For Immediate Release
Contact: Cassandra Stalzer, 907-334-0520

Anchorage, AK – At its June 28 meeting, Rasmuson Foundation directors approved grants for eight organizations, listed below by region.

Prior to their board meeting, Foundation directors visited Cordova, where Chairman Ed Rasmuson was presented with a key to the City by Mayor Clay Koplin.

A community reception took place in the new Cordova Center, a multi-use public facility that the Foundation supported with a $750,000 award in 2014.

“The residents of Cordova decided this facility was important enough that they bonded themselves in order to pay for it,” said Rasmuson President and CEO Diane Kaplan. “That type of community involvement, where citizens step up as partners, drove our interest in this project. The willingness of citizens to invest in their own communities is essential as our state grapples with its budget shortfall,” she said.

Also at the reception, Rasmuson announced a $25,000 grant for rehabilitation and improvement of Cordova’s Nirvana Park.

Statewide
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Washington and Alaska will receive $185,000 for the first Ronald McDonald House in Alaska. Foundation funds will be used to furnish the new facility at the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) in Anchorage, which will provide temporary quarters and supportive services for pregnant women who travel to ANMC to have their babies, and for the parents of children from outside Anchorage who receive long-term treatment at the hospital.

Bristol Bay
Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation will receive $215,000 to support a new dental health facility in Dillingham. The grant will be used to purchase and install dental operatory equipment.

Interior
The University of Alaska Foundation will receive $104,000 for the Museum of the North at the UA Fairbanks campus. The grant will fully fund technological renovation and enhancement of The Place Where You Go To Listen, the renowned sound and light installation by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams.

Southcentral
Anchorage Community Land Trust will receive $250,000 for the Mountain View Blighted Property Acquisition Fund. The grant will support acquisition of blighted property in Mountain View, giving the organization site control to pursue commercial revitalization in this Anchorage neighborhood.

Central Peninsula Health Foundation will receive $250,000 for a transitional living center. The grant will contribute to the cost to develop supportive transitional housing for young adults, ages 18-24, who are in recovery from alcohol and substance abuse in Soldotna.

Tanaina Child Development Center will receive up to $250,000 for its new childcare facility at Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage.

Southeast
The Juneau Housing First Collaborative (JHFC) will receive $500,000 to provide 32 units of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals. Incorporated in 2015, JHFC is the result a collective impact effort of social service and housing providers, public agencies, and local and elected leaders.

Sitka Community Land Trust will receive $234,000 for its Old City Shops project. The grant will support the cost of developing phase one of a project to build 12 owner-occupied homes and one affordable rental unit on land donated by the City and Borough of Sitka.

About the Foundation
Rasmuson Foundation was created in May 1955 by Jenny Rasmuson to honor her late husband “E.A.” Rasmuson. Through grantmaking and initiatives, the Foundation is a catalyst to promote a better life for all Alaskans.

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