Bob Harlan announces the Foundations' contributions
Reaching a major financial milestone in the process, the Green Bay Packers Foundation has awarded $116,725 in grants to 52 civic and charitable groups throughout the state of Wisconsin in its annual distribution of funds, Carl Kuehne, Foundation committee chairman, announced today.
With the latest disbursements, the Foundation surpassed the million-dollar level in grants, having distributed $1,003,401 for charitable purposes since it was established in 1986 by Judge Robert J. Parins, then president of the Packers Corporation, "as a vehicle to assure continued contributions to charity."
Coupled with additional grants from the National Football League, awarded locally through the efforts of the team's community relations department and the Foundation, the Packers organization was responsible for the distribution of $362,000 in grants to the Green Bay community and the state in 2001, Kuehne noted.
The NFL grants distributed by the Packers included:
$100,000 to Green Bay East High School to help finance its new football stadium
- $100,000 to Preble High School to help finance its first football stadium
- $25,000 in "Community Quarterback" awards
- $15,000 from the Green Bay Packers Scholarships Program ($7,500 each to Scholarships, Inc., and NWTC)
- $6,000 to the high school "Coach of the Week" program
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The financial breakdown of the Foundation's contributions reveals that 30 grants - totaling $87,000 - were awarded to Brown County organizations, among them Family Services for its capital improvements program, the Bellin College of Nursing, the Brown County Library and the Friends of St. Mary's Hospital for its "Toast of the Town" program.
Additional grants, totaling $29,425, were made to 22 other groups around the state, among them the YMCA-Milwaukee, the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Center for Blind & Visually Impaired Children and the Arthritis Foundation.
Under the newly-established Packers Scholarship Program, $15,000 will be awarded annually - $7,500 to Scholarships, Inc., for distribution to students in four-year colleges and $7,500 to NWTC for distribution to students in two-year associate degree or apprenticeship trades programs. The scholarship funds come from National Football League Properties which - at the Packers' request - returns to the Foundation royalty fees paid for using the Packers logo on Wisconsin automobile license plates.
"The focus today is on our Foundation," Packers president Bob Harlan noted, "but the grants are in addition to the more than 300 items donated each month of the year by our community relations department for fund-raising efforts. These donations, in turn, result in more than $1.5 million dollars a year being raised for hundreds of organizations around the state of Wisconsin."
The Green Bay Packers Foundation Committee includes, in addition to Mr. Kuehne, Dr. Donald Harden, Jim Temp, Mike Reese, Gary Rotherham and Pat LaViolette. Phil Pionek is secretary of the Foundation.
A complete list of grant recipients:
Brown County Organizations (30):
(1) Aids Research Center
(2) American Legion (Sullivan-Wallen Post)
(3) Ashwaubenon Athletics Association
(4) Ashwaubenon Family Resource Center
(5) Back-to-School Store
(6) Brown County Library
(7) Center for Childhood Safety
(8) Children's Museum
(9) Concerned Hearts Club of Northeastern Wisconsin
(10) Crime Prevention Fund
(11) Disabled American Veterans
(12) Encompass Child Care
(13) Family Services
(14) Friends of St. Mary's Hospital
(15) Greater Community Fund (for East High Stadium restoration)
(16) Greater Green Bay YMCA
(17) Green Bay Area Youth Hockey
(18) Hmong Association of Northeastern Wisconsin
(19) Literacy Council of Brown County
(20) Meyer Theatre
(21) Multicultural Center for Greater Green Bay
(22) National Railroad Museum
(23) Neville Public Museum
(24) New Community Shelter
(25) Pulaski Girls Softball
(26) Reading Connection
(27) Sisters St. Francis of Holy Cross
(28) Special Olympics of Northeastern Wisconsin
(29) St. Vincent Hospital "Safety Town" Program
(30) Urban Partnership
Organizations Outside of Brown County (22):
(31) Arthritis Foundation
(32) Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Appleton
(33) Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Milwaukee/Waukesha Counties
(34) Center for Blind & Visually Impaired Children
(35) Center for Blind Persons
(36) Esperanza Unida, Inc.
(37) Fishing Has No Boundaries
(38) Free S.P.I.R.I.T. Riders
(39) Great Lakes Hemophilia
(40) Gunderson Lutheran
(41) Help of Door County
(42) Kiwanis International/Wisconsin District
(43) Livingston Park Preserve
(44) Medical College of Wisconsin
(45) Monroe County Sheltercare, Inc.
(46) Rawhide
(47) St. Anthony School
(48) The Cap Fund
(49) Tree of Life/New World
(50) Two Rivers-Manitowoc Habitat
(51) Wisconsin Badger Fund
(52) YMCA/Milwaukee
