At its November 19 meeting, the Ohio Conference Board of Directors approved the following grants.  Grants are divided into three categories that deal with special needs for church leaders, churches and communities.

Grants to serve the needs of church leaders were given to:

• Denison Avenue UCC, Cleveland   • Assistance for salary of small, inner-city church pastor ($1500)

• Jefferson First Congregational UCC, Jefferson  • Half-cost scholarship for persons attending Senior High Fall Youth Event ($520) 

• Rodney Sutton, Sr., Director of Racial Justice Youth Ministry for UCC congregations of Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, and in-care seminary student   •  Scholarship for transportation costs ($560)

• Northwest Ohio Association Small Church Task Force  • To assist in an event for leaders in small membership churches  ($1500)

To address special needs of churches, grants were awarded to:

• St. Paul UCC, Columbus  • New steps and a railing leading up to the church  ($2674)

• First Congregational UCC, Sandusky  • Material to promote positive UCC identity  ($500)

Special needs of communities were funded with grants to:

• St. John's UCC, Columbus  • The Largest Table Outreach Ministry food costs  ($1000)

• First Congregational Church, Mt. Vernon  • Meat and staples for Tuesday evening Hot Meals Program  ($780)

• Racial Justice Youth Ministry of Greater Cincinnati  • Workshop materials, refreshments and advertisements  ($2500)

• Trinity UCC, Columbus  • Tutoring and test preparation for local community school students  ($2500)

Committee members Elaine Mikesell, Robert Hawkins and Charles Kuck stress the difficulty of making grants when the amount available is so much less than the requests. Mikesell, committee chair, said to the Board, "Please remind folks that we are trying to divide these funds among many programs that are worthy of receiving funds, but we just don’t have it to give."

Make A Difference grant funds come from the earnings of the Make A Difference endowment fund. The amount available each year is equal to 5% of a three-year rolling average of the endowment fund total. The criteria for the awards were established at the 1992 Ohio Conference Annual Meeting.