Peabody charity
to award grants
Staff writer
This year’s Winterfest in Peabody will be 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Peabody-Burns High School.
A soup supper will be served from 5 to 7 p.m. Donations will benefit high school clubs.
Charity representatives will describe programs, accept contributions, and sign up volunteers.
Peabody-Burns High School Voices will perform holiday music during preliminary rounds of a basketball free throw contest in the gymnasium.
The Winterfest program will showcase student activities during November’s Giving Tuesdays.
Peabody Community Foundation will give awards at 7 p.m.
In 2021 the Hart Park Playground Project, the Peabody Print Museum, Marion County Core Communities, and seven other charitable causes got grants from the foundation.
The high school pep band will perform, final rounds of the free throw contest will be scored, and cheerleaders and boys’ basketball players will be introduced.
Peabody Community Foundation director Becky Nickel said a 2013 study concluded that generosity was good for the giver’s health.
“We hope people will reap these and other benefits by catching a wave of generosity at our upcoming GivingTuesday event,” she said.
Peabody-Burns High School students and community members have been collecting donations for the Peabody Food Bank as part of Giving Tuesdays activities.
Three new funds were established this year: the Angel Torres Legacy Fund and Sunflower Theatre and city pool funds.
The 2022 grant cycle will open Dec. 6 with awards to be announced Feb. 5.
The foundation will match up to $10,500 in fall donations to any foundation fund. Matching money is being contributed by the Jewell family, foundation board members, and anonymous donors.