Southbury Community Trust Fund Receives Money For Disbursement

SOUTHBURY, CT — The Southbury Community Trust Fund recently handed out $46,164 in grants to seven nonprofits, money that the fund received from the Connecticut Community Foundation, according to officials.

The foundation awarded $623,954 in grants to 62 nonprofit organizations, including the Southbury Community Trust Fund, that serve residents in the Greater Waterbury and Litchfield Hills areas.

"Nonprofit organizations throughout our region are facing unprecedented demand for their services amid challenges none of us could have anticipated just two years ago," said Julie Loughran, president and CEO of the Connecticut Community Foundation, in a statement. "We are awed by the creativity and resilience with which these organizations have stepped up to the challenge. Connecticut Community Foundation is grateful to local nonprofits for their critically important work, and to the donors past and present whose generosity enables us to support local organizations whose work is moving the community closer to our vision of an equitable, inclusive, just, and vibrant community in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills."

From the foundation's announcement:

Grants are made possible by the extraordinary generosity of donors who have established more than 500 charitable funds at the foundation to benefit residents of Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills.

One of many organizations awarded grants, Vision to Learn, received $50,000 from the Health and Environmental Justice Fund and the Herbst Fund for Eye Research. Vision to Learn provides free eye exams and glasses to students in underserved communities, using mobile clinics that travel directly to school sites. This project will serve four Bridge to Success Boost! Community Schools in Waterbury: Carrington Elementary, Duggan Elementary, John G. Gilmartin Elementary and Jonathan Reed Elementary. Approximately 2,000 students will receive vision screenings. An estimated 600 will receive follow-up eye exams, and approximately 480 will be provided prescription glasses.

Ann Hollister, Executive Director of Vision to Learn, said, "Vision to Learn is thrilled to receive a grant from Connecticut Community Foundation supporting school-based vision care for students in need. Every child deserves the ability to see clearly at school."