Points of Light
Compiled by Meenakshi Viswanathan
More than $100,000 from last year’s Garden Grove Strawberry Festival was distributed to 18 local charities, including the city of Garden Grove, the local school district, Chamber of Commerce, Boys & Girls Club and the Garden Grove High School Aquatics Booster Club.
Children’s Hospital of Orange County Foundation for Children received a $62,000 donation from UBS Financial Services Inc. in Newport Beach. The foundation helps strengthen and support the numerous services and programs at CHOC, CHOC at Mission and CHOC outreach programs.
The Chrysler Group donated $30,000 to the Discovery Science Center of Orange County in Santa Ana. The money will be used to sponsor the center’s educational outreach programs, including school field trips.
Adams Steel Corp. of Anaheim donated $25,000 to the Orange Main Library & Historic Center. The Orange City Council recognized the gift by giving Adams Steel its Mayor’s Award.
Concordia University in Irvine received a $25,000 grant from the Santa Ana-based James L. Stamps Foundation. The funds will be invested in educational technology for six Concordia classrooms. The foundation was established in 1963 and supports Christian organizations in Southern California.
The Sisters of St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation in Orange awarded a $25,000 grant to Laguna Hills-based Healing Odyssey, which develops programs for cancer survivors and their families. The grant will support Healing Odyssey’s cornerstone program, a three-day retreat for cancer survivors.
Vic and Josephine Alleman of Irvine presented $25,000 to the Girl Scout Council of Orange County to establish the Josephine E. Alleman Fund. Alleman was a troop leader for almost 30 years; she started the Girl Scout’s boating program in Newport Beach, which later expanded to Dana Point Harbor.
Kaiser Permanente Orange County gave $10,000 to Irvine-based Center for Hope and Healing, which provides affordable mental treatment to victims of abuse and neglect.
The Newport Beach Public Library received $10,000 from the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation. The library will use the money to build its DVD collection, including buying at least 500 more titles and making multiple copies available on the most popular items.
The Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach received a $5,000 grant from the JCPenney Afterschool Fund. The funding is one of 160 grants given by the J.C. Penney Co. fund to clubs across the country to fund Power Hour during the 2004-2005 school year. Power Hour is a homework assistance program.
Orange County Human Relations Council received a $5,000 donation from Hilton Hotels Corp. to help fund its Bridges program, which partners with schools and communities to promote diversity in schools. The nonprofit, which provides help to victims of hate crimes, also received $1,000 from Balboa Life & Casualty, a unit of Irvine-based Balboa Insurance Group Inc. Balboa employees raised the funds during its “Charity Casual Friday” event.
Irvine-based Freedom Innovations donated a prosthetic foot to 13-year-old Mohammed Shbeir, a Palestinian boy injured in Gaza a year ago. Freedom makes advanced technology prosthetics to provide amputees with feet and other components.
Seven employees of Cerius Consulting Inc. in Irvine have been mentoring graduate students at the University of California, Irvine since October. The workers were recognized at a mentor program appreciation breakfast hosted by the Center for Leadership Development at UCI’s Graduate School of Management.
Newport Beach-based Downey Financial Corp. and the Capistrano Unified School District developed a banking basics program to introduce personal finance to fifth-grade students.
