Avon Greater Together Community Fund  

2024 Grant Awards

• NAMI Farmington Valley ($10,000) - to fund 1 Degree of Separation, a comedy show aimed at ending the stigma of mental illness by normalizing mental health conditions, encouraging each other to find humor and hope for our lives, and teaching the public to empathize, listen, converse, and be present.
• Interval House ($5,000) - to fund 24/7 hotline counseling, safety planning and information, emergency shelter, support groups, community outreach, and preventative education covering topics of healthy relationships, respect and boundaries, and self-love in Avon.
• West Avon Congregational Church ($4,575) - to fund the 3rd annual Avon CommunityPride Block Party which celebrates and supports the LGBTQIA+ members of the town of Avon. These funds will enable them to include a live band, an open mic time emceed by a local Drag Queen specifically to feature Avon students, more food, more kids and family activities, and more specialized giveaways.
• Avon Friends for Equity ($4,450) - to fund a theme-based series of 3 panel discussions based on Matthew Desmond’s Poverty by America at the Avon Free Public Library this fall 2024 and bring Avon community members together to understand the reasons behind why there is so much poverty in America and what we can do to become poverty abolitionists.
• Seniors Job Bank ($1,600) - to fund a free half-day in-person educational workshop in partnership with the Avon Senior Center that will provide valuable resources for mature workers such as defining your encore career and achieving abundance in retirement.
• Avon Historical Society ($5,000) - to support the design, production, and installation of 13 interpretive panels on the history of Avon from colonial period to the modern era, which will serve as the main content of the new Avon History Museum opening in fall 2024.
• Playhouse 44 ($3,000) - to support the infrastructure and ongoing operation of a new Avon-centric, affordable option for professional quality entertainment that is enjoyable, interesting, motivational, and thought-provoking.
• Scholars Educational Enrichment Directive (SEED) ($2,795) - to support the continuation of the children’s educational programming at the Avon Free Public Library that provides enrichment opportunities for age groups K-3 in Avon by incorporating cultural holidays, diversity calendar celebrations, multicultural events, art, literature, and STEM activities. Following the program’s success last year, this year’s cultural traditions will include Brazilian, Spanish, Ukranian, Arabic, African American, and Central and South American.
• Operation Fuel ($2,500) - to support emergency energy distribution in Avon and reduce the energy burden for low- and moderate-income Avon residents.
• Avon Land Trust ($1,000) - to support programming such as field trips with FAVARH, the building of bluebird houses and scarecrows in fall, the widening and lengthening of the walkway on “cow alley” trail, and the publishing of an e-book showing all trails in Avon on land trust, town, and state properties.

• Greystone Foundation ($10,000) - to support the Greystone Foundation’s mission of directly assisting households that are financially struggling by providing monetary assistance, free financial assessments, and budgetary counseling.
• Avon Free Public Library ($8,700) - support a children’s educational program that provides enrichment opportunities for age groups K-3 in Avon by incorporating cultural holidays, diversity calendar celebrations, multicultural events, art, literature, and STEM activities (led by two Avon residents, sponsored by the AFPL).
• Avon Lions Club ($5,000) - to support Avon Lions Club’s town-wide Hometown Festival this September 2023, a tradition that stopped after COVID.
• Special Olympics Connecticut ($2,500) - to support a 12-month long Special Olympics program for the Farmington Valley (Avon, Canton, and Farmington) and shape the attitudes around the way people with intellectual disabilities are treated on a day-to-day basis.
• Avon High School Booster Club ($10,000) - to support the Avon Public Schools’ Family and Student Supports Coordinator’s planning of a Community Walk (5K) for Avon in Hartford to help bridge the gaps between the students residing in Hartford and the students residing in Avon.
• Avon Land Trust ($4,000) - to support the continuation of an environmental/conservation education speaker series at the Avon Free Public Library and help with purchase of materials and coordination for new bridge decking at Oakes Preserve.
• Farmington Valley American Muslim Center ($5,000) - to engage the Farmington Valley community in the Farmington Valley American Muslim Center’s food packing event this October 2023, when meals will be distributed to local food banks (in Avon, Farmington, Simsbury, and Collinsville).
• Gifts of Love ($3,700) - to support the startup of a new program aiming to assist senior citizens in the Avon community by operating a mobile food pantry twice per week at the Avon Senior Center.
• U.S. Horse Welfare Organization Inc. ($1,100) - to fund two children’s (ages 12-17) participation in a 6-week Equine-Assisted Learning program to strengthen important life skills, teamwork, leadership, stress relief, self-regulation, and more.

• Avon Congregational Church ($8,095) - to support the Learning Civility in Our Modern World program
• Avon Land Trust, Inc. ($6,285) - to support Avon Land Trust projects
• Bottoms Up Organization ($1,600) - to support Avon Winterfest
• Connecticut Alliance for Victims of Violence and Their Families, Inc. ($2,000) - to support outreach to and participation in the Never Going Back to Abuse program for Avon residents
• The Garden Club of Avon ($500) - to support installation of a bronze plaque for 75th Anniversary Garden at the Town Hall
• UR Community Cares, Inc. ($1,600) - to support UR Community Cares in Avon