The KCMS Alliance, through its Charitable Fund Committe, selects one or more charities a year to be the major recipient(s) of the funds raised through the Charity Ball. Applicants must be 501(c)3 organizations and provide services within Kent County. The Alliance Charitable Fund Committee gathers information and reviews data from organizations that have submitted grant applications.  Applicants must demonstrate how the grant will benefit children and strengthen the Alliance's presence in Kent County.  The Charitable Fund Committe then recommends applicants to the KCMS Alliance Board and membership for final approval.

The deadline for grant applications for the 2013 Charity Ball for Children is January 15, 2012. 

Download a copy of the Charity Ball for Children Grant Application here or email grants@kcmsalliance.org for more information.

The Charitable Fund Committee meets in February for selection of the 2013 charities. Selected organizations will be notified by May 2012.

Mail completed grant applications to:
KCMSA Foundation
233 East Fulton, Suite 222
Grand Rapids, MI   49503
Attention: KMCSA Charitable Fund Committee



CHARITY BALL RECIPIENT FOR 2012
 

Live Laugh Love Program of The Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan The mission of the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan is to create and sustain a community that supports and understands people with mental illness. In 2004 after recognizing that there was an increase in death by suicide among teenagers in Kent County the Foundation made a decision to address this problem. The Foundation created “Live Laugh Love: Educating Youth about Mental Health”, a groundbreaking secondary school curriculum.

Live Laugh Love is a hands-on interactive curriculum that focuses on mental illness and mental health. The program is a preventative approach and provides education about current mental health issues and knowledge about what students, parents, and schools can do to improve their physical and behavioral health status. Key component within the lessons are stigma reduction, the relationship between physical and behavioral health, bullying, positive and negative coping skills, increased knowledge of psychiatric symptoms (with a strong emphasis on clinical depression), suicide prevention, stress and anxiety, how to get medical help if needed for the individual or someone they love, and recovery.

The Live Laugh Love program is presented either fully (8 one hour sessions) or partially (as few as 3 one hour sessions) in public and private schools throughout Kent County. Sessions are taught by qualified representatives of the Mental Health Foundation. 

Funds from the Kent County Medical Society Alliance’s Children’s Charity Ball will be used to meet the operating needs associated with the expansion of the Live Laugh Love program.

Come learn more about this program at the Alliance General Meeting on October 11, 2011 at 11 AM. For more details please see Upcoming Events.







For generations, the people of the Baxter neighborhood, southeast Grand Rapids, have benefited from the programs at the Baxter Community Center. Forty-one years ago, Baxter Community Center began as a safe haven in the midst of Grand Rapids’ mounting racial tensions. Today, Baxter has remained faithful to its mission to serve as “a Christian response to human needs,” adding and developing programs and projects in order to meet the shifting needs of the Baxter community.

Baxter continuously strives to meet the basic needs of community members while working towards their self-sufficiency. Baxter provides childcare in the nationally accredited Child Development Center, medical care, dental care, vision screenings, prayer, and counseling in the Wholistic Health Center, emergency food and clothing assistance, free tax preparation, senior programming, and financial literacy classes in our market place program, and youth mentoring in our Mizizi Maji Mentoring Program.

Baxter is dedicated to remaining a safe place for children to grow and develop. With the Charity Ball for Children Grant, Baxter would be able to expand their pediatric programming with three new programs addressing childhood obesity, adolescent AIDS awareness and prevention, and parenting needs. It is Baxter’s goal to continue these programs indefinitely, incorporating them into the permanent programming offered at Baxter Community Center.


 

Recipients for the Charity Ball for Children 2011 were:

Catherine’s Health Center Catherine's Health Center is a non-profit, community-based free clinic dedicated to wellness and preventive care. Named after Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, its mission is to provide health education, screening, and primary care medical services to low income, uninsured, and medically underserved residents of Grand Rapids. Catherine’s Health Center aims not only to serve their patients' immediate medical needs but to establish relationships and partnerships within the community to continue to meet the growing health care needs of the under insured.

How does the current health care crisis impact families and children? Lack of insurance increases health care costs to the point where in some families there is a choice to be made between food on the table and a visit to the doctor. When parents are unhealthy, they are unable to care for their children in appropriate ways. Families who are able to meet their health care needs at Catherine’s eliminate onepotentially harmful choice. The preventive medicine offered at Catherine’s also makes a positive impact on children. When parents receive nutritional counseling, advice on increasing physical activity, or smoking cessation, a healthier home environment is the result. Catherine’s strives to offer families the dignity of service in a welcoming setting, so parents can model for their children that everyone deserves and should receive quality health care. Catherine’s is currently in the public phase of a Capital Campaign to triple the size of the clinic. Renovations of six classrooms in the former St. Alphonsus School will create a much larger space to address the growing health care needs in our community. Funds from the Kent County Medical Society Alliance’s Children’s Charity Ball will go towards the increase in operations funding in the new clinic. It will help Catherine’s Health Center increase services to families and children. More office visits, health education, immunizations, and physicals will be possible, thanks in part, to the generosity of KCMSA.

Past Recipients of the Charity Ball for Children