The Community Chest of Port Washington (CCPW) has announced the selection of non-profit organizations that will receive a total of over $324,000 in grants for 2022. There are 26 non-profits chosen this year and each provides a variety of services to help Port Washington residents.
For an organization to be considered by the Community Chest it must meet certain requirements and submit an application to be reviewed by the Community Chest Board of Directors. Once applications are reviewed, the Board of Directors conducts interviews with the organizations and votes on the results to ensure the most deserving and hard-working organizations receive grants to help the community.
“Applicants for funding are carefully reviewed by an experienced group of Port Washington residents who really understand what our community needs,” said Executive Director Robert Keller. “When you donate to the Community Chest, you are assured that your money is benefiting the community in which you live and that our grantee organizations have been thoroughly evaluated.”
“In total, we’ll be helping more than 7,000 people, addressing social service, health and welfare, educational and other critical needs of Port Washington residents, all through organizations supported by the Community Chest,” said Drew Hershkowitz, president of the Community Chest.
A press release from the CCPW detailed some of the chosen non-profits and their goals within the community. With support from the Community Chest, the Littig House Community “will help families with programs like tutorial assistance for pre-teens and teens to ensure they remain on track for middle school promotion and high school graduation,” according to the Community Chest of Port Washington. “Child Abuse Prevention Services (CAPS) at the Safe Center provides domestic violence prevention as well as bullying and cyber-bullying prevention classes for Port Washington students.”
“This was an especially challenging year for many people in our community with the continued unpredictability of COVID-19, including those non-profits that we fund,” said Michael Cooperman, co-chair of the CCPW Budget and Allocations Committee. “We selected these deserving organizations for funding based on the continued impact and services they are providing to members of the Port Washington community.”
Plant a Row for the Hungry is one of the many organizations the Community Chest supports. The non-profit has been receiving support from the Community Chest for five to six years now. Plant a Row supplies fresh organic produce for community food pantries, grown by Port residents and at garden/farming sites throughout Port Washington.
Many residents have probably noticed the large painted pots provided by the organization around the town of Port Washington. The founder of Plant a Row for the Hungry, Marvin Makofsky discussed the purpose of the painted pots and the importance of working with the CCPW.
“The idea of putting the painted pots out to grow vegetables instead of flowers is a reminder to people that they could be growing at home,” said Makofsky. “[The organization] educates a lot of homeowners about working with their children on growing their own vegetables. The concept is to show people that in pots, where there is very little maintenance, you could be growing 10 to 20 pounds of wonderful, organic vegetables,” said Makofsky.
Plant a Row has a volunteer team of over 40 people and a core group of those people deliver produce to the headquarters to be stored and refrigerated. “We get parents coming in with children with bags of homegrown vegetables to donate,” said Makofsky. “Then we distribute them fresh to Saint Peter’s and Our Lady of Fatima, which are outreach programs we work with. There are several hundred families involved, whether it is donating the produce or receiving the produce.”
With the grant from the CCPW, Plant a Row is able to afford “rent, insurance, a salaried person that coordinates pick up and delivery schedules and basically everything that it costs to run a business,” said Makofsky.
“The Community Chest is very valuable to us. We have networked with maybe 10 of the organizations that the Community Chest supports and have affected their approach to community service,” added Makofsky. Visit plantarowforthehungy.org to learn more about the organization’s efforts throughout the Port Washington Community.
The CCPW has also been helping out the Port Washington Parent Resource Center (PRC) for years now. The PRC is “a modern-day community center,” said Executive Director Nicole Asselta. “[The PRC] is a place where young families and children can come to learn, grow, and make lifelong friendships. [The center] offers a lot of music, art, and pre-school readiness classes.”
The grant that the CCPW provides for the PRC “goes directly to the outreach program,” said Asselta. “The program services families facing financial challenges and right now we have about 55 children who are being serviced through the program.”
Part of the outreach program is a weekly stepping stone class for younger children ranging from a few months old to 3 years old. The stepping stone program is a three-part class series that provides families with an “enriching early childhood and pre-K readiness experience, including on-site classes, field trips and curriculum-related events,” according to the PRC website.
“The outreach program also provides scholarships for the other community classes that [the PRC] have during the week, such as art enrichment and developmental play classes,” said Asselta. “Children can get scholarships to come to those classes for free and participate in the various classes.”
Visit the PRC website to learn more about the organization at paren
tresource.org.
The CCPW has not only helped fund the various non-profits but also has brought them together to collaborate and communicate to better help the community. The CCPW works hard to support the non-profits and residents of the community and will continue to do so for years to come. To check out the 26 organizations that received the 2022 grant from the Community Chest visit portchest.org.
