Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Deaf council will update office with $6,390 grant

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Friday, November 3, 2000

Deaf council will update office with $6,390 grant
Community foundation notifies 106 nonprofits of good fortune
By Stephanie L. Jordan
Caller-Times
With the promise of a $6,390 check, Susan Tiller's dreams for telephone lines with a voice mail system, faxes with separate pages rather than rolls of paper, and access to the Internet, are fulfilled. This year, the Corpus Christi Area Council for the Deaf, of which Tiller is the executive director, will receive a grant from the Coastal Bend Community Foundation that will help the agency place calls for clients.
   "Our telephones are dinosaurs," Tiller said. "I'm just so, so thrilled."
   On Wednesday, the foundation mailed letters to 106 nonprofit agencies telling them how much of the $588,521 they will get from the foundation. This is the largest amount the organization has given out, a 9.3 percent increase from last year.
   "They're all really good organizations," said Jim Moloney, executive director of the foundation. "The hard part is trying to figure out who to give it to. We try to reach as many organizations as we can."
   The grants went to organizations in Aransas, Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Nueces, Refugio and San Patricio counties. Tiller said that the money to her agency will help allow a stream of 30 to 40 people who are deaf or hearing impaired to be more independent.
   "Everything that a hearing person takes for granted - like making a doctor's appointment, ordering something from a catalog or calling a travel agency - these are the things we assist people in doing so they can make decisions in their lives," Tiller said. "This is exactly what we asked for in our grant (application)."
   This year, the foundation received requests for $2.4 million in 200 applications from 171 organizations.
   This year the foundation had $512,521 in unrestricted funds, which it could award as it wished. An additional $76,000 came from donors who asked that their money go to certain types of agencies; for examples, those dealing with the arts.
   "Oh, I've been waiting to hear from them because we really wanted to get this grant," said Jim Brown,executive director of The Loving Spoonful, an organization that provides meals to those suffering from HIV and AIDS.
   "We had to stop a program that provided meals to the elderly through the South Texas Interfaith Council because we didn't have the money," he said. "Now we'll be able to start it back up again."
   The Coastal Bend Community Foundation was founded in 1981 to help charities. Since then, the assets of the foundation have grown to more than $28 million and grants in excess of $30 million have been awarded.



Staff writer Stephanie L. Jordan can be reached at 886-3724 or by e-mail , at jordans@caller.com

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