The Allentown Rotary Club and the Allentown Rotary Foundation presented grant awards to eight area nonprofit organizations at its June 3 meeting held at Cedar Crest College.

These awards are made possible because of generous donations made to the Allentown Rotary Foundation by current and past members of the Rotary Club.

Grant awards were made to:

·Allentown School District Foundation - $3,150 for the “I am on a Bookshelf” program for writing, illustrating and publishing student books;

·Boys and Girls Club, Allentown - $3,000 for the “Make Your Mark” educational support program that provides individualized tutoring;

·Lehigh Carbon Community College Foundation - $2,500 toward purchasing GED practice test and vouchers through LCCC’s Career Pathways Adult Literacy Program;

·The Valley Against Sex Trafficking - $2,500 for Learning Initiatives Transformation to assist survivors of sexual abuse;

·Community Bike Work - $2,000 to provide healthy plant-based lunches to students in the Community Bike Works Summer Program;

·Lehigh Conference of Churches - $2,000 for its Street Outreach Program to help the homeless;

·Salvation Army, Allentown Corps - $2,000 for the Back-to-School distribution for school supplies; and

·Union Terrace Elementary School - $813 to support Rocket Building/Engineering studies and Rocket Launch.

From 2017-22, the club and foundation have granted more than $91,000 to area nonprofit organizations through its Community Service Awards.

Additionally in 2020, another $25,000 was given to organizations for COVID-19 relief efforts.

The focus and funding priorities were on basic education and literacy and disease prevention.

Consideration was given to programs offering services for food, shelter, education and health care for children and adults living in Allentown.

The grant awards are for projects taking place July 2022 to June 2023.

Each organization is asked to submit an interim and final report on their project.