Congratulations to the September, October + November winners of the Santa Cruz Awesome Foundation!
September’s winner was Filipino American History by Melanie Maravilla. Her project will provide family-friendly cultural area events where Filipino American History can be shared, starting on Oct 12, 2024 at the Filipino American History Month (FAHM) Festival in her hometown of Watsonville, California. The project will provide art materials, books, and creative opportunities for families and children to play and learn about rich Filipino history, and to honor historical Filipino contributions to the local community. This will become a stepping stone for reinforcing the Filipino cultural presence in Watsonville, providing opportunities for the entire community to celebrate and preserve Filipino roots and heritage.
In October, Monica Sunzeri won with her project, Cafecito con Pan. Which will help create a sense of inclusion and equity at her school, especially for the classified English Learners and their families. They will be holding monthly meetings such as the ELAC (English Learner Advisory Council) and other opportunities to connect, and they will be including food which always helps bring people together. In this case, they will offer pan dulce and Cafecito (Mexican sweet bread and coffee.) Offering families a bigger role in their child’s educational experience is vital to the academic and social emotional success of the student, but if families don’t necessarily feel comfortable because of cultural, language or other barriers they tend not to attend school activities. So our goal this year is to create a more inclusive space, where we target families that have previously been in the background.
And in November we awarded Trianna Feruza for her project The Heavy Hitters. The grant will help produce the debut album for the group, with a collection of original songs inspired by their experiences growing up in Santa Cruz, California. They’ve spent the last five years contributing to the local music scene as professional musicians, with a deep passion for the community. The 10 track album will be recorded at Santa Cruz Recording, and will employ local producers, videographers and engineers to help cultivate the best version of this project they can and create an impactful collection of tunes.
Check out past projects here…
We love reviewing these amazing, creative ideas – keep them coming Santa Cruz! $1000 micro-grants are given out monthly. Got an Awesome idea that needs a little funding? Pitch it here!
Want to join the Santa Cruz Awesome Foundation Team? Email us here!
