The Junior League of Pelham announced the 2011 recipients of the sixth annual JLP Community Grants Program: Bartow Pell Mansion Museum, County Harvest Inc., Hutchinson School PTA, Ladies of Charity of Pelham, The Pelham Picture House,  Prospect Hill PTA, and the Wartburg Adult Care Community.

The JLP Community Grants Program establishes criteria by which not-for-profit organizations in Pelham and the surrounding areas can apply for grants on an annual basis.  All grant awards must be closely aligned with the JLP’s focus areas of healthy families, education, and Pelham improvement.  Community Affairs Chair, Colleen Maiberger said, “We are again pleased to be able to provide grants to many worthwhile programs that will directly benefit Pelham and our neighboring communities.”

The Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum will receive a total grant of $1,400 toward the development of Children’s Kitchen Garden programs. This award was in part funded from the JLP Sustainer Fund. This unique program will service students in the Bronx and Lower Westchester by providing hands-on learning opportunities to grow and garden organic vegetables and herbs. Debra Epstein, formerly head of Children’s Education at the New York Botanical Garden, will be working with the museum over the next year to develop this program.

County Harvest Inc., will receive $1,000 which will be used towards the purchase of storage for perishable and non-perishable foods. County Harvest is a food rescue organization which rescues excess food from restaurants, caterers, supermarkets, bagel shops, beverage distributors, and private clubs and delivers it to soup kitchens, food pantries, and homeless shelters.  According to the Food Bank of Westchester, nearly 83,000 residents of the county are living at or below the federal poverty level. County Harvest serves a much-needed part of our community and will be able to run its operations more efficiently with the storage space purchased with the JLP grant.

Hutchinson Elementary’s PTA received $500 towards the Dancing Classrooms program.

Dancing Classrooms is a project of the American Ballroom Theater Company. It is designed to bring social awareness, confidence and self-esteem to participants. This is the fourth year that all Hutchinson School’s fifth graders will participate.  This enriching experience has become a tradition at Hutchinson Elementary.

The Ladies Charity of Pelham is a not-for-profit organization that is part of a larger world-wide Ladies of Charity which was founded in the seventeenth century in France. Primarily devoted to women’s and children’s causes, the Pelham group supports the Pelham Day Care Center. The Ladies of Charity of Pelham knit or crochet baby blankets for the “Layette Program” and distribute them to needy young women and their children. Ladies of Charity received $400 to go towards the purchase of new yarn and fabric.

The Pelham Picture House is a not-for-profit organization that was formed in 2003 under the name Pelham Picture House Preservation; the primary mission was to raise the necessary funds to purchase the 1921 Pelham Picture House movie theater. After a complete restoration and renovation, the Picture House will now reflect its new focus as a state-of-the-art film and education center. With a grant of $1,000, the Picture House will develop and implement a brand-new film initiative called The Company. The Company is a series of classes in acting for film, screenwriting, and directing, in which students (ages 7-17) are encouraged to work together across the various disciplines to form a fully-integrated and high-functioning film company.

Prospect Hill Elementary’s PTA received $500 and will use the funds to bring Apple technology into the classroom.  This technology will provide the students with a multi-sensory approach that will enrich their letter recognition, phonological awareness, sight words, and vocabulary as well as developing sentence structure and comprehension skills, when paired with direct instruction from the teacher.

The Wartburg Adult Care Community is a not-for-profit Lutheran ministry located in Mount Vernon that serves people of all faiths with a comprehensive range of residential options and health-related services for older adults and their families. With their grant award of $1,000, The Wartburg will purchase an internet-connectible TV for the Adult Day Care Program (ADC). This equipment will enable The Wartburg to introduce new educational, recreational, and therapeutic programs and to more effectively engage residents in group activities. Some of the programming that the ADC will be introduced to includes technology workshops, brain games/cognitive therapies, forums for aging issues, and other related topics.

From left to right: Alicia Brizzi, JLP Community Grants Coordinator, Carla Tarazi, Hutchinson Elementary School, Emily Lieu, Wartburg Adult Care Community, Barbara Neus, Ladies of Charity, Julie Liebersohn, Prospect Hill Elementary School, Missy Palmisciano, County Harvest, Cathy Schaeffer, Prospect Hill Elementary School, Ann Sorice, The Picture House, Ellen Bruzelius, Bartow Pell Masion Museum, Colleen Maiberger, JLP Community Affairs Chair