Grants Awarded

Grant Recipients

Awarded in 2024

Suburban Adult Services, Inc.
Website: https://www.sasinc.org

  • Grant Awarded: Strategies for Increasing Life Skills and Independence
  • Amount Awarded: $100,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Creation of an outdoor space for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities. Project includes safe walkways to outdoor space, wheelchair accessible gazebo, swing chairs, and a sunshade.
  • Location: Elma, NY

Gaylord Specialty Healthcare
Website: https://www.gaylord.org

  • Grant Awarded: Edwina M. Gesler Music Therapy Grant
  • Amount Awarded: $10,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Utilization of music therapy programs for 600+ hospital patients requiring long-term intensive rehabilitation, with the goal of enhancing the recovery process. Music therapy programs are used with patients 15 years of age or older and experiencing health issues related to brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, amputations, and medically complex illnesses.
  • Location: Wallingford, CT

Allegheny Valley Veterans Center
Website: https://www.avvc.us

  • Grant Awarded: We're All in This Together
  • Amount Awarded: $592,600.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Provide supportive and transitional housing options for veteran men and women, their families, and the general community of those in need. Construction of women and family housing units, parking areas, and updates to general facility, playground, and pavilion areas.
  • Location: Clarendon, PA

Emmaus Campus Ministry
Website: https://www.emmausmontana.org

  • Grant Awarded: We're All in This Together
  • Amount Awarded: $10,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Creation of a program designed to bring together young adults (students) and Church seniors with the goal of young adults completing minor projects around the senior's house or serving as a pair together in the community. Program is designed to encourage faith-based conversations and community outreach opportunities among young adults and seniors.
  • Location: Missoula, MT
  • Letter of Gratitude: Click Here to View

Hudson Valley Hospice Foundation
Website: https://www.hvhospice.org

  • Grant Awarded: Edwina M. Gesler Music Therapy Grant
  • Amount Awarded: $15,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Hudson Valley Hospice provides music therapy sessions to patients and their families, whether private sessions or supportive services with family and caregivers. As an AMTA National Roster Internship site, the grant supported stipends for interns providing music therapy services to patients.
  • Location: Poughkeepsie, NY
  • Letter of Gratitude: Click Here to View

Levine Music
Website: https://www.levinemusic.org

  • Grant Awarded: Edwina M. Gesler Music Therapy Grant
  • Amount Awarded: $50,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Levine's Music Therapy program provides therapeutic therapy services to approximately 350 individuals with physical and cognitive impairments, including Down Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Dementia.
  • Location: Washington D.C.
  • Letter of Gratitude: Click Here to View

Lutheran Senior Services
Website: https://www.lssliving.org

  • Grant Awarded: The Benze/Gesler Grant for Long-Term Living
  • Amount Awarded: $137,280.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Expansion of reduced cost in-home care services to older adults with incomes at or below 150% of federal poverty level. Additional care management services of food, housing, and health needs are also provided in conjunction with in-home services.
  • Location: St. Louis, MO
  • Letter of Gratitude: Click Here to View

NW Works, Inc.
Website: https://www.works.com

  • Grant Awarded: Edwina M. Gesler Music Therapy Grant
  • Amount Awarded: $38,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Utilizing therapeutic music-making, singing, and dancing, the Music Therapy program at NW Works offers educational opportunities and exposure to structured must-making, physical exercise, and an exploration of potential for adults living with disabilities in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. Goals of the program include improved self-confidence, self-expression, functional fine motor skills, and improved relationships.
  • Location: Winchester, VA
  • Letter of Gratitude: Click Here to View

Baptist Health Foundation Hardin, Inc.
Website: https://www.baptisthealth.com

  • Grant Awarded: Edwina M. Gesler Music Therapy Grant
  • Amount Awarded: $100,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Implementation of an ongoing Music Therapy program utilizing a Board-Certified Music Therapist. The therapy program will work with an interdisciplinary team to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate the psychosocial and medical needs of patients receiving both inpatient and outpatient services. This program aims to positively affect overall wellness and patient satisfaction through the introduction of music as evidenced based care.
  • Location: Elizabethtown, KY

Warren Area Refugee Resettlement Network

  • Grant Awarded: We're All In This Together
  • Amount Awarded: $250,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: As of inception, we are welcoming and housing incoming refugees from Ukraine. We provide refugees with a "soft landing" after being displaced by war. This also provides the Warren community the benefit of engaging with other cultures, the gifts they share with us, and an understanding of what we can accomplish for the greater good when we work together.
  • Location: Warren, PA

CLC Foundation dba Winslow Therapeutic Riding Center
Website: https://www.winslow.org

  • Grant Awarded: The Benze/Gesler Grant for Long-Term Living
  • Amount Awarded: $15,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Winslow Therapeutic Riding Center is in the process of establishing a music therapy and community wellness program for those with and without special needs throughout the surrounding area. This project will be directed most towards to those with special needs but will include an emphasis on caregivers and community members. This is important because research shows the impact music therapy has on the special needs population, but there are few therapists in the local area. We hope to generate awareness and offer these services that can improve lives.
  • Location: Warwick, NY

Awarded in 2023

Strawberry Fields
Website: https://www.sfionline.org

  • Grant Awarded: The Benze/Gesler Grant for Long-Term Living
  • Amount Awarded: $401,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Repairs and renovations for community-based housing serving adults with disabilities.
  • Location: State College, PA

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

  • Grant Awarded: We Are All in This Together
  • Amount Awarded: $66,250.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Renovation of the facility to install a free laundromat for the community.
  • Location: Erie, PA

Pennsylvania LIFE Providers Alliance
Website: www.palifeprogram.org

  • Grant Awarded: Community Benefit
  • Amount Awarded: $60.000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Awareness and educational campaign to educate frail elderly constituents of the home and community based LIFE program.
  • Location: Harrisburg, PA

St. Stanislaus Catholic Church
Website: www.ststanserie.org

  • Grant Awarded: We Are All in This Together
  • Amount Awarded: $3,200.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Installation and training of AEDs within the parish. 
  • Location: Erie, PA

Pennsylvania Chamber Symphony DBA Young Artists Debut Orchestra
Website: www.yadostars.org

  • Grant Awarded: The Edwina M. Gesler Music Therapy
  • Amount Awarded: $15,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Continue the orchestra's ability to perform for seniors throughout the community within senior facilities. 
  • Location: Erie, PA

Abiding Hope Lutheran Church
Website: www.abidinghopeerie.org

  • Grant Awarded: Community Benefit
  • Amount Awarded: $1,500.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Installation and training of AEDs within the parish
  • Location: Erie, PA

Erie Night to Shine Sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation
Website: www.ntserie.org

  • Grant Awarded: Community Benefit
  • Amount Awarded: $10,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: To provide a prom-style event for individuals with special needs.
  • Location: Erie, PA

The Faine House, Inc.
Website: www.thefainehouse.org

  • Grant Awarded: We Are All in This Together
  • Amount Awarded: $1,000,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Develop new innovative job programs with local partners for at-risk youth aging out of the foster care system.
  • Location: Orlando, FL

Friends of the Bridegroom, LTD Bethany House
Website: www.renewreligious.org

  • Grant Awarded: We Are All in This Together
  • Amount Awarded: $75,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: Renovation of a donated facility that will serve religious women with a place of retreat and renewal, regardless of religious affiliation.
  • Location: St. Francis, WI

United Lutheran Seminary
Website: www.uls.edu

  • Grant Awarded: Community Benefit
  • Amount Awarded: $250,000.00
  • Purpose of Grant: In collaboration with 8 authors, create a series to address the intricate aspects of aging and maturation with the goal of meeting the aging population where they are from a holistic, theologically- grounded approach.
  • Location: Gettysburg PA