Peter Kiewit Foundation announces $20,000 in emergency relief for McCook

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas." ~ W. C. Jones

The magic of Christmas can certainly be felt in McCook and its surrounding communities this year thanks to the generosity of the Peter Kiewit Foundation out of Omaha Nebraska. The McCook Community Foundation Fund, an affiliated fund of the Nebraska Community Foundation has been chosen by the Peter Kiewit Foundation to receive a $20,000 emergency relief grant fund to help organizations in Greater Nebraska meet essential human needs, especially during the harsh winter months. The portion of the grant coming to this area is part of $300,000 the Kiewit Foundation is making available across the state for emergency assistance. This is the second consecutive year that the Peter Kiewit Foundation has offered this grant opportunity and the second year that the MCFF has been chosen to receive the funds.

The MCFF was chosen based upon a grant application stating the human service needs in this area, location to ensure broad geographic distribution, reputation and administrative capacity to provide good stewardship of Mr. Kiewit's charitable dollars. The MCFF will again allocate the grant dollars to several local, charitable organizations that meet emergency food and energy assistance needs in this area.

The 2009 Peter Kiewit Emergency Relief grant was distributed among four organizations that helped more than 1,300 people with some of them receiving assistance more than once throughout the year. Lindsey Foster, Executive Director of the MCFF stated, "When you do the research, you discover so much that is unknown to many in this community. There is a great need in this area for food and energy assistance and this community is fortunate to have compassionate citizens that have organized programs and charities to help the economically challenged. Those programs are so important right now in this time of uncertainty. The MCFF is grateful to the Kiewit Foundation to be chosen for this grant and fortunate to have the opportunity to give back to our community in this way."

Peter Kiewit is a name recognized in this community through the generosity of his Foundation supporting other local projects. He had a great deal of passion for the state of Nebraska and their work ethic and wanted to return his wealth to their communities. Today, nearly $500 million in grants and scholarships has been awarded from the Peter Kiewit Foundation.