Raising money for scholarships, raising awareness of ovarian cancer

Chester — When Corinne Feller passed away from ovarian cancer in 1999, her family decided to establish two charitable funds to celebrate her life and honor her memory forever. They established, within the Community Foundation of Orange County, the Corinne Feller Scholarship Fund, to raise scholarship moniesm and the Corinne Feller Memorial Fund, to raise awareness of the signs of ovarian cancer. To that end, the Feller family has rallied around these causes. Each year, the Feller family holds fund-raisers for these two charitable funds in honor of Corinne: a basketball tournament to raise money for the scholarship fund and women’s health seminars and other events to raise awareness of the disease. They have now organized their own group of ovarian cancer survivors called C.A.S.T., for Cancer Awareness Survivors Team, who are trained to speak to women’s groups about the symptoms of the disease and conduct presentations in the Hudson Valley about once a month. Founded in 1999 through the vision of the Orange County Citizens Foundation, the Community Foundation is an effective and innovative giving vehicle that combines maximum tax savings and flexibility with the opportunity to make a difference locally. By “connecting people who care with causes that matter,” the Community Foundation affords opportunities to donors who want to create individual charitable funds that will support our community well into the future,” said Karen VanHouten, Executive Director of the Community Foundation. “By their very nature, Community Foundations are designed to have a significant impact on the population of the region that they serve. In just over six years, we have been able to build a solid base of charitable funds.” In 2005-2006 the Community Foundation awarded over $252,000 in grants to support local nonprofit organizations and scholarships to students. For more information, contact Karen VanHouten, at the Community Foundation of Orange County, at 845-469-4469.