The foundation created to manage excess proceeds from the 1984 Olympics awarded $477,814 in grants Thursday to 15 community youth athletic programs across Southern California, bringing the total awarded this year to $4.7 million.
“These grants reflect LA84’s ongoing commitment to ensure that as many children as possible are made life-ready through sports,” said Anita DeFrantz, president of the foundation and an executive member of International Olympic Committee.
The biggest grant went to the Mt. San Antonio Community College District to support the LA84 Foundation/Mt. SAC Relays Youth Days Track and Field Program, which is in its 27th year, according to the foundation.
Think Together, a nonprofit dedicated to helping disadvantaged youths become academic standouts, was awarded a grant that will pay for intramural sports programs for about 4,000 students in Los Angeles and Riverside counties.
Other recipients include Boys and Girls Clubs in Santa Clarita, La Habra, San Diego and Orange County.
Among the first-time grant recipients were Riverside County’s Jurupa Valley Boxing Club, which will use its roughly $5,000 grant to buy boxing equipment, get coaches licensed and provide scholarships, and the Glendora Lassie League, a fast-pitch softball league for girls that will use its $10,000 grant to buy equipment.
Since the close of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, the foundation has invested $220 million.
— City News Service