PRESS RELEASE
July 16, 2013
By Cheryl LaMee-Ludwig
Chris Watson (right), program volunteer at TCR, with Ben Daniels of Cummings Properties at the Cummings Foundation “$100K for 100” awards reception
Chris Watson, program volunteer at The Children’s Room, beams after learning of a $100,000 Cummings Foundation grant. Ben Daniels, a longtime employee of Cummings, nominated The Children’s Room (TCR) for a grant given through Cumming Foundation’s new “$100K for 100” program. This $10 million infusion of funding into Boston’s non-profit sector was strategically placed by the Woburn-based Foundation. All of the selected charities serve local communities — 50 in Middlesex, 30 in Suffolk and 20 in Essex. Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation’s Executive Director, noted that the narrow geographic priority area reflects a desire to give back in areas where the grant funds were derived.
The Children’s Room was nominated for the grant by Ben Daniels, a 13-year employee of Cummings Properties and a neighbor of Chris Watson. Watson, passionate about TCR and its programs, expanded his role this year from Program Volunteer to now include another volunteer role, Fundraising Ambassador. He found The Children’s Room at a difficult time in his life, having just lost a friend, a college roommate and his mom in rapid succession. Instead of focusing on himself and his own grief, he decided to reach out to others, and signed on as a program volunteer working with teens 12-17 who had lost a parent or sibling. Ben Daniels, Safety Director at Cummings Properties, learned of The Children’s Room’s work because he and Watson are Norfolk neighbors.
Cummings gave Daniels, as well as all 10+ year employees, an opportunity to direct $1,000 to a local non-profit. Daniels chose TCR to help his neighbor, who was raising money for The Children’s Room’s annual Memories Walk. Each of the non-profits who received the $1,000 was given the opportunity to apply for one of the Cummings Foundation’s $100,000 grants. Arlington-based The Children’s Room was selected from more than 370 applicants during a competitive review process by the Foundation. Donna Smith Sharff, TCR’s Executive Director, was elated, “The grant from the Cummings Foundation will help us expand our services to grieving children, teens and families by enhancing our peer support, educational programs and referral services to communities across Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire.”
The Children’s Room began in 1993, operating as a subset of Hospice West in Waltham, MA, before opening as an independent, non-profit center in 1999. Twenty years since its inception, TCR has grown to be the largest independent 501(c)3 organization in Massachusetts supporting grieving children, teens and families. Each program offered by TCR is built around their guiding principles: grief is a natural and healthy response to death; everyone experiences grief in a unique way; and being with others who have experienced a death reduces isolation and promotes both hope and healing. The Children’s Room provides facilitated peer-support groups for families and schools, educational programs for professionals as well as resources and referrals to grieving families. Their reach now extends to over 80 communities across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.
About Cummings Foundation
Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings of Winchester, Mass. With assets exceeding $1 billion, it is one of the very largest grant-making foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including two New Horizons senior communities in Marlborough and Woburn. Its largest single grant to date was $50 million to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, Mass. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.
