Grants given to NPOs

33 organizations each recieve $375

By MANDY WEILAND, News Writer

Published: January 16, 2008

Katie Sippel's eyes were opened to a new view of life last spring. The SPU sophomore, along with eight others, traveled to a town near Ensenada, Mexico where they served at the El Sauzal Orphanage for eight days. The El Sauzal Orphanage is a Christian home that has been caring for children since 1967.

The orphanage is completely funded by gifts and is not funded in any part by the government, Sippel said.

"It just makes me realize that we need to give away what we have to give," Sippel said.

At the end of fall quarter, Sippel and her group decided to try to help El Sauzal by applying for a grant for the orphanage through the 37five Project.

"The 37five Project's goal matched with our thinking and how we were impacted by our trip to the orphanage," Sippel said. "It just really excites me that we personally know these kids," Sippel said of gifting the orphanage with the grant received by the group. Sippel's group will continue to gift their money to the orphanage.

On Dec. 7, a group of thirteen met at the house of Matthew Koenig, associate director of University Ministries and Minister of Discipleship, and read through 35 applications turned in for the 37five Project, comparing and talking over who should receive the grants.

The 37five Project provides an opportunity for small groups that meet at least once every two weeks and attend at least 10 SPU worship events in a quarter to apply for a grant of $375 to be given to the charity of the group's choice.

Thirty-three groups out of the 35 received a grant, and the money is going to "amazing places," Koenig said.

The two groups that did not receive the grants "didn't follow directions on the application process and we [the panel] weren't convinced they had met the requirements." Koenig said.

The winners were announced at yesterday's Chapel, fitting into one of the goals of the 37five Project: to encourage people in the community to worship together. Chapel is a place that does that, Koenig said.

The 33 small groups that received the grants ranged from groups of students who gathered in residence halls to students in class together to people who served on international mission trips together. The grants were given to a variety of local, national and international nonprofit organizations.

"We were already doing everything anyway," Emily Sadler, a senior, said of the criteria for applying to the 37five Project.

Sadler's group decided to gift their money to Wycliffe Associates. Wycliffe is an organization of Bible translators and works in the literacy field, which Sadler experienced firsthand as she worked with them this past summer teaching English in Burkina Faso, Africa.

Sadler's group will continue to apply to the 37five Project, but she said they will look for a more local charity for the next grant.

"It's a double blessing," Koenig said of the overall selection process. Koenig said that the selection showed what God is doing in the students as well as what God is going to do in the organizations that the money will be donated to.

"It's good to know that the money is going to a place that we are really passionate about," Margaret Smith, a sophomore, said.

Smith is in a small group that is donating their money to the Fistula Foundation. The foundation provides young African women, cast out of their communities because of fistula conditions, with corrective surgery and transportation back to their respective homes.

While Koenig hopes that more people will apply in the upcoming quarters, he feels that SPU has done everything it can to get the 37five Project out in the community, and said he is pleased with the first quarter's results.

"People told me to consider the whole project a success if at least 15 groups applied," Koenig said.

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