Local non-profits receive generous grants at foundation’s annual luncheon
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Community Foundation of West Tennessee held their annual Women Who Care Luncheon.
Women met at First Methodist Church for a powerful event that allows local nonprofit organizations to receive grant money.
The Chief Operating Officer, Beth Koffman, was nearly in tears as she talked about how the ladies bring her so much joy.
This group, which started in 2018, but stopped for covid, has now relaunched and are back stronger than ever.
We spoke to Executive Director of a Step Ahead, and the winner of the Small Business Organization Grant, La’Tanya Woods.
She says that it was an honor to receive this grant for a step ahead because blessing children is her ministry.
“We’re going to have a celebration for them, an end of the year celebration for them, and we will award them the laptops that they can take off to college to further their education,” said Woods.
She says there are a few requirements to receive the laptops.
“They have to come to class. They have to do community service projects and they have to just reach out and do things for the community,” said Woods.
Woods stated that this grant meant so much more being that it came from fellow women like herself.
“I’m overjoyed today. Especially since it’s women’s day. I’m overjoyed that we were able to receive this great award,” said Woods.
The winners for the grant money were chosen by presenting their project plan for their organization.
They each had five minutes to discuss and show on the slide show how their ideas would impact the community.
All Saints Anglican was another recipient at the luncheon.
We spoke to Administrator of Communication and Engagement, Olivia Abernathy, who was so happy her organization received a 10,000 grant.
“47% of parents cannot afford diapers for their children and so this will allow us to open up a community diaper bank to be able to serve the parents in our community,” said Abernathy.
Abernathy stated that the community needs this because it is such a common needs for parents.
“There is one in Memphis, there’s one in Nashville and one in Knoxville but none of them are serving rural West Tennessee so this would be the first one to serve rural West Tennessee,” said Abernathy.
She says that she could feel the support and the love of the other ladies.
“A lot of them have had to diaper their own children and so women understand the difficulty of parenting young children in today’s world and so it’s a real honor to be able to do that based on the votes of other women,” said Abernathy.
Whether they are business oriented or just showed up to support another woman, these women shined a great light on what we can do when we stand together.
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