$10K award will help create the new ‘Framingham History Center’

Robert P. Lamprey, chairman of the Framingham Co-operative Bank Charitable Foundation, announced that the Foundation recently awarded $55,550 to benefit the community and its residents.

A $10,000 award to the Framingham Historical Society and Museum will help that group introduce its new identity as The Framingham History Center to the public.

“Our new name does a better job of communicating the vibrancy, relevance and accessibility that are so important to our brand,” explained Anne R. Murphy, executive director.

According to Murphy, last year’s $8,000 gift from the Framingham Co-operative Bank Charitable Foundation played a significant role in expanding awareness about the Framingham Historical Society and Museum, and also attracted 150 new members. The Foundation grant was used to launch a highly successful Arts and Culture Series, a web-based storefront, and a new e-newsletter.

Among the highlights of the Arts and Culture series was an exhibition of the work of the late Framingham artist Floyd Walser, and the subsequent donation of nearly 100 of the artist’s paintings, sketches and artifacts to the Society.
 
A grant in the amount of $15,000 was awarded to Resiliency for Life, a model alternative high school dropout-prevention program located on the Thayer campus in the Framingham school system. The program provides ongoing mentoring, tutoring, and counseling support for at-risk students.

The Charitable Foundation awarded the sum of $10,000 to the Daily Bread Program of the Salvation Army, which feeds up to 80 people five days a week. Major Mark A. Himes stated that the Daily Bread program has had to expand in order to serve an even greater volume of people today than in the past.

Project Just Because, Inc. received a grant of $10,000 from the Foundation, in support of its “Keep a Family & Child Warm Program.” The program provides those in need in greater Metrowest with warm winter coats and blankets, according to Cherylann Lambert Walsh, Project Just Because president and founder.

The sum of $6,000 awarded to the John Andrew Mazie Foundation will support that organization’s mentoring program for minority and low-income high school youth. Adult volunteers recruited from local companies are matched with underachieving Framingham High School teens. The adults serve as role models and motivate and support the teens’ educational and career goals during the student’s high school career. Forty students join the four-year program at the beginning of each new school year, says Lowell Mazie, executive director of the Mazie Foundation.

Area residents who turn to the Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) of Southern New England, a public service agency, will benefit from the Charitable Foundation’s $3,300 award in support of that organization’s work. CCCS provides financial counseling, financial education, debt management programs and housing counseling to help individuals and families resolve financial difficulties and achieve long-term financial well being.

A $1,250 donation to the Massachusetts Bankers Association Charitable Foundation will support that organization’s annual contributions to local charities and other worthwhile causes recommended by its members.