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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

The United Way of Central Alabama (UWCA) awarded nearly $25,000 in grants to a dozen nonprofit organizations in Chilton County on Dec. 2. The organizations were selected by the United Way County Advisory Board (CAB) for Chilton County, and representatives from the 12 nonprofits were informed of their selection at an event at fellow UWCA partner agency Butterfly Bridge Children’s Advocacy Center.

“Each of these agencies are touching lives in different ways,” Shannon Hamilton, Administrator at UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton, said in a press release from the UWCA. “We can’t all do it through healthcare, but we can all do it together. We impact the lives of the people that we’re around every day.”

The CAB for Chilton County is made up of people from the county, and Hamilton and the others on the board selected the 12 nonprofit agencies from the numerous applications they received.

The grants were awarded as part of UWCA’s Community Project Grants program that allocates funds to agencies that “will go specifically towards community-based programs aimed at improving people’s lives in Chilton County,” the press release said.

The 12 nonprofit agencies selected for grants were Auburn University-Alabama Cooperative Extension System of Chilton County, Big Brother Big Sisters of Greater Birmingham, Bondfire Ranch, CareNet of Chilton County, CASA of Autauga and Chilton Counties, Chilton County Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Chilton-Clanton Public Library, Heart of Alabama Food Bank, Prayer Pillow Ministry Outreach, Rotary Club of Chilton County, Senior Connection and SPAN of Chilton County. Projects these agencies will complete with the grants include a healthy lifestyle education program, new equipment including an automated external defibrillator and hygiene implements and a new school-based mentoring program. The grant funds must go directly towards costs related to the execution of programs meeting community needs or for one-time expenses that will positively impact the residents of the county.

“The point of United Way is all of us saying, ‘We’re going to put our shoulders together, raise money together and we, as a community, are going to make sure it goes to the right places, to help people that need it the most,’” Drew Langloh, President and CEO of the UWCA, said in the press release.

For more information about how the UWCA supports Chilton County, visit www.UWCA.org/chilton. The UWCA serves Chilton County along with Blount, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair and Walker Counties.