The city of Hollister has awarded $92,050 to a dozen local nonprofit organizations, following up on a pledge to consider requests for portions of $100,000 allocated.
Councilmen Raymond Friend and Karson Klauer were the subcommittee that reviewed all of the applications submitted to the city clerk’s office and recommended which 12 agencies should receive the funding. The allocations were approved at Monday’s city council meeting by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Ignacio Velazquez absent.
Councilman Victor Gomez said that while he believes his council colleagues “did due diligence in providing this list,” the nonprofits should not consider the city’s financial support a regular part of their annual budgets.
“It’s great to be here during these fluffy times, but I’ve never allocated this amount of money to nonprofits,” he said. “I hope these nonprofits appreciated it, but it’s not going to be forever.”
Former City Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia, representing Jovenes de Antano — which received the most money from the city — thanked the council “wholeheartedly” for its support of the senior services provider. Friend is a member of American Legion Post 69, which received the second most amount of money from the city.
The list of awardees, followed by the amount they received, is:
- Jovenes de Antano ($25,000)
- San Benito Post No. 69, The American Legion ($12,000)
- Community Solutions ($10,000)
- Friends of the Library ($10,000)
- San Benito Arts Council ($7,000)
- Young Readers’ Program ($6,500)
- Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) San Benito County ($5,000)
- Girls Inc. of the Central Coast — San Benito ($3,750)
- Advocacy ($3,500)
- Chamberlain’s Childrens’ Center ($3,300)
- Mexican American Committee on Education ($3,000)
- Women’s Club of Hollister ($3,000)