Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Representatives of the 10 Nashua agencies that received Rotary Club of Nashua community grants at the club's meeting on Monday gather for a group photo. From left are Elaine Oulundsen, representing Nashua International Sculpture Symposium; Lea Reilly, Nashua Children's Home; Kate Rudolph, Sculpture Symposium; Sarah Sutherland, YMCA of Greater Nashua; Lisa Yates, Meals Matter; Jane Marquis and Carol Baldwin, Nashua Adult Learning Center; Samantha Pohland, PLUS Company; Ricky DiCillo, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua; Marilyn Stoncius, Corpus Christi Food Pantry & Assistance; Shaun Nelson, Nashua Police Athletic League; and Stephanie Aubert, Grow Nashua.

NASHUA – Thanks to the Rotary Club of Nashua’s Community Grants program, the Nashua Adult Learning Center will get a long-needed new shed, the Meals Matter school lunch program can now purchase lunch “share carts” and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua will soon have its state of the art hydration stations dispensing clean, clear water.

The three agencies are among 10 local charities, nonprofits and social service organizations the Rotary Club selected from a sea of applicants to receive this year’s grants, which vary in size, but are all geared toward programs and initiatives that benefit youth in one fashion or another.

The grants were presented during the Monday Rotary Club meeting, during which Rotarian Mike Aquino introduced representatives of each of the recipient agencies.

“This year, the committee received $129,000 in requests and 500 pages of material,” Aquino said, referring to the application process and crediting committee members for their work in whittling the field down to the 10 recipients.

This year’s grants total $25,250, up slightly from the $25,000 disbursed in 2018.

The grant recipients, the amount received, the purpose of the grant and comments from the recipients’ representatives follow:

• Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua, $1,000 grant for its hydration stations project.

“We serve 3,000 kids each year and 53,000 meals,” club grants coordinator Ricky DiCillo said. “Of the basic needs we provide, one is clean water.”

Noting the importance of hydration, Dicillo said the club is in the process of replacing the facility’s old water fountains with hydration stations that will allow users to get a drink, as well as refill water bottles.

• Corpus Christi Food Pantry & Assistance, $900 grant to purchase air conditioning units.

“We wish to thank you for this generous donation, for the tired, hot, hungry hearts,” said agency board member Marilyn Stoncius, who was joined by Carol Dignan.

Stoncius, who included a couple of jokes and a poem fitting the occasion in her remarks, told Rotarians the new air conditioning units will be a major improvement for the pantry.

• Grow Nashua, $5,000 grant toward construction of a community garden at Davidson Landing on Ledge Street.

“We are really excited about our newest project,” Stephanie Aubert said in receiving the grant. Located at Davidson Landing, an apartment complex primarily for elderly residents, the new garden will also be close to the Ledge Street Elementary School, Aubert said.

She said the garden will be the seventh “urban grow space” Grow Nashua has designed and built in Nashua.

• Meals Matter, $5,000 grant for the purchase of five “share carts” for food in Nashua schools.

Lisa Yates, a Nashua High School South teacher, said the “share carts” will include a small refrigerator and other storage space into which students can toss an unwanted component of their school lunch – thereby donating it to their fellow students who can’t afford to buy lunch.

“This way, they’re not throwing away what they don’t want, and all the kids get to eat,” Yates said.

• Nashua Adult Learning Center, $2,600 for a new outdoor shed to store equipment.

The new shed, the center’s Jane Marquis said, will provide “adequate and safe storage” for our tools and accessories. “The new one will be more efficient and more attractive,” she added.

• Nashua Children’s Home, $2,500 toward its Transitional Living Program.

Lea Reilly, a longtime employee of the home, said the grant will benefit the program that helps people such as a woman who, about two years ago, appeared on the agency’s doorstep crying because she had nowhere to go.

“She’s still with us,” Reilly said, adding that the woman has been working, and just finished her first year of college.

“We were able to lower her rent so she could go to college,” Reilly added.

• Nashua International Sculpture Symposium, $1,500 for tool acquisition and worksite upgrades.

“This grant is especially important to us because the costs are in addition to the annual symposium,” Elaine Oulundsen told the group, referring to the need for tools and an upgrade to the sculptors’ worksite in the Nashua Millyard.

• Nashua Police Athletic League, $2,500 for a major renovation of its Youth Safe Haven building.

The grant, PAL’s Shaun Nelson said, “will go toward our new venture,” a complete renovation of its Ash Street home as part of a wider Building on Hope initiative, for which Nashua was chosen. The project, Nelson said, will take place next May.

• PLUS Company, $1,750 grant for its JobSmart Retention Program.

“I’m in the process of finding a job, with the help of the PLUS Company … I graduate this week from Project Search,” Samantha Pohland, a PLUS client who took part in the 10-month job training program, from which she is about to graduate.

“My objective is to find successful long-term employment – not just a job,” Pohland said, thanking the club for “the grant that will help myself and others share our gifts” to a standing ovation.

• YMCA of Greater Nashua, $2,500 grant for its Summer Reading Program for underprivileged youth.

Sarah Sutherland said the grant supports the “evidence-based summer reading program” the Y offers in partnership with the Nashua School District.

The program “supports the most vulnerable learners in our community,” Sutherland said. “We believe every child can learn and excel.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com, or @Telegraph_DeanS.