Pasadena Community Foundation Grants $8,000 to Area Non-Profits

Pasadena Community Foundation’s (PCF) “Yes Virginia Endowment Fund” helped Pasadena’s needy children celebrate the holidays this week with eight, $1,000 grants. The Pasadena- area non-profits receiving the thousand dollar grants were: Elizabeth House, Five Acres, Friends Outside, Hillsides, Eaton Canyon Foundation, Impact House, the Treasure Little Children Foundation and the Flintridge Center. Each used the monies received to purchase toys, books, and gifts to create special holiday experiences for their recipients.

Founded by PCF’s late Executive Director Ginger Krueger and her daughter Dr. Lisa Krueger, the Yes Virginia Fund was organized as a multi-generational effort so that no child in the community would go without during the holidays.

PCF Executive Director Jennifer DeVoll noted, “The Yes Virginia Fund is a permanently-endowed fund of the Pasadena Community Foundation ensuring that this holiday effort will continue for generations to come. Over the past 19 years, it has distributed over $230,000 to non-profits serving low-income families.”

This year the Fund helped Elizabeth House, which provides shelter and support to homeless pregnant women, purchase gifts for a “family reunion” party. The Fund additionally helped Friends Outside buy gifts for children whose family members are incarcerated as well as helping residents of Impact House, a drug rehabilitation program, buy presents for their children.

Impact House Executive Director Jim Stillwell expressed thanks stating, “This project is a vital step in the healing of the family of an addict. Many times we have found this to be a man or woman’s first experience in celebrating the holidays with their children.”

The “Yes Virginia Fund” is named for an editorial by eight-year old Virginia O’Hanlon that appeared in the New York Sun on September 21, 1897. Virginia asked the editor if there really was a Santa Claus, to which he famously replied, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, as certainly as love, generosity and devotion exist…”

The Pasadena Community Foundation was established in 1953 by Pasadena philanthropists Mr. & Mrs. Louis Webb who pledged their estate to the Foundation. PCF provides funding to six areas each representing important resources that merit support in the Pasadena community. These include: Arts & Culture, Education, Environment, Health, Human Services, and Youth. Grants are distributed across these broad areas to ensure that the diversity of riches in the community are preserved for the next generation.

For more information on the Pasadena Community Foundation, please visit www.pasadenacf.org.