitty Hawk, Southern Shores, and Ocracoke will benefit.

Room in the Inn GrantEight nonprofits received competitive Community Enrichment Grants. In the health and human services category, Room in the Inn was awarded $1,160 for bicycles for homeless men and women. Interfaith Community Outreach was awarded $3,000 for a new website. GEM Adult Day Services received $5,200 for Art at the Park, which brings adults with dementia and their care-givers to parks across the Outer Banks for arts and crafts projects, respite, and relief.

Two nonprofits, hard-hit by Hurricane Arthur in July, received disaster relief grants. Chicamacomico Historical Association received $20,000 for essential repairs to the 1911 Life-Saving Station, and Ocracoke Alive received $5,000 for essential repairs for the historic skipjack Wilma Lee. Both the life-saving station and the skipjack were critically damaged by Arthur. Additionally, a new organization, Hatteras Island Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), was awarded $8,525 for disaster preparedness and relief equipment for Hatteras Island.

Two grants were awarded for historic and cultural education projects. The Coastal Studies Institute Foundation received $2,700 for a symposium series highlighting the Outer Banks’s maritime heritage. Saltwater Connections received $11,600 for the Coastal Voices project, to digitize oral history interviews from Hatteras and Ocracoke. These interviews will be available for download online and will be aired on Hatteras Radio and Ocracoke Community Radio.

In addition to those Community Enrichment Grants, the Community Foundation also awarded grants from several donor-advised funds, which are funds managed on behalf of donors and families, who recommend the grants that are awarded. The Spencer Family Fund awarded a grant to the Outer Banks Relief Foundation, and the Peregrine and Kaye White Fund awarded grants to Dare Hospice and the Dare County Association of Fire Officers.

The Kelly Family Fund awarded grants to OBX Pride, Holy Family Catholic Church, Father’s Heart Ministries, Outer Banks Relief Foundation, Friends of Jockey’s Ridge, and Alzheimer’s North Carolina. The Dorothy Scott Townsend Fletcher Memorial Fund awarded grants to the Southern Shores Volunteer Fire Department, Kitty Hawk Volunteer Fire Department, Kill Devil Hills Fire Department Auxiliary, Beach Food Pantry, Food for Thought, Interfaith Community Outreach, the Albemarle Commission’s Home-Delivered Meals Program, Outer Banks SPCA, Holy Redeemer by the Sea, and the Town of Southern Shores.

The Community Foundation is currently accepting applications for its Community Enrichment Grants program. The last application deadline of the year is Friday, October 31.

Community Enrichment Grants are intended to help meet local needs and enrich the quality of life for all Outer Banks people. The service area encompasses Dare County and all Outer Banks communities, from Corolla to Ocracoke Island. Grants may be awarded in the areas of: arts & culture; children & youth; education; the environment; disaster relief & prevention; health; historic interpretation & preservation; and other human services. For more information, and to submit an application online, visit the Community Foundation website at www.obcf.org.