“This year alone, thanks to the extreme generosity of the Stark sisters of Bloomfield, we are able to grant $55,289 and award these funds to 10 Prince Edward county organizations“

Yesterday evening, the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area (CFKA)’s Stark Family Fund awarded 10 grants totaling $55,289 to Prince Edward County charities.

The Grants were awarded at an event held at the Picton branch of the Prince Edward County Public Library, attended by grant recipients, volunteers and community members; providing a chance for networking and increasing community development opportunities.

In 2002, the Stark Family Fund was created at the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area by a most generous bequest of the last two surviving members of the Stark family, Ival and Ruth. The Stark Family Fund goes towards supporting a broad spectrum of community activities and charitable causes in the fields of education, health, social services, animal welfare and culture in Prince Edward County.

Through the Stark Family Fund, the combined assets of the five Stark sisters and their spouses are being put to work for the benefit of local citizens for many years to come. Their strong sense of civic responsibility will continues to sustain worthy projects and causes in their beloved community, as they did in their lifetime.

These grants bring the total granted to date from the Stark Family fund to over $775,000: showing the power of the endowment fund model, as their fund will continue to grant and support county charities forever: a wonderful and lasting legacy for them.

Organizations are invited to submit applications to the Stark Family fund once a year and applications are reviewed by a local committee of volunteers.

Details on the Stark Family Fund grant program can be found on the CFKA website at https://www.cfka.org/the-stark-family-fund/.

Projects funded include:

Trenton Memorial Hospital, Be Clear on Cancer, $10,000

With the opening of the regional cystoscopy clinic at TMH in 2015, there has been significant growth in the number of patient cases.  With constant usage and sterilization, the delicate cytoscopes can get damaged quite easily, ultimately reducing their life span. Some patients may require 2 scopes/ treatment and there are usually 35 patients/ day. This translates to 5,000 patients per year. The Stark Family Fund can help us continue our fight to prevent bladder cancer by supplying a video cystoscope used by the urologist to examine the bladder.

Easter Seals Ontario, Send A Kid to Camp, $2,500

Children with disabilities often find themselves in social isolation and with limited social and physical outlets and are not presented with the same access to social programs as their peers. Attending camp provides an opportunity for them to establish their independence, explore their physical abilities through recreational and creative challenges and develop and nurture friendships. Most mainstream camps are not built or staffed to accommodate children with special needs, making them off limits. All children, whether physically disabled or not, benefit from camping and recreational activities and deserve the opportunity to be kids.

Rotary Club of Picton, Scholarships and bursaries, $5,750

Five $1,000 awards to each of five student graduates of PECI who will be undertaking undergraduate enrollment away from Prince Edward County and three $250 bursaries to graduates who will attend Loyalist College.

County of Prince Edward Public Library, Maker Space Cinematics, $1,796

The Stark Family Fund grant will be used to enhance Maker Space STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) programming for area youth through the purchase of new equipment and software. Staff will then be able to offer more Maker Club camps and school workshops. The equipment would be purchased to complement existing resources such as the portable green screen, lighting, DSLR camera, iPads and MacBook. Camps and workshops currently focus on theatre, film and stop motion movies; however with the addition of new equipment we would be able to branch out to include YouTube vlogging, digital photography and more.

Children’s Mental Health Services of Hastings and Prince Edward County, Acquisition of OTF system for Picton Office, $10,000

The purchase of an Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) system for the Picton office will make possible real time secure audio-visual tele-conferencing for the purpose of psychiatric and psychological assessment for children and youth in Prince Edward County.  Because there are no available child psychiatrists in Prince Edward or Hastings County, purchasing this system will ensure that PEC clients will have access to the same level of service as those in Hastings County. A Stark Family Fund grant will add to the estimated one-third of the cost raised via the Wellington Classic Golf Tournament to be held this July 6, 2017 within the County. This would permit the purchase of the system in the second half of 2017.

Prince Edward Learning Centre, Cooking Counts!, $3,000

Cooking Counts! Will provide cooking lessons (with an embedded math/literacy curriculum) to 30 learners 18+ with low literacy skills.  Lessons will be organized into 3 “themed” blocks of 6 lessons each (10 learners each 6 week session). Each session will focus on a different demographic (1- young single people, 2- families and 3- families with babies/toddlers). Participants will learn about healthy eating and preparing meals on a budget. They will also improve math, literacy and computer skills, including measurement, conversion of recipes, and on-line research. The grant will provide for an instructor to prepare for and deliver each lesson and for the program advertising and evaluation.

Food to Share, Food to Share Education, $3,000

Food to Share’s focus has been to provide nutritional meals, made with fresh ingredients to food bank recipients in the County. An educational component was investigated in 2016 and will be initiated shortly as a limited test. The objective is for food bank recipients to take the first step toward becoming more self-sufficient in making their own nutritious meals. If the test proves successful, the funding in this LOI will be used to expand the test over a longer period of time and to additional recipients.

The Prince Edward Fitness and Aquatic Centre, Low Impact Rehabilitation, $4,243.14

Hydrobikes are a new product on the market. These bikes provide users a fun, invigorating and effective workout for physical therapy or aquatic spin classes. These bikes sit in the water which allows the user to have less weight on their lower joints. They are fully accessible which allows any user to try them out. By purchasing hydrobikes this opens up our accessibility features. These bikes are low impact and used in water. Our users, who are unable due to existing medical issues or accessibility constraints, will now have equipment that they can use and benefit from.

Recreation Outreach Centre, Youth Entrepreneurship Success (YES) program, $9,000

The YES program will engage and empower youth ages 12-18 in Prince Edward County through 9 months of after-school & summer entrepreneurship programming at the PEC Youth Centre. Youth will have an opportunity to develop job skills, connect with mentors from the local business community and become inspired by entrepreneurship in PEC. With youth-selected skill-based activities, workshops led by successful entrepreneurs and visits to local businesses where youth can speak directly with leaders from different sectors, the YES program assists youth in developing self-confidence and entrepreneur skills. There are no fees to participate. The grant will support program equipment, transportation and workshop supplies.

Quinte Children’s Foundation, Continued Expansion of Playing For Keeps & Reach for Success, $6,000

The Children’s Foundation is looking to continue with the expansion of Playing for Keeps & reach for Success programs into Prince Edward County. The programs have proven to be useful within the last year after your generous donation of the $6,000. We have been able to partner with multiple community organizations to help more children as well as make connections with local sports organizations & community partner to identify the needs for these programs in Prince Edward County. With your grant donation, we would be able to help motivate more children in care to continue their education with post-secondary and give them the opportunity to receive a bursary.