NONPROFITS AROUND TOWN: Front Porch Giving Circle, Salvation Army Auxiliary Home Tour

People will sit down and write checks to support various nonprofits, but Front Porch Giving Circle has taken it a step further, learning together about the causes they support.

Part of a national network of 800 Giving Circles, they’re officially described as “a group of women coming together and pooling charitable gifts to fund projects that improve the quality of life in their community.”

Members pledge $1 a day for the year, $365. What sounds like a small amount  adds up to thousands of dollars for local charities, millions of dollars nationwide.

On Dec. 2, the Front Porch friends, many of them from the city’s Old North End, were guests of Paula Munger for a holiday pot luck and the presentation of this year’s grants.

In the warmth of the historic home decorated top to bottom for Christmas, members learned which of the 14 groups they had heard give presentations in the fall would get checks.

Over two years, the group had given out nearly $20,000.

This year’s awardees:
A Kidz Hope, which provides foster care for girls 10-21 years old from El Paso County. Funds from the 2009 grant provided an opportunity for “some fun things these girls would never have been able to do,” said Pamm King. They included going to Elitch Gardens, camping, going to the Royal Gorge and $100 for each girl for back-to-school clothes.
Bemis School of Art, represented by Tara Thomas, for the Nueva Ventura and  Adopt-a-School programs for at-risk and underserved students to participate in art programs at the Fine Arts Center.
Centro de la Familia, represented by Jill Farmer and Sondra Hernandez, which will expand children’s programs at the organization, which serves mainly the Hispanic community with resources and a crisis hotline.
First Visitor, a free home visitation program for new parents. The Giving Circle gift in 2008 helped First Visitor make 1,528 visits in the first six months of 2009. As she accepted the check, Lisa Schulz was teased that she was wearing her skinny jeans after having a baby just six weeks before.
Literacy on the Go: Barbara Swaby has reached into her own purse to provide thousands of books to preschoolers and those up to the fifth grade, many of whom have never had a book of their own. She and her volunteers had just delivered 540 bags of books to Greeley and 440 bags to Helen Hunt Elementary School.
Women’s Resource Agency: Karen Harding accepted a grant for InterCept Too, a six-year-old intervention program for adolescent girls dealing with issues including  substance abuse, anger management, violence and gangs, nutrition, depression, pregnancy prevention, domestic violence, healthy relationships, and others.

Among the members and guests enjoying the holiday social with a philanthropic goal were Kathrine Backe, Martha Frohling, Barbara Frisbie, Stephanie Waltman, Jeanne Galvin, Pat Wallisch, Pat Doyle, Nancy Winter, Karen Murawski, Carolyn Dekok, Barbara Logan, Nolene Metzger, Sue Lace, Colleen Denny, Diane Turner, Mamie Duffendack, Yvonne Conrad and Catherine Mundy.

Surrounded by women, husbands Dave Winter and Dave Munger were the official servers at the eggnog and wine table.

Historic Homes Holiday Tour

For the fifth year the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary has opened the doors to grand homes on the city’s Old North End for a tour combining holiday decorations with a history lesson.

The weekend of Nov. 20-21 auxiliary members were the hosts as 900 people from the community visited homes on North Cascade Avenue, Wood Avenue, West Del North Street and Wood Avenue.

More than $22,000 was raised for the Salvation Army’s children’s programs.

Proceeds from the last two tours helped buy a van.

The first stop on the tour was an 1897 design by architect Charles Eastlake with a sleeping porch from the days when people came to the area to recuperate from tuberculosis.

A brick Tudor had belonged to a prominent local businesswoman from the early 1900s, and those on the self-guided tour with sharp eyes spotted Van Briggle floor, fireplace and bathroom tile.

At a 1916 bungalow with Stickley furniture, people stopped for goodies at the holiday bake shop.

At the Shingle-style tour home on Wood Avenue, built in 1901, original drafts were signed by well-known architect Thomas MacLaren.

The tour ended at a 1933 Spanish Colonial Revival home where guests stopped for tea and a gift shoppe where the Colorado Springs Favorite Places blown-glass ornament was for sale. This year’s ornament is the Air Force Academy Chapel. For more about the five ornaments: tsacs.org.