2011 Grants

Darien YMCA
Our $185,000 grant to the Darien YMCA’s Capital Campaign will cover the cost of the co-generation technology for the Y’s heating, cooling and dehumidification needs. This Clean Energy source of power is environmentally friendly and will effectively reduce the Y’s carbon footprint, allowing them to seek LEED certification.

Darien High Tech Ed Department
Tech Ed classes at Darien High School broaden the technological horizons of students by providing opportunities for them to expand their minds, gain useful skills and learn life lessons. An Epilog Zing Laser Engraver goes hand in hand with the architectural software (CAD) that the Foundation previously funded. This $15,000 machine allows computerized architectural designs to be cut by a laser in order to create dimensional scaled models.

Darien High School Band
The High School Band and Jazz Ensemble perform throughout the year at football games, holiday and civic events and in the Memorial Day Parade. Their 30-year-old instruments were at the end of their useful lives so a fundraising effort was launched to raise $70,000 to replace the larger, school-owned instruments such as: marching tubas, baritone saxophones, bassoons, euphoniums and a concert xylophone (to name a few). The Darien Foundation provided the final $15,000 for this once-in-a-generation fundraising effort.

Channel 79
Darien residents are very civic minded and they pay attention to town government and events. Chan- nel 79 does an excellent job of bringing gavel-to- gavel coverage of town meetings to those who cannot attend in person. A small but very useful grant provided funding for a second computer with a dual processor, enabling Channel 79 to stream their coverage on the Internet so that residents who are out of town are able to view town meetings and events on their computers.