2022 Grant Recipients

African American Museum of History and Culture - $10,000

Funding to feature authors and programs from November 1st National Authors Day to June 30th the end of Black Music Month. These programs are designed to build intercultural skills to enhance cultural awareness in Gaston County.

American Red Cross Blue Ridge Piedmont Chapter - $7,500

Funding for the Red Cross Disaster Services in Gaston County.

Animal League of Gaston County - $10,000

Funds will be used to provide extremely low-cost spay/neuter services to Gaston County residents who receive public assistance or demonstrate a financial need.

Arin’s’ Good Girls Dog Treats - $7,500

The funds will allow Arin’s Good Girls Dog Treats to add three people with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) and offer them individualized coaching, training, and support in our adaptive workspace. The funds will support an adaptive work environment with additional adaptive equipment.

ArtPop Inc - $7,500

Funding for Gaston County Artists community awareness and support.

Backpack Weekend Food Program, Inc. - $5,000

Funding to provide students with bags of nutritionally balanced meals each week. This program ensures no child goes hungry on the weekend.

Bit of Hope Ranch, Inc. - $5,000

The Ranch offers professional therapeutic services using outdoor and equine assisted therapy. In 2021 the Ranch opened a 900 square feet Wellness Clinic to serve special needs clients. This funding will be used for a lift mounting system for immobile and unsteady riders.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Gaston - $10,000

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Gaston works to help youth of all backgrounds develop the qualities needed to become responsible citizens and leaders. Many of those served rely on the supper program to get a nutritious meal other than school lunches. These funds will go toward the purchase of a new industrial oven/stove and refrigerator for the purpose of providing meals for the club youth.

Carolina Cross Connection - $3,000

Carolina Cross Connection founded in 1987 to minister to the needs of the elderly, impoverished, and disabled. This home repair program will use these funds to buy materials for wheelchair ramps as part of their safe-access project in Gaston County.

Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas - $15,000

These funds will be used to provide comprehensive support and loving compassion to families whose children are battling cancer in Gaston County.

Christ Community Outreach Food Ministry - $20,000

Funds will be used towards the purchase of a van for traveling to local food banks and distribution centers to pick-up donated goods and for the deliveries for their food ministry program.

Dallas High Shoals Christian Social Ministry- $5,000

Funds will be used for Emergency Client Assistance Program, assisting clients with food, utilities, and clothing.

Dream Center Academy, Inc.- $23,000

Funds will be used to expand and enhance year three of high-school programming.

Gaston Aquatics - $100,000

Funds will be used for the construction of the aquatic center in Gaston County. The center will provide aquatic safety/swim lessons for children and adults and provide medically focused aquatic-based rehabilitation. Local emergency personnel will use the center for year-round training and high school and collegiate swim teams will use the center for practices and swim meets.

Gaston County Art Guild-GCAG - $500

Funds will be used towards the cost of displaying art at local art shows held by GCAG. The GCAG’s mission is to enable those interest in the arts to assemble and participate in community activities for the advancement of visual art.

Gaston County Extension & Community Association (ECA) - $8,000

Funds will be used to purchase a Janome Long-Arm Quilting Machine. Quiltmakers can move into the age of new technology with a long-arm quilt machine. Quilting classes taught in the Lucile Tatum Center are behind times and this machine will help ECA move forward with technology and to help preserve family heirlooms.

Gaston County Museum of Art & History- $5,000

Funds will be used for the annual Mt. Holly Lantern Parade.

Gaston Family Health Services/Kintegra - $12,500

Funds will provide mammograms to low-income uninsured Gaston County women.

Gaston Literacy Council, Inc.- $5,000

Funds will be used to upgrade technology infrastructure/capacity to increase Wi-Fi capabilities, enhance security and stabilize internet connection.

Gaston School of the Arts - $6,000

Funds will be used for adding additional storage for stage and set props.

Gaston Together: Communities of Excellence- $5,000

Turning the Tide: The Community Naloxone Program.

Heart Society of Gaston County, Inc.- $12,000

Funding will be used for lifesaving cardiac related medication to clients in Gaston County who are uninsured or underinsured.

Holy Angels, Inc. - $10,000

Funding will be used for “Comforting Angels” project to purchase ten ARJO clinical and therapeutic chairs for residents.

Keep Gastonia Beautiful - $5,000

Funding for “Project Pollination” which will address the decline of native bees and the desire to provide and protect habitats for bees and other insects.

Least of These Carolinas - $10,000

Funding to help pay off the loan for their new building so that the growing number of children under their care in Gaston County can continue to receive the services they need.

Off the Streets Program, Inc. - $10,000

Funding will be used to provide increased community outreach, day-to-day operations, transportation, supplies for the women who are seeking employment.

Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte, Inc. - $5,000

Funding to help keep Gaston County Families together.

Special Olympics Gaston County - $1,000

Funding for the Spring 2023 “Healthy Athletes Day,” a day for athletes to get complete physicals free.

Special Olympics require athletes ages eight and above to have complete physicals every three years.

The ARC of Gaston County - $5,000

Funds for training for the FASD Education Program. In the United States, up to 1 in 20 children has a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder or FASD. Prenatal alcohol exposure is the leading preventable cause of birth defects in the United States.

The Gastonia’s Potters House - $7,500

Funding to bring Grace Place Apartments up to code with county permitting and fire code regulations.

The King’s Daughters Ministry - $5,000

Funding for the Emerald House Shelter Home roof replacement project.

The Schiele Museum of Natural History and Planetarium - $15,000

Funding to help with the development of the new earth science exhibit.

Victory Farm Therapeutic & Adaptive Horsemanship - $1,000

Funding to purchase helmets for the safety and protection of their riders and drivers.