Jim LaJoie, executive director of the Superior Health Foundation, speaks at the foundation’s spring grants celebration on Wednesday night. The foundation awarded more than $272,000 in funding to area health-focused organizations. (Journal photo by Ryan Spitza)

MARQUETTE — The Superior Health Foundation held its spring grants celebration on Wednesday night, distributing 18 grant awards totaling over $272,000 to health-focused organizations serving the Upper Peninsula.

The grants were presented at a reduced-capacity, socially distanced ceremony at the Holiday Inn in Marquette. Around $126,000 was distributed in spring grant funding, while nearly $100,000 was awarded to address children’s mental health in the U.P. through a partnership with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Michigan. Of the remaining funding, $15,000 was distributed for indigent care grants, while other funding was awarded to various organizations for equipment and pilot projects.

“We are elated to offer invaluable funding to so many incredible, deserving organizations across the region,” SHF executive director Jim LaJoie said in a news release. “With COVID-19 and the worldwide pandemic, many nonprofits are facing some incredibly challenging times. We’re hopeful this funding plays a role in helping our health-centered friends and neighbors with carrying out meaningful and invaluable projects that improve the health and well-being of people.”

LaJoie told The Mining Journal he was pleased the SHF was able to hold an in-person celebration again, and that awarding grant money to local health organizations is more important than ever.

“We were unable to hold a spring grants celebration last spring, and this past fall, we hosted a virtual event,” he said. “We are so thankful to do an in-person event to visit with our friends and colleagues and have that fellowship many of us have desperately missed.

“The Superior Health Foundation’s mission is to ‘assist with unmet health care needs, with health education, and with programs and research on preventing illness and promoting health in the Upper Peninsula.’ Our SHF team and U.P.-wide board of directors are deeply committed to improving the health and well-being of residents all across the peninsula. These have been trying, difficult times for many. We feel blessed and incredibly honored to award grant funding at a time when organizations really need it.”

Receiving spring grant awards were Great Lakes Recovery Centers, the Caregiver Incentive Project, Feeding America West Michigan, Community Foundation of the Upper Peninsula, Marquette County Habitat for Humanity, and DAR Boys and Girls Club of Menominee and Marinette.

GLRC was awarded $40,181 for the purchase of information technology and security equipment infrastructure, kitchen appliances, dressers, nightstands, desks, chairs and other equipment needs at its New Hope House for Men and its Women’s Recovery House.

The Caregiver Incentive Project received $37,365 for its Care Close to Home project, a program that identifies current and potential caregivers and connects them with individuals in need of care, such as elders, those with disabilities and those with fragile medical conditions. The program also offers public education about in-home caregiver employment opportunities, providing resources, support and more.

CIP founder and president Eric Paad said it was an honor for his organization to receive grant money, especially during the age of the pandemic, when it can often be a struggle to keep things afloat.

“The pandemic stopped almost everything in person,” he said. “Fundraisers, all the service clubs, all the organizations that typically have their fundraisers, what those fundraisers are for is your operating budget.

“Grant money usually is very specific to go to a cause, to physically see the results of that. Whereas a lot of times, fundraising goes into your operating budget to keep the lights on, keep the paper in the copier and stuff like that. The grant money can help a little bit with that, but more than that, we can get back to focusing on doing the good that our mission says. We want to end that shortage of in-home caregivers.”

Feeding America West Michigan received $22,650 to help expand its mobile food pantry program in the U.P. The money will fund seven mobile food pantries, which will distribute around 105,000 pounds of food, or 87,500 meals, to 2,100 families in need.

The Community Foundation of the Upper Peninsula received $10,250 to go toward its automated external defibrillator project. For 13 years, the Community Foundation of Delta County has provided AED devices for county police and fire agencies, community centers, senior centers, nonprofits, schools and churches. The funding will aid in the purchase of new AED supplies as replacements for items that have expired, such as adult pads, pediatric pads and batteries.

Around $8,500 was awarded to Marquette County Habitat for Humanity to help with a new portable ramp system for county residents. The ramp system will be used for people who are in a wheelchair and need a way to enter their home after being discharged from a hospital or a nursing/rehabilitation facility. The ramp can be assembled at a resident’s home in one day.

DAR Boys and Girls Club of Menominee and Marinette received $7,500 to promote and build character, leadership, physical well-being and self-esteem through club interaction and the club’s social, educational and recreational programs. The funding will go toward its Smart Moves Emotional Wellness program, a wellness core program that supports healthy lifestyles and builds the foundational social-emotional and health skills for youth.

Four organizations received funding for children’s mental health initiatives, including Catholic Social Services of the Upper Peninsula, The Lakes Community Health Center Inc., Marquette-Alger Regional Educational Service Agency and the YMCA of Marquette County.

Catholic Social Services of the Upper Peninsula received $30,000 for its Inspiring Hope program, which will allow CSSUP to expand individual outpatient therapy and child welfare case management and advocacy efforts by interconnecting each to enhance its overall efforts to serve families in need. This will allow more children and families to move from a baseline of understanding mental illness to self-sufficiency and opportunity while living with a mental health condition as a child.

CSSUP Executive Director Kyle Rambo commented on the issue of mental health at the awards celebration, and commended his staff for being there for their patients over the last year.

“Thank you to the Superior Health Foundation for recognizing that we’ve got a problem,” he said. “It’s a huge problem and the pandemic really exposed the critical need and demand for the treatment of mental illness. We made a tough call at the end of February when I met with all of our therapists and staff to continue to serve regardless of the conditions or the risk, to keep our doors open and if our clients need to see them face to face, they (the staff) all said ‘Yeah, we’re going to do it,’ because that’s what we do. We provide comfort and healing and sometimes that requires human presence. That’s exactly what they did, which was an incredible feat and an incredible risk at the time, and they’re still doing it today.

“I’m so impressed and so honored to serve alongside them over this past year and just watch the number of people that they helped on a daily basis. It was just inspiring.

“The bottom line is, we didn’t know where funding was going to come from and thank you to the Superior Health Foundation. You really were a savior in expanding mental health (resources) for children.”

Lakes Community Health Center Inc. was awarded $25,000 for the North Lakes Community Clinic Behavioral Expansion project, which will expand the center’s behavioral health department with a full-time therapist. Children in the Ironwood area will also have access to additional services such as medical, dental and chiropractic care.

Marquette-Alger RESA received $25,000 toward its Ensure Success for the Whole Child program, which aims to reconnect students to their schools during the challenging times of the pandemic. The program serves as a liaison and advocate for parents to encourage students. It will also feature a hotline for parents seeking help, and will have the capabilities to offer visits to families in need.

The YMCA of Marquette County received $19,996 for its The Y is Medicine program, which will introduce mental health programming in Marquette and other YMCA locations across the U.P. This program will also allow YMCA staff to become trained in mental health first aid.

Three organizations received indigent care grants, including GLRC, Trillium House and Marquette County Habitat for Humanity. Each of these organizations received $5,000 in indigent care funding.

GLRC received the funding for its Compassionate Care Fund, which helps individuals who are uninsured, underinsured and are not eligible for community or governmental funding and do not have the means to pay for it on their own.

Trillium House received the grant for its Trillium House Care Fund to help pay for the difference between what residents can afford and the costs involved in having the home available to residents.

Marquette County Habitat for Humanity received funding to help purchase materials needed to build four permanent wooden ramps for county residents, which will help those in wheelchairs provide safe access to their homes.

SHF accepts grant proposals monthly for pilot project and equipment grants. The application cycle for the fall grant period is slated to begin on June 1, and will be open through July 1.

To learn more about the Superior Health Foundation and its initiatives, or to apply for funding, visit www.superiorhealthfoundation.org.

Ryan Spitza can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. His email address is rspitza@miningjournal.net.