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El Dorado County awards more than $500,000 to young children’s projects

Hema Easley

The Children and Families Commission of El Dorado County has awarded $513,338 in its second round of annual grants to 28 programs and projects benefiting children under the age of 5 and pregnant women.

The projects receiving the mini-grants cover a wide range of services, including a play therapy program in South Lake Tahoe, child care payment assistance for parents in Cool and Placerville, and the renovation of a playground in Cameron Park. They range from small amounts of $2,124 to larger sums of $25,000.

“These funds will bring projects to life that will have a direct impact on the lives of El Dorado’s families,” Debra Herr, chair of the El Dorado Children and Families Commission, said in a statement released Wednesday.



“Playgrounds, play programs and learning activities made possible by the commission are all things we want to become a natural part of being a young child in El Dorado County,” she said.

The grants, which are distributed through an application process, were approved by the commission at a meeting at South Lake Tahoe.



Some of the other projects that received grants include new equipment and material for child care centers, mental health services for pregnant women, an infant car seat project for South Lake Tahoe and Pollock Pines, and a playground in Georgetown.

The grants are made possible from revenues generated by Proposition 10. The 1998 initiative placed a 50-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes in order to fund early childhood development and anti-tobacco programs.

El Dorado County receives $2.6 million annually from Proposition 10 revenues. So far the commission has awarded $2.2 million to local projects.


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