Young Philanthropy groups, made up of students from Morris Community High School, Coal City High School, Gardner South Wilmington High School, and Seneca High School, gathered with local nonprofits on Monday to dole out $20,000 total in grant funding.

Every year since 2015, the Community Foundation of Grundy County has gathered students from around the county to hear presentations from local nonprofit organizations, then given the students $5,000 to decide which groups will get the donations.

The program started in 2015 with 10 Seneca High School students.

This year’s program had over 100 students, but as Devan Gagliardo, the program director for the Community Foundation of Grundy County, pointed out, today’s high school students are very busy.

Even so, more than half of the students involved were able to make the banquet, handing out their portion of the $5,000 in grant money from each of their high schools.

The students didn’t just hand out the grant money. They were thoughtful about their choices, and Gagliardo said the organizations that spoke to them understood this was just like any other grant opportunity.

The students got to pick and choose which organizations they felt were most deserving.

For some of them, like Coal City High School, that meant keeping the money closer to their community. The Coaler group chose to give $2,500 to Grundy County Eunoia Wellness Center, a Mazon-based non-profit organization that provides mental healthcare aimed at children and teens, and $2,500 to Angels of Hope.

Colin Schimandle, a Coal City student, said Angels of Hope has its memorial garden at Campbell Park in Coal City.

“We see the effects of their work every day,” Schimandle said. “For Eunoia, we chose them because it’s mental health awareness month, and mental health is more a problem now than it’s ever been.”

The Morris Community High School students chose to use their grant funding in remembrance of a fallen classmate, Dakota Welch by donating $3,000 of the school’s $5,000 to the Dakota Welch Memorial Fund.

The funds will be used for scholarships and future youth events, held in remembrance of Dakota’s life. Welch’s mother, Sheila, was in attendance.

The Morris students also donated $500 to the Community Nutrition Network, which runs Meals on Wheels among other programs; $500 to Beans and Bites, a coffee shop that provides employment and assistance for the developmentally disabled; and $1,000 to NAMI of Will & Grundy County, an organization that provides support for people with mental illnesses and their families.

Gardner-South Wilmington High School students also donated $1,000 to Beans and Bites, $1,400 to Catholic Charities Mobile Food Pantry, $900 to the Guardian Angel Outreach, and $1,100 to K9s for Vets, an organization that provides service dogs for veterans with PTSD.

The students also donated $600 to the high school’s Student Needs Fund, a program started by Young Philanthropy students back in 2019 to address needs they see in their school.

This money can go for anything from assistance for prom tickets, a new mattress, help with medical bills, or rental assistance. In the seven years the fund has existed, it’s helped in many, many different ways.

Seneca High School students donated $3,000 to K9s for Vets, $1,200 to Beans and Bites, and $800 to Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), an organization that advocates for children affected by the legal process.

Stephen Kezerle, the president of the Community Foundation of Grundy County’s Board of Trustees, said the students put a lot of time, money, and resources into philanthropy.

“It’s really good to get started at a young age, to know what it’s about,” Kezerle said. “I didn’t have that opportunity when I was younger, many years ago.”

Gagliardo said the students, and even the adults, leave the event every year with new knowledge of nonprofits in their area.

She said this year, 20 different nonprofits came to the schools to speak to the students throughout the year, and the students picked which nonprofits to donate to based on that. Since the program started, it has granted $173,000 to 62 different nonprofits.