Credit Card Grants Provide Goods for Local Non-Profits

Hillsborough credit card program grants totaling $1,930 will fund surveillance monitors, a public address system and a tabletop shuffleboard for three local non-profits.

The Resource Center of Somerset, the Hillsborough Senior Center and Hillsborough Senior Group A received grants that will allow them to purchase items for each group’s operations. According to the township, The Resource Center of Somerset received $1,000 for surveillance monitors for the domestic violence center. 

“First of all, thank you for this very generous grant for the Resource Center of Somerset,” Anthony Winchatz, center director, said. “The Resource Center has been in existence for 30 years and for the last 15 of those years, they have been in Hillsborough.”

“We’re very to have the partnership that we have, not only with our police department here in Hillsborough, but with our township officials as well as the community at large,” he continued. “So we feel very much at home in Hillsborough and are proud to receive a grant like this.”

Meanwhile, the Hillsborough Senior Center received $530 for a tabletop shuffleboard and Senior Group A will receive $400 for a public address system.

The organizations received a ceremonial check during Tuesday night’s Township Committee meeting, after filing for the grants earlier this year.

“Really, with the hard work of all the volunteer of the Credit Card Committee ... that’s why we have the success we have today,” Anthony Ferrera, who saw the credit card program launch during his time as mayor, said.

Each group completed the application process earlier this year and was selected to receive funds by the Credit Card Advisory Committee. It is the second round of grant funds awarded in 2011.

Groups interested in the funds completed an application process in and outlined the purchases it would make using the funds.  The advisory committee reviews the application and chooses the recipients based on the purchases each would make.

Originally started in 2001 as the Hillsborough Township credit card program, the program allowed individuals to sign up for a special township credit card.  The first ended in 2005, however, Affinity Federal Credit Union took over the program in 2008, according to the township.  Under the current program, a portion of the usage fees on the card are donated back to youth, non-profit, and senior citizens groups in the township, through the Hillsborough Credit Card trust fund.  The township’s Credit Card Advisory Committee determines the organizations that will receive the funds.

Editor's Note: This article has been corrected to reflect the grant for the public address system for the Hillsborough Senior Citizens' Group A. It had initially stated a $1,000 grant and has been corrected to show the grant amount as $400.