Champlin grants help non-profits meet goals

John Howell
Posted 12/23/14

The Aspray Boat House will gain some of the colonial character of many Pawtuxet Village homes; the children’s library at the Warwick Public Library will be offering reading nooks and other cool …

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Champlin grants help non-profits meet goals

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The Aspray Boat House will gain some of the colonial character of many Pawtuxet Village homes; the children’s library at the Warwick Public Library will be offering reading nooks and other cool things and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Warwick will be able to use its gyms at its Oakland Beach and Norwood branches during the summer without renting fans.

Those projects are among the 204 grants totaling $18.8 million announced earlier this month by the Champlin Foundations. This is the 82nd year since Warwick industrialist George Champlin established the first foundation. Since then and with an additional foundation created by the Champlin family, more than 900 non-profits have received nearly $512 million in grants.

Keith Lang, director of the foundations, said the $18.8 million is “consistent” with prior year donations, as is the numbers of grant recipients.

“We look at consistency and to do as much as we possibly can,” Lang said Monday.

In selecting grant recipients, Lang said the foundations look for financial stability and especially since the downturn in the economy projects that are ready to go.

He said, “We don’t want the money sitting round” when other agencies are ready to move ahead.

He said for every dollar awarded by the foundations, it has $2.50 in requests.

The majority of the grants are for capital improvements, although the foundations continue to be a large supporter of camperships at Boys and Girls Clubs and the YMCA.

The largest grant for a Warwick-based non-profit this year is to the YMCA of Greater Providence for $275,000 in renovations of the Champlin Lodge at the Kent County branch.

But an addition to the Aspray Boat House may be more eye-catching. The Gaspee Days Committee, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2015, received a $5,250 grant to purchase and install a cupola with a weathervane atop the building that is used for meetings and community functions.

The Steamship Historical Society of America, which consolidated its collection at the Post Road, Warwick building of New England Institute of Technology, received a $23,000 grant to preserve and digitize its collection of historic travel posters.

Champlin has long supported library capital projects and this year is no exception. The foundation approved 35 library grants totaling $2.6 million, including $41,500 to the Warwick Public Library for furnishings to complete renovation of the Children’s Library.

Library director Diane Greenwald said the grant would be used for the second phase of improvements to the Children’s Library. The funds will go toward renovations directed at school-aged children with the addition of reading nooks where “they can go read a book by themselves.”

Library manager of public services Jana Stevenson envisions nooks with a “tree house feel” overlooking the entrance corridor to the library. She said the library would be working with the designer who did the work on the Children’s Library.

Greenwald said other improvements would be in the computer and homework areas of the library.

While so much is available online, Greenwald said “smart libraries move in the direction people want.” She said libraries are offering more programs and story hours and that with activities for kids, parents are spending more time in the library and getting together.

“People still want to be together,” she said.

Greenwald lauded what the foundations have done for libraries throughout the state.

“They are really so easy to work with,” she said, “what they do really puts the icing on the cake for many libraries.”

Grants to educational institutions, totaling $2.9 million, represented the third largest sector of giving. Grants ranged from repair and replacement of seating at the Bain Middle School auditorium in Cranston at $58,500 to the largest grant at $555,000 to Brown University for undergraduate and medical school scholarships, the George S. Champlin Memorial Stamp Collection and a vehicle to be used in the College Advising Corps program.

At $3 million, hospitals and health care was the second largest sector of giving. Hasbro Children’s Hospital was awarded $850,000 to renovate the emergency department and a $780,000 grant was awarded to Women & Infants to build new space for the Urogynecology & Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery/Women’s Physical Therapy Program.

The Trudeau Memorial Center was another Warwick non-profit to receive a grant. The center will use $18,250 to improve the entrance to the building on Post Road. Gloria Fairbanks, a member of the Trudeau board, said the funds would be used to improve the safety of children entering the center’s Crayons program as well as center clients.

Youth/fitness grants at $4 million topped the sector giving. A total of 42 grants were awarded, including that for the Kent County branch and that of $129,885 for HVAC upgrades to the gyms at the Norwood and Oakland Beach branch and to replace water fountains for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Warwick.

“This is a gift that’s going to keep giving,” said club executive director Lara D’Antuono.

She said the gyms are 10 and 12 years old and the heating systems aren’t that efficient. Updating the systems will reduce costs and, just as important, with the addition of air conditioning, the club will have greater use of the facilities during the summer months. Presently fans are rented to cool the facilities.

D’Antuono said Champlin grants have enabled the club to make improvements that it otherwise could have never done.

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