Several local nonprofit agencies are benefiting from the most recent donations through the Emporia Community Foundation’s Sadie Jones Fund.
The Community Foundation announced four grant recipients Friday:
*Grace United Methodist Church, $2,000 for its back-to-school Kicks for Kids program offering new athletic shoes for prekindergarten through 12th grade
*K-State Research and Extension Lyon County, $2,500 for its research-based nutrition education
*Little Lyons Childcare, over $18,000 for classroom cabinets
*The Baby Closet of Emporia Kansas Foundation, $2,500 to buy safety gates for children up to age 5
The fund was created by Sadie Jones, a teacher in Lyon and Chase counties in the late 1800s. The fund was originally designed to help children with poor vision and hearing when Jones passed away in 1947 when her estate was valued at $40,000. When the fund was endowed and moved to the Emporia Community Foundation in 2002, it had grown to over $1.3 million. The mission also expanded at that time to include grants for health and safety projects helping children in Lyon and Chase counties.
