Grant helps fund new dental program for Cambria kids
The Cambria Community Council awarded grants to several local groups at the conclusion of its annual grant drive Nov. 27.
The council did not disclose the value of this year’s grants, but council Secretary Suzanne Kennedy said that, since 1996, the council has funded $901,904 in grants to local nonprofits.
Among the intiatives receiving funds is a new pediatric collaborative dental care program involving the Cambria Community Healthcare District and Coast Unified School District.
Iggy Fedoroff will direct the program, which is to be implemented at no cost to taxpayers or the children’s families.
In a November meeting of health district trustees, CCHD Trustee Barbara Bronson Gray called the program a “multi-agency effort to get the children in this town not just dental assessment, but dental treatment” — something she said other programs in the county don’t provide. She said the grant application sought funding for approximately 100 children.
In a Facebook post, Bronson Gray called funds “a very generous grant toward an innovative program to provide underserved children and teens excellent dental care, close to home.”
Bronson Gray credited fellow trustee Shirley Bianchi, Laurie Mileur, Lori Duffy and others with helping to get the program off the ground. She called it “a great example of how a community like ours can help increase access to health care by defining the proglem by a well-crafted survey, identifying creative solutions and receiving support from local philanthropists.”
Other groups receiving Community Council grants included Artbeat, Operation School Bell, Beautify Cambria, Bike Kitchen, Girl and Boy Scouts, Cambria Connection, Cambria Dog Park, Cambria Education Foundation, Cambria Forest Committee, Cambria Center for the Arts Theatre, Cambria’s Anonymous Neighbors, Camp Ocean Pines, CAPSLO, CERT, fourth-grade Rancho El Chorro field trips, fifth-grade Yosemite field trip, seventh-grade Monterey Bay Aquarium field trip, Great Camp, YMCA afterschool and summer program, YMCA Youth Institute, Homeless Animal Rescue Team, Honor Flight, North Coast Ocean Rescue, Sober Grad, Pacific Wildlife Care, Piedras Blancas Lighhouse field trip, Senior Nutrition, Toys for Tots, and Cambria Youth Athletic Association.
This story was originally published December 4, 2017 at 7:51 PM with the headline "Grant helps fund new dental program for Cambria kids."