Harris Fund Awards Grants to Nonprofits Serving Shelby County

August 19, 2022 - Grants from the John Harris Community Fund held at East Texas Communities Foundation (ETCF) in Tyler, Texas, were awarded to Shelby County Outreach Ministries, Inc., Shelby County Children’s Advocacy Center, Fannie Brown Booth Memorial Library, Discovery Science Place and East Texas Food Bank.

Discovery Science Place (DSP) was awarded a grant to provide STEM outreach programs for the Center ISD middle school campus. “Over the past few years, DSP has been able to launch community outreach programs through our STEM Truck and Mobile Dome,” said Lacie Ballinger, Executive Director of Discovery Science Place. “The Harris grant will allow us to provide educational outreach programming to Center ISD for the 2022-2023 school year covering topics like Life Sciences, Engineering and Physics.” 

Each of the STEM driven programs DSP will present are based on TEKS standards. “We have a lot of tools and equipment within our Mobile STEM Lab to share with the middle school students in Center ISD,” said Ballinger. “Our Digitalis portable planetarium dome is always a crowd favorite, as well as drones, microscopes and other kid-friendly resources that make learning about science exciting.”  The mission of Discovery Science Place is to ignite curiosity in young minds through fun, hands-on exploration. 

Shelby County Outreach Ministries received funds to assist with providing meals to the elderly within the county. “The Senior Nutrition Site is a place that offers a family-like setting where senior citizens, 60 and older, can play games, fellowship, participate in learning opportunities, and eat a nutritious meal,” said Executive Director, Sherry Harding. “We also deliver meals to homebound seniors and call on them twice a week to check on them.” In 2021, the two programs provided 22,860 meals for 180 seniors in Shelby County.

Shelby County Outreach Ministries has four programs that help serve Shelby County residents. “These ministries operate completely from donations, fundraisers, church support, income from the resale shop and grants like the one,” said Harding. “Grants like the one we received from the Harris Fund are critical for us to continue to provide services in the community.”
 
“John Reagan Harris was a generous benefactor, giving both his time and his resources to many groups and worthy causes in and around Center,” said Kyle Penney, President of ETCF. “The John Harris Community Fund was established to support worthy civic, religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational projects which benefit the Center, Texas, community.”
Other recipients include:

East Texas Food Bank for the purchase of food including fresh produce.

Shelby County Children’s Advocacy Center to cover training for staff.

Fannie Brown Booth Memorial Library for the purchase of large print books, 10-wifi Hot Spots, preschool story time supplies and a commercial shredder.