LLNS Announces 2022 Community Gift Program Recipients

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS), the contract manager for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has announced the recipients for the 2022 LLNS Community Gift Program. These gifts, totaling $200,000, reflect LLNS' commitment to local communities.

LLNS received applications totaling more than $403,000 in requests. Thirty-four applications were selected for awards totaling $200,000 through a committee review process. The program, which launched in 2008, serves children in the Tri-Valley area as well as Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Joaquin counties, with a focus on literacy, science, technology, engineering and math education and cultural arts. Other recipients focus their charitable efforts toward children, families, senior citizens and individuals in need of assistance.

The following organizations received awards:

• Altamont Elementary School: To expand student knowledge base through STEM programs, computer literacy and Project Lead the Way.
• American Association of Physics Teachers, Northern California/Nevada Section: To provide support and mentoring to new physics teachers in Northern California.
• Bay Area American Indian Council, Indigenous Nations Child & Family Agency: To support STEM and social emotional learning goals for urban American Indian youth.
• Bay Area Rescue Mission: To provide healthy meals to the impoverished through their Hunger Relief Program.
• California High School: To enhance learning with advanced educational tools in robotics and programming.
• Children Rising: To provide high-intensity interventional math tutoring to accelerate early STEM confidence and success.
• Christensen Middle School: To provide students with a strong background in STEM by developing a makerspace where students can work on challenging projects.
• Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area: To empower, inspire, and support individuals with Down Syndrome, their families, and the community that serves them, while fostering awareness and acceptance in all areas of life by providing educational programs, such as THRIVE (weekly developmental classes), the Down Syndrome Education Alliance and Music Therapy.
• Dublin Unified School District, Kolb Elementary School: To support student growth in mind, body and spirit by strengthening social emotional learning skills through campus art projects.
• East Bay NSBE Jr. Chapter, LLC: To provide hands-on STEM and robotics programs to underrepresented, underserved, K-12 girls and minority youth.
• Engineers Alliance for the Arts: To inspire and educate students about the interaction of art, architecture, engineering and construction using a STEAM curriculum combining technical and artistic components.
• Exceptional Needs Network: To provide children with special needs an exceptional camping experiencing in an environment with their peers.
• Explorer Post 987, System Overload Robotics: To increase access to STEM education by providing a welcoming learning environment where students can develop their skills and creativity through hands-on engineering projects.
• Future Leaders of America, East Bay: To support a comprehensive youth empowerment program that teaches young Latino leaders to take pride in their cultural diversity, strengthen their leadership capacity and further their education to achieve their full potential for success.
• Girl Scouts of Northern California: To provide girls, ages 5-17, the opportunity to build skills, explore their interests, develop leadership capacities and pursue their passion through "Discover Together, an afterschool STEM and environmental enrichment program.
• Hope Hospice and Health Services: To support patients, families, and healthcare professionals with hospice services, advanced illness care and a dementia support program.
• Liberty Union High School: To provide Human Anatomy and Physiology students a hands-on approach to learning, which involves the use of skeleton models of the human body and non-hardening clay.
• Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired: To provide STEM education and enrichment for blind and low-vision youth.
• Livermore High School, GravitechX Robotics: To develop student leadership, teamwork, and technical skills in STEM-related fields.
• Livermore Public Library: To update children's STEM non-fiction collection. aging programmable robots, telescopes and microscopes in their "Library of Things."
• Marylin Avenue Elementary School: To provide STEAM lab-innovative learning experiences in elementary education.
• Millennium Charter High School: To provide physics students with an interactive and collaborative learning environment.
• Monte Vista High School, Red Tie Robotics: To build robots and participate in competitions while simultaneously developing crucial skills such as teamwork, communication and problem-solving.
• Open Heart Kitchen: To distribute food to underserved, low-income individuals and families in the Tri-Valley area and Alameda County.
• Piedmont Makers, Highlander Robotics: To support and inspire K-12 STEAM education by expanding participation and maker attitude.
• Pleasanton Partnerships in Education Foundation: To provide STEM funding for students of all grade levels.
• Quest Science Center: To provide hands-on science learning opportunities designed to build exploration skills and knowledge through awareness of the innovative science and technology and organizations in the region.
• Shepherd's Gate: To improve sensory processing issues in children who have suffered abuse and trauma.
• Sunflower Hill: To provide adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) opportunities to thrive through their Hands-On Garden Group Program, an instructional, outdoor space that provides a medium for educational, therapeutic and life skills training.
• Tracy Golden Agers: To create activities and programs to support and unite seniors.
• Tracy Interfaith: To distribute nourishing food to low-income families.
• Wayfinder Family Services: To provide an early intervention program to assist children, 0-6, who are blind, visually impaired or multi-disabled overcome challenges, strengthen their development and reach their greatest potential.
• Weston Ranch High School: To expand STEM program to middle schools through an afterschool drone program, which will allow current high school students to mentor younger students in various STEM disciplines as they relate to drones.