KERRVILLE- The Floyd A. and Kathleen C. Cailloux Foundation (the Foundation) announced that grants and scholarship awards totaling more than $4,205,741 were approved last year. The grants to nonprofits range in size from $2,500 to $2,300,000.

 Awards approved in 2007 by the Foundation’s Board of Directors went to Center Point Little League Baseball, the Christian Women’s Job Corp, Church of the Hills of Ingram’s Happy Jack Day Care Center, the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, the Doyle School Community Center, Hill Country Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Hill Country District Junior Livestock Show, Hill Country Youth Orchestra, Hill Country Youth Ranch, Kerr County United Way, Kerr Country YMCA, Kid’s Advocacy Place, K’STAR, Kerrville Performing Arts Society, New Hope Counseling Center, Notre Dame Catholic School, Our Lady of the Hills Regional Catholic High School, Raphael Community Free Clinic, Schreiner University, Texas Heritage Music Foundation, and the Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department, all in Kerr County, Texas.

 The Cowboy Capital Pet Assistance League and the Bandera County Helping Hand Center, in Bandera, Texas as well as the Boys & Girls Club of the Texas Hill Country in Fredericksburg, Texas, the Pipe Creek Christian School, in Pipe Creek, Texas, the Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth, and Little Miracles Child Care Center in Rocksprings, Texas also received grants from the Foundation.

 The Hill Country Youth Ranch was awarded a $2,300,000 in the form of real estate to use for their new Enhanced Horizon’s program and an additional $25,000 for a van. The HCYR, a residential group foster home, has created a separate campus with services for former foster youth on the site of the old Star Ranch outside Ingram, Texas.

 Former foster youth who are “emancipated” and no longer wards of the State often face many difficulties adjusting to life on their own without the safety net that youth adults from intact families often enjoy. The Enhanced Horizon program will provide emergency and longer term housing for these individuals as well as educational, vocational and other types of assistance in a rural setting. The Foundation initiated this award due to an intense interest in the fate of these young adults in our community.

 The Foundation approved a $107,000 award to The Gladney Center for Adoption to increase marketing and outreach in the Hill Country.  The following image is on a large billboard in Ingram as part of the marketing campaign and as a result of awards to the Center.  

The Gladney Center provides adoption and maternity services to clients throughout the United States. Birth mothers may be served in their home communities or the residential campus in Fort Worth. Comprehensive services for birth mothers include adoption counseling, prenatal and post delivery health care, housing during pregnancy and career skills training for those utilizing residential services. Since inception, the agency has placed more than 27,000 children with adoptive families. 

The Foundation awarded a multi-year challenge grant of $450,000 to Our Lady of the Hills Regional Catholic High School (OLH) toward their annual fund drive. The funds will be used for operating support. OLH is a private Catholic high school providing a college preparatory education to students from varied social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. The growing school opened in 2002 on 85 acres east of Kerrville. It is the only Catholic high school within a 70-mile radius of Kerrville and the only college preparatory school of any type within 50 miles.

 The Christian Women’s Job Corp was awarded $325,000 to renovate a new and larger location at 1140 Broadway in Kerrville for their training program for women. Basic communication skills, basic computer skills, career skills, and life skills are part of the core curriculum in addition to a one-on-one mentoring program and ecumenical Bible study. Eighty percent of students are employed upon graduation. The newly renovated facility will allow the CWJC to expand services to local women. A $76,000 grant was awarded to Kid’s Advocacy Place to remodel their new offices. The organization assists children who are victims of physical and/or sexual abuse, and their non-offending family members, in Kerr, Bandera, Gillespie, Kendall and Kimble counties.

 The Foundation awarded the Kerr Country YMCA $70,000 for software and computers. The organization had operated as a branch office of the larger San Antonio YMCA since inception and elected to break off and become independent. The grant will facilitate these organizational needs.

 A $60,000 award was made to the Doyle School Community Center for program support. Funded programs provide a safe environment, homework and mentoring help, activities during school holiday periods for children in elementary school, middle school, and high school. Youth receive a healthy snack, supervised educational and cultural activities, access to computers and technology, mentors, playtime, and field trips. Mentors are drawn from a wide range of community volunteers and organizations.

 The Cowboy Capital Pet Assistance League was awarded $20,000 to help purchase a special pet adoption trailer and a truck to haul it. The trailer will double as a temporary home to some homeless animals and as a way to safely and conveniently transport and show animals for adoption in various locations. The organization will be able to take the animals to locations where potential adoptive families are gathered.

The Cailloux Foundation Scholarship Program gave $645,415 to 57 students from the Texas Hill Country attending accredited universities within the State. The Foundation’s scholarship program, established in 1994, provides up to $12,000 per year for four years to students graduating from public high schools in Bandera, Center Point, Comfort, Fredericksburg, Harper, Ingram, Junction, Kerrville, Leakey, Mason, Medina, Nueces Canyon (Barksdale), Rocksprings, and Utopia. Big Spring Charter School near Leakey and Our Lady of the Hills Catholic High School in Kerrville are also eligible schools. Applicants must have financial need, a minimum 1022 SAT or 22 ACT score, a minimum grade average of 85, and be in the top one-third of their class. Scholarship Program Administrators of Memphis, TN manages the scholarship program including the selection process. Scholarship selections for the 2008 have already been made and an announcement listing the recipients will be issued in May.

Floyd A. and Kathleen C. Cailloux created the Foundation in 1994. Mr. Cailloux was co-founder of Keystone International and was instrumental in the company becoming a leader in the manufacturing and marketing of industrial valves for general industry. In 1981, Mr. and Mrs. Cailloux moved from Houston to Kerrville, where they became very involved in charitable endeavors in the Texas Hill Country and around the state. The Foundation’s mission is to perpetuate the vision of founders Floyd A. and Kathleen C. Cailloux. The Foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations mainly in the Hill Country. The grant guidelines for the Foundation are available on-line at www.caillouxfoundation.org or through the mail by request. The application process for the Foundation consists of an initial letter of inquiry from a nonprofit organization to help Foundation staff determine if a project fits within its guidelines. Grantees may complete an a letter of inquiry form from the website. A link to a more in depth on-line application form will be provided for nonprofit organizations when a request is accepted for the second stage of the application process. The Foundation is unable to make awards to individuals or groups that are not classified by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Please read the application process section on this site for more information regarding inquiries to the Foundation. Contact the Foundation at 830-895-5222 for additional information. n