The St. Ignace Community Foundation donated $7,000 to five area organizations Thursday, November 9.

The awards ceremony was held during halftime at the LaSalle High School girls varsity basketball game in St. Ignace.

The largest grant, $3,200, was given to the Marquette-based Upper Peninsula Health Education Corporation.

The Education Corporation will use the grant to fund four internships at Mackinac Straits Hospital and Health Center.

The following organizations also received Community Foundation grants:

St. Ignace Area Hope received $700. Project Hope is comprised of six faith-based organizations in the area that provide a community resale store and a hotline for people in need. The group plans to use the money to purchase hangers and shelving for the retail store.

Kathy Lawnichak, a member of Project Hope, said these items are expensive and added that she is "very impressed with the Foundation." Only days before the awards ceremony, a Project Hope operator informed her that her organization could be eligible for a grant, so in the 11th hour, she completed paperwork, and was "pleasantly surprised," she said.

"This is the kind of thing we've been experiencing. The community is really rallying around us," she added.

LaSalle High School received $500 for its Just Desserts program, which honors students that make the honor roll for three consecutive semesters prior to the spring ceremony. The grant will be used to offset the cost of medals to honor student scholarship, said LaSalle High School Principal Don Gustafson.

"We're very appreciative," he said. "Last year, the school awarded 96 medals."

Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) of Mackinac County was granted $1,600, which it will use to upgrade its computer systems and help offset administrative

costs. Lori Pieri of HOME accepted the award and explained that her organization provides low cost housing to people in Mackinac County. Getting funding for construction is not difficult, she said, but obtaining funding for administration is more difficult. The Community Foundation's grant will be very useful for her group's endeavors, she added.

The Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (EUPISD) received $1,000 for its Beginnings Library. The district plans to provide preschoolers one hardbacked book a month, until they start kindergarten, creating a preschool library for children in Luce, Chippewa, and Mackinac counties.

The EUPISD will use the grant to help match a state grant of $10,000 to create the library, explained EUPISD Superintendent Pete Everson.

Children do not need to be enrolled in preschool to receive the books, he added. Parents simply register their children for the program and receive books.