Information provided by Gabilan Chapter Kinship Center
The Gabilan Chapter announced it raised $100,000 for the Kinship Center, the largest check to date. It said the funds were raised from the 2021 Wine & Food Tasting and the Community Foundation Auction.
“Kinship Center is dedicated to build and strengthen families for children through vital community services including foster care adoption, relative caregiver support, children’s mental health and wraparound services, legal guardianship assistance, and parent and professional education,” the release said.
With an additional portion of the proceeds from the Wine & Food Tasting, Gabilan Chapter was also able to award grants to local nonprofits with like-minded missions. The recipients of the grants are:
- CASA of San Benito County to support foster children- $5,000
- Hollister YMCA for foster children in their programs- $3,000
- United Way Stuff the Bus for backpacks for foster children- $1,500
It also said additional funding to our community is through the Gabilan Chapter Scholarship Program.
“The William Medeiros, Jr. Memorial Scholarship has been awarded annually for the past 25 years to students that have gone through the adoption, foster care, or group home process,” the release said. “It is estimated that a total of $30,000 has been given to deserving students to attend a two or four year college, university, or technical school.”
The release said Gabilan Chapter Kinship Center Scholarship has awarded $11,000 over the past three years to local students in foster care or who are pursuing a career in the field of Child Psychology, Social Work, or Early Childhood Development.
“The Gabilan Enrichment Fund provides supplemental funding to our foster and adoptive families to help with a variety of educational and other needs that they may not be able to provide,” the release said. “Since the fund was started in 2018, we have given our families almost $9,000. These funds helped send a teen to youth camp, purchased Disneyland gift cards for a family taking four foster siblings to Disneyland, desk and supplies for online school, YMCA after school program, karate lessons, swim lessons, and preschool funding.”
For more information about the Gabilan Fund, click here.