Fox Valley high school students give $25,000 in grants to 10 nonprofits

Ten Fox Valley nonprofit organizations were named Thursday as recipients of grants totaling $25,000.

The grants were decided by 22 diverse students from Fox Valley high schools who are a part of the Youth Engagement in Philanthropy program of the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley.

YEP aims to get youth interested in philanthropy and to encourage them to become future community leaders.

"This year was more challenging, because we couldn't meet in person," said Cole Hemmes, a recent graduate of Batavia High School who had been with the program since its 2019 inception.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hemmes said, students met mostly online to screen and advocate for select grant applicants.

The students also participated in YEP's first fundraising drive. It was largely through an online Giving Tuesday fundraiser in November called "Youth Helping Youth" that featured a $12,500 matching grant from The Dunham Foundation.

"There were a lot of organizations that focused on music, day care and child care, and a lot that focused on housing and special needs," Hemmes said of the nonprofits that received grants.

For example, the El Sistema after-school program of the Fox Valley Music Consortium received $2,500, while the Food 4 Students program of the Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry in Aurora received $3,000.

Hemmes advocated for STC Learn, which received $1,500 for its Learning Equity and Resource Network. It helps diverse St. Charles Unit District 303 students with equal academic opportunities, which Hemmes felt was timely due to pandemic-related remote learning difficulties.

"When the students went through the grant applications, they were looking at impact and how many youths would be affected by the grant," said Cathy Schwieger, the Community Foundation's director of grant making. "They were very good and thorough at evaluating all of the different applications and the different parts of it - even looking at organizations' budgets."

Hemmes plans to study management in the medical field this fall at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Because many hospitals and medical organizations operate as nonprofits, Hemmes hopes his YEP experience will be beneficial.

"I'm hoping that experience can help me out in college, and maybe later in a career where maybe I do get to be a part of the grant-making or grant application process," he said.

"We're exposing all these high school students to leadership opportunities and to different things in their communities," Schwieger said. "It's really nice to see them get so excited and passionate about the community and the ways that they can help."

For information on YEP and its grant recipients, visit cffrv.org/yep.