Success & Service: Sonora foundation announces grant recipients
The Sonora Area Foundation and its supporting organization, the Irving J. Symons Foundation for Tuolumne County, announced its final round of grants for 2014.
Recipients included:
▪ Smile Keepers, which has provided dental services to school-age children for the past two decades, $25,000. It was a matching grant used to help leverage funds with other granting agencies and donors to help secure the future of this school-based program.
▪ The Sonora Lions Club for the refurbishment of the Rocca Park Gazebo in Jamestown, $16,000. The Lions are working with Tuolumne County Facilities Management, the Sonora Rotary Club and the Jamestown Promotion Club to complete the project sometime in March.
▪ Stage 3 Theatre Company in Sonora to address multiple needs of the 20-year-old company, $13,000. Stage 3 will use the grant funds to continue actor’s workshops for all ages; establish an independent film series; upgrade the ticketing system computer; refresh and update the great room and lobby; and provide equipment for the costume, prop and shop departments.
▪ Twain Harte Community Services District, through Twain Harte Fire and Rescue, for the purchase of a dual-axle cargo trailer to support the activities of the Twain Harte Area Community Emergency Response Team, $9,700.
Local baseball writer in contention for honors
“Johnny Evers: A Baseball Life,” written by Dennis Snelling of Modesto, is a finalist for the Casey Award as Best Baseball Book of 2014. Snelling also was nominated for “The Greatest Minor League” in 2011.
This year, he competes with a list of finalists that includes Roger Kahn for “Rickey & Robinson,” George Will for “A Nice Little Place on the North Side,” Kostya Kennedy for “Pete Rose: An American Dilemma” and Bill Madden for “1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever.”
The award is presented by Spitball, a literary baseball magazine. The magazine will announce its winner and presentation plans in the near future, according its website.
The book is the fourth for Snelling, who began working as an auditor for Modesto City Schools in 1987 and resigned in 2011 as the district’s director of business services.
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This story was originally published January 3, 2015 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Success & Service: Sonora foundation announces grant recipients."