Legal aid for poor, battered women and City of Colfax benefit
By Art Campos -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST
Three grants of $50,000 or more have been given to local agencies by
the United Auburn Indian Community.
Overall, the tribe, which owns and operates Thunder Valley Casino near
Lincoln, donated just short of $200,000 to agencies in the fourth
quarter of the year and nearly $1 million for the entire year.
The quarterly donations by the tribe are known as the Community Giving
Program, established to help nonprofit organizations. The latest
donations were announced Monday.
Receiving $60,000 was the Mother Lode regional office of Legal Services
of Northern California, which plans to use the money to keep alive a
program that helps low-income clients represent themselves in legal
proceedings.
Receiving $50,000 each were PEACE for Families and the Colfax Area
Historic Society.
Herb Whitaker, managing attorney for Legal Services of Northern
California's Auburn office, said the tribe's donation "has saved our
Pro Per Project."
"We normally receive a grant for this project from the State Bar Trust
Fund Commission, but it was not renewed for this year," Whitaker said.
"If the Indian community had not funded our grant, we would have had to
shut down the project."
The Pro Per Project teaches unrepresented low-income civil litigants
about court procedures and the necessary steps needed to fill out court
documents.
Arla Gibson, executive director of PEACE for Families, said the tribe's
gift to her agency will help to build a $2.5 million facility in the
Auburn area to house battered women.
"We're now up to $2 million in contributions," Gibson said. "We're
targeting next October as our groundbreaking date.
"We have five builders who have stepped forward and will actually do
the construction," she said.
It was the second $50,000 gift made by the tribe to PEACE for Families
and was contingent on the agency raising a matching $50,000, Gibson
said.
On Monday, Gibson also announced the donation of another $100,000 to
her agency from the principals of Countrywide Home Loans.
Meanwhile, in Colfax, that area's historic society plans to use its
$50,000 grant from the tribe to renovate the town's train depot.
The city of Colfax is giving a matching $50,000 grant, and the historic
society's goal is to reach $250,000 for the work.
Charles Gray, society president, said the inside of the depot is being
refurbished and will eventually house a museum, offices for the local
chamber of commerce and a mailroom and luggage area.
Other donations given by the tribe include a matching $14,250 grant to
the Auburn Placer Performing Arts Center, $10,000 to the Placer County
Fair Association, $7,000 to Rocklin High School and $4,000 to the
Auburn Fire Department.
