The Southwestern College Philanthropy Board (SCPB), alongside the Nonprofit Leadership Class at Southwestern College, is pleased to announce it has awarded a $1,000 grant to Wichita’s Littlest Heroes. These funds will be covering expenses for purchasing school supplies, food, and the program venue for a Back-to-School Event program which is helping families with medically fragile children help support their children’s continued education.

Wichita’s Littlest Heroes’ is passionate about changing the landscape of what pediatric resources look like for generations to come in Kansas by providing programming for medically fragile children and their families. SCPB members felt that, as a group, these children didn’t choose this life and that it is very expensive to afford school supplies on top of all the medical bills that the family has to pay first.

The SCPB awards annual grants through a competitive application and review process.

“This struck a passion within our hearts that some families couldn’t even afford school supplies for their children because they are drowning in medical bills to pay,” says Trevor Peterson, a student in the Nonprofit class. “We feel that this grant would greatly benefit and extend beyond the child to help the families of these medically fragile children.”

The SCPB was developed from the Students4Giving Campus Compact grant awarded in August of 2008. With this funding, Southwestern created the SCPB as well as the Nonprofit Leadership class offered on the main campus to explore all aspects of the philanthropic process. The SCPB is committed to developing an opportunity for students to explore philanthropy, non-profit organizations, community partnerships and available grant resources. The SCPB and the class work together annually to distribute grant funding to community-based non-profit organizations.