GoGirlGo! San Antonio recently concluded another successful grant cycle for 2008 with its grant-making partner, the San Antonio Sports Foundation. Out of 16 community organizations that applied for more than $211,000 in grant money, nine were officially selected for the $100,000 grant award money.
By GoGirlGo! San Antonio
Published: August 8, 2008
GoGirlGo! San Antonio recently concluded another successful grant cycle for 2008 with its grant-making partner, the San Antonio Sports Foundation. Out of 16 community organizations that applied for more than $211,000 in grant money, nine were officially selected for the $100,000 grant award money.
These lucky grantees were honored and presented with their checks on June 18, 2008, at a press conference immediately following GoGirlGo! San Antonio’s Leadership Conference at the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas’ new facility. Two very special guests, San Antonio’s WNBA Silver Stars Shanna Crossley and professional motorcycle drag racer Peggy Llewellyn, were there to represent GoGirlGo! San Antonio and hand out the checks to these deserving organizations. The nine grantees for 2008 are Alamo Children’s Advocacy (Childsafe), Benitia Family Center, Family Service Association, Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas, Gilbert Mustang Cheerleading Squad, Northside Education Foundation (NISD Aquatics Program), San Antonio Food Bank, The First Tee of San Antonio, and YMCA of Greater San Antonio-Davis Scott Branch.
ChildSafe is targeting 60 girls and proposing a project that will combine some essential components of its counseling program with follow-up care provided through its Child Abuse Resource Enhancement (CARE) Program to emphasize the importance of physical well-being in the healing of emotional and physical trauma for female child sexual abuse survivors. The physical activities it offers include yoga classes, self-defense, dance therapy and ropes.
Benitia Family Center will be using its existing Mujercitas Avanzando Saludable y Seguras (MASS) program for its 2008 summer program with about 20 girls. It will continue these services with an after-school program bi-weekly for four hours per week from September to December 2008.
Family Service Association will be targeting approximately 60 girls for its “Youth Against Gang Activity” (YAGA) program. The target population is high school youth ages 14-18 in Edgewood ISD, South San ISD, Northside ISD and San Antonio ISD. The girls will participate in activities such as yoga, soccer, basketball, self-defense, dance and volleyball.
The Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas will be reaching 3,100 girls as it continues to focus on dance as exercise through the Girls in Motion program. Girls will learn different types of dances, from tap to hip hop, and will have a performance at the end of the year.
The Mustang Cheerleading Squad encourages young girls in third through fifth grade to make healthy choices and be positive role models to the entire student body at Gilbert Elementary. The Mustang Cheerleaders motivate their players during games and inspire their peers to achieve commended performance on their TAKS test.
Northside Aquatics will partner with Rayburn Middle School to bring swimming opportunities to 168 middle school girls. Rayburn Middle School will implement the GoGirlGo! curriculum in grades six through seven during the 2008-2009 school year.
The San Antonio Food Bank will be targeting 125 girls from 8-14 years old with the GoGirlGo! program. The program and curriculum are incorporated in various Kids Cafés located around San Antonio. The students will be involved in 20-40 minutes of physical activity such as running, basketball or volleyball.
The First Tee of San Antonio, a program of the San Antonio Golf Association, will provide 500 girls ages 8-17 with the existing “Get Goin-Get Golfin” program, designed to deliver the GoGirlGo! curriculum through the game of golf, with a continual emphasis on exercise, along with development and maintenance of active lifestyles. The First Tee program also includes a Life Skills and Code of Conduct lessons. Some of the other activities include calisthenics, hula hooping, jump roping, Frisbee, running and hopping.
The YMCA Davis Scott branch will use the GoGirlGo! curriculum to assist 100 youth to gain self-confidence and leadership skills through participation in an all-girls basketball league. All participants will participate in a two-week instructional camp, followed by the girls meeting two to three times each week and eventually full-team basketball practice.
Many thanks to everyone that applied this year. Please stay tuned in the months ahead as our grant-making partner, the San Antonio Sports Foundation, and GoGirlGo! San Antonio are already gearing up for next year’s grant cycle with the Request For Proposal (RFP) due to come out in late fall 2008. You won’t want to miss the opportunity to possibly receive money that will help pay for sports equipment, coaching fees, etc.
Thank you to each of you for what you do and for continuing to help us improve healthier lives by getting sedentary girls 8-18 years old physically active in San Antonio!