Eleven Essex organizations or those providing services to Essex residents will receive grants from the Essex Community Fund. For the twelfth consecutive year the Fund made grants in an effort to build the capacity of local organizations or to underwrite small capital projects. As a component fund of the Adirondack Foundation, its trustees approve the recommendations of the Essex Community Fund and cut the grant checks. The Fund makes some of the grants in the honor and memory of Essex residents who have supported the fund and have made lasting contributions to the quality of life in Essex.

Organizations that will receive grants include the Adirondack Shakespeare Company which will perform and instruct students in Willsboro Central School with funds provided in honor of Martha and Gordon McBride and the Belden Noble Memorial Library will pursue 501.c.3 status with the IRS with funding provided in honor of Baird H.M. Voorhis. Grants will support the Essex Farm Institute with funds to purchase tools and safety equipment for interns; the funding of a computer for the Hale Historical Research Center to assist in the cataloging of the enormous Clark Collection; teacher training at Lakeside School; a summer reading program at the Paine Memorial Library; and the Willsboro Central School District Booster Club.

The Essex Community Fund will also support the North County SPCA’s Spay Neuter Incentive Program (SNIP) in the honor of Bruce H Klink and the interior ceiling renovation of the Octagon Schoolhouse in the honor of Charlie Goff, Joe Ecclesine, and Colin Fink.

The contributions of many full-time and seasonal residents have helped the Essex Community Fund and its component the Charlie Goff Memorial Fund build an endowment that enables it to provide grants. The 2015 grants will bring the total to nearly $170,000. Including the Lawson and Clint Allen Leadership and Academic Scholarship and the Essex Heating Project, the Fund has granted over $200,000. In addition it has provided a vehicle for Essex organizations to raise over $100,000.

The governing Council of the Essex Community Fund enjoys helping important local organizations, and it expresses its deep gratitude to the men and women who have supported the Fund and made its work possible.

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