Last Resort Funds
Sonora, CA – Tuolumne County charities dealing with human needs and services were the focus of grants from the Sonora Area Foundation (SAF).
SAF handed out $102,500 in funding to four agencies. The largest amount awarded, $42,500, went to Sierra Senior Providers Inc. for senior nutrition and transportation. The Tuolumne GRACE Fund, run by Catholic Charities of the Mother Lode, received $25,000 for residents with unmet needs. Executive Director Ed Wyllie explains, “It is a fund of last resort, so they’ve [people in need] been to other service agencies in the county and haven’t been able to receive help because they don’t qualify or other purposes. It [GRACE] started through an anonymous donor…we have match funded it for the past thirty months that it has been around.”
The other two charities that got grants were the Lighthouse Ministries to support its Tuesday night community dinner with a $15,000 shot in the arm and $20,000 to Christian Heights to aid in feeding the hungry and homeless in the county.
