Strong start for Holiday Fund drive Strong start for Holiday Fund drive (December 02, 2005)

Community donates $40,000 in first two weeks; foundations to match contributions

by Weekly Staff

The Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund, an annual drive to raise funds for dozens of local nonprofit agencies, is off to a strong start this season.

Two weeks after the campaign's launch, 176 community members have contributed $40,736. In addition, four local foundations are offering grants to match donations dollar-for-dollar, up to $77,000.

Those grants include $32,000 from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; $25,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; and $20,000 from two additional foundations that prefer to remain anonymous.

This year's Holiday Fund goal is $300,000. The drive concludes in mid-January.

Now in its 12th year, the Weekly Holiday Fund supports local nonprofit organizations with $1,000 to $9,000 grants, which help individuals, children, families and the elderly.

The grants fund services ranging from counseling for at-risk teens to a visitor program for homebound seniors.

"Without the Weekly's Holiday Fund, the Early Childhood Mental Health Project wouldn't exist in Palo Alto," said Laurel Kloomok, project director for the Jewish Family and Children's Services/Parents Place Resource Center, a fund recipient.

The program surveys at-risk children who, by age 3, often have been expelled from preschool due to behavioral or social problems. Project staff help preschool teachers develop skills for appropriately identifying at-risk children, many of whom come from immigrant families.

Thanks to the $10,000 Holiday Fund grant, these children now have a 90 percent retention rate at the preschools, Kloomok said.

Last year, more than 600 donors gave to the fund. With matching grants, the fund reached nearly $240,000 and supported 36 nonprofit programs.

A donation form is located on page 38 of today's paper. Donations can also be made online at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Click on the link for Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund Drive.

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