By Sentinel Staff
The Sitka Alaska Permanent Charitable Trust has announced grants totaling $105,500 to 12 Sitka educational, scientific and social service organizations.
The trust’s board of advisers met Thursday in the Sitka High School library to decide the amounts of the individual awards. Grant applicants had made presentations to the board the evening before.
The 1995 Declaration of Trust calls for half of the yearly grant funds to be used “to promote cultural programs, general community betterment, and educational assistance,” and for the other half to go toward advancement of scientific knowledge, particularly “to create at Sitka High School Alaska’s finest program to encourage young men and women to explore and pursue the study of science and the environment.”
There were two applications in the science category this year, and $22,333 was awarded to the Sitka Sound Science Center and $32,134 to the Sitka High science department. Grants are required to supplement, and not replace, regular funding to recipient organizations.
In the cultural, community betterment and educational assistance category, the grants were:
$7,583 to the 3 to 5 Preschool
$8,000 to the Sitka Fine Arts Camp
$2,500 to ArtChange Inc.
$6,083 to Brave Heart Volunteers
$3,667 to Outer Coast
$2,833 to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library
$6,500 to the Sitka Music Festival
$4,083 to Sitka High School DDF
$5,833 to Sitkans Against Family Violence
$6,667 to Southeast Alaska Independent Living
The trust was created in 1995 and funded by Alaska Pulp Corp. in the settlement of an environmental lawsuit. On Dec. 31, 2021, the fund balance was $2,645,154. Four percent of the fund’s earnings are distributed to Sitka educational institutions and 501(c)3 nonprofits each year. Wells Fargo Bank is the trustee and fund manager.
