FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, May 7, 2008 … The Framingham Co-operative Bank Charitable Foundation recently awarded over $45,000 in support of programs and initiatives sponsored by 11 local organizations. Announcement of the awards was made today by Robert P. Lamprey, chairman of the Charitable Foundation.

A grant of $10,000 was awarded to MetroWest Outreach Connection to support that organization’s mission to prevent homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in their pursuit of permanent housing.

The Charitable Foundation’s donation of $5,000 to the MetroWest ESL Fund will support English as a Second Language classes at Framingham Adult ESL. A $5,000 award to the McAuliffe Regional Charter School will help augment field experience and project-based learning for the school’s 275 students.

A $5,000 grant to South Middlesex Legal Services (SMLS) will assist that organization in providing legal advice and representation to hundreds of residents in the greater MetroWest area who have serious civil legal problems and nowhere else to turn. The funding will also support a new SMLS initiative, The KidsCare Connection Project, designed to identify and create a comprehensive plan for children whose medical, dental and/or mental health needs are not being met.

Marian High School was awarded $5,000 by the Charitable Foundation to help replace student desks that have been in use since the school opened in 1956. Nearly 300 of the original desks have been replaced over the past two years; approximately 200 are still in need of replacement, according to Sr. Catherine Clifford, principal of Marian High.

The sum of $5,000 was contributed to the 14th Annual Big Top Bash, an event underwritten each year by Ken’s Foods of Marlborough in support of Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a nonprofit residential summer camp and year-round center serving children and families coping with cancer and other serious illnesses.

Bethany Hill School in Framingham received a $2,500 grant from the Charitable Foundation to support newsletters produced for residents and for donors. Advocates, Inc. received $2,500 to help send two individuals with developmental disabilities to a national conference on self-empowerment.

The sum of $2,000 was awarded to GreenUp, Inc. of Framingham toward the cost of GreenUp Day activities in the Town on May 3. The Framingham Co-operative Bank parking lot on Route 30 was one of five registration and drop-off locations for the event, designed to eliminate trash from local streets, parks and neighborhoods.

The Charitable Foundation’s donation of $2,000 will help fund the “Happy Birthday Baby” program at Framingham’s First Baptist Church, which distributes baby care packages to local low-income and teen mothers of newborns. Eighth graders at Framingham’s Fuller Middle School were treated to a special performance of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” thanks to a $1,060 grant from the Charitable Foundation.