Foundation makes seventeen grants

The Pineywoods Foundation of Lufkin, which supports cultural and charitable endeavors in East Texas, made seventeen grants to organizations serving fourteen counties during 2007.

Bob Bowman, Foundation administrator, said the counties include Angelina, Jasper, Cherokee, Houston, Nacogdoches, Newton, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Rusk, Tyler and Trinity.

A $20,000 grant was used to create a statue of the late Arthur Temple at the History Center in Diboll. Other financial supporters of the statue were First Bank & Trust East Texas and Temple-Inland, Inc.

A $100,000 grant will be provided to the City of Lufkin to help with the construction of a Visitors Center on U.S. Highway 59 south in Lufkin. The center is planned as a means to attract more tourists and retirees to Lufkin and expand the city's economy.

Two grants went toward the enhancement of Lufkin and Nacogdoches as retirement destinations. A grant of $6,000 was utilized by the Lufkin Economic Development Partnership, for a study of retirement needs in Lufkin and a grant of $5,000 was used by the Nacogdoches Economic Development Corporation to develop materials to attract retirees.

The Foundation completed a $30,000 grant to Planned Parenthood for an expansion of its regional facilities in Lufkin.

A $30,000 grant also went to Angelina College, which was a partner with the Foundation, Lufkin Industries, Inc. and the Angelina Arts Alliance in sponsoring the second event in a distinguished speaker series. The series began in 2006 with the appearance of actor James Earl Jones and continued in 2007 with Washington news commentator Cokie Roberts as the speaker.

A $25,000 grant was pledged for the expansion of Memorial Medical Center of Livingston, which serves Polk, San Jacinto and surrounding counties.

A grant of $11,800 went to the Christian Information and Service Center in Lufkin to purchase a forklift to move food and other supplies for the needy in a regional area.

The Allen Shivers Library of Woodville received a $10,000 grant for an expansion.

Another library, the Newton County Library at Newton, received a $3,500 grant for computer needs and Kurth Memorial Library of Lufkin was pledged $1,800 for a project.

Another $10,000 grant went to the Texas Forest Country Partnership for economic development projects in its regional service area.

The XChange Place of Lufkin received a $6,809 grant for a security system.

Grants of $4,000 and $850 went to two museums, the Trinity County Museum at Groveton and the Cherokee County Heritage Center of Rusk.

A grant of $4,114 went to the Buckner Center of Lufkin for the remodeling of physical facilities.

A $3,500 grant went to Friends of the Texas Historical Commission for archeological work on a planned replica of Mission Dolores in San Augustine. The Pineywoods Foundation is managed by a board of trustees composed of John Anderson, Bob Bowman, Eugene Brookshire, Trey Henderson, Melvin E. Kurth, David Perkins, E.G. (Rod) Pittman, and Claude Smithhart.