Monday the 12 Statesman Season for Caring partner nonprofit agencies each received a $40,000 grant from the program. This is the second grant they have each received. In December, they each received a $10,000 grant.
A final grant will come in mid-February after Season for Caring ends its donation period on Jan. 31.
This year Season for Caring is having a record year. It has raised almost $117,000 in in-kind donations of goods and services and $1.36 million in monetary donations for a total of $1.47 million.
The grants received by the agencies will be used for helping the featured families that represent each agency first, but then be able to help hundreds of other families and individuals served by these local nonprofit organizations.
This week, Pat Munday made a $100,000 gift, doubling what she gave last year. Munday is the widow of Bill Munday, who owned car dealerships in Austin and Houston before his death in 2018. This year, she s been donating money to organizations like Season for Caring, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and Hungry Souls, which are helping to keep families fed during the pandemic.
Since the program began in 1999, Season for Caring has given $15.1 million to local nonprofit organizations.
The agencies use the monetary donations to help the featured families first but then are able to help hundreds of other clients throughout the year with basic needs such as food, clothing, rent, medications and transportation.
Last Christmas, Bill Evans husband, Joel Rudd, became ill, and he died in February. One of Rudd s favorite charities was Caritas of Austin.
This Christmas, when Evans was searching for someone to whom he could give Rudd s 2006 Toyota Highlander, he saw the different charities selected for the Statesman Season for Caring program, including Caritas. He was a big believer in Caritas, Evans said. Joel believed in its mission.
Caritas helps find housing solutions for people who are homeless in Austin. This year its featured recipient for Season for Caring is Gunther Aguado, a 37-year-old man who had been homeless until this year.
Season for Caring s seniors still have items on their Christmas lists
His grandsons call Cline Meredith their superhero. His wife calls him her best friend.
For the 66-year-old from Elgin, who has stage 4 metastatic kidney cancer that has recently gone to his brain, this Christmas and every day after are important.
“His biggest thing he loves to do is go fishing, and he can’t do what he loves,” said wife Velma Meredith, 63. “We love to carry on conversations together, but now he feels so bad he sleeps most of the time. Or when he is up, his mind doesn’t work as well as it used to. He has to concentrate to say little things.”