WILLIAMS BAY – Gage Marine will donate $150,000 to local organizations making a difference in the lives of Walworth County residents, the company announced today.

Fifteen community organizations will received $10,000 each during a presentation May 18.

Gage Marine Corporation includes Gage Marine Boat Sales and Service, Gage Pier Service, Lake Geneva Cruise Line, PIER 290 Restaurant, Lake Life Catering, and the Lake Life Store and is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.

Ninety-eight grant applications were received for the $150,000 community donation, which an internal committee at Gage Marine reviewed.

“We were impressed by the number of grant applications we received for this community grant,” said Bill Gage, President of Gage Marine Corporation in a news release. “The fifteen organizations we selected reach a variety of needs in our community, including food and housing scarcity, child and family safety, historic and land preservation, and education. We look forward to the good work these exemplary organizations will do with these grants.”

“Selecting just fifteen organizations was a difficult feat since there is such a diverse need in our community,” said FJ Frazier, COO of Gage Marine Corporation. “Our committee did their due diligence and spent considerable time evaluating the applications and selecting organizations that can make the most impact with the $10,000.”

The following fifteen organizations will be awarded $10,000 grants at a community celebration on May 18 at the Riviera Ballroom in downtown Lake Geneva.

1. Agape House in Walworth will use the funds for their student scholarship program for at-risk youth and their families.
2. Badger High School in Lake Geneva will use the funds to improve their commercial kitchen by installing drop-down electrical cables.
3. Barrett Memorial Library & Williams Bay Historical Society in Williams Bay will use the funds to preserve and provide access to a collection of historical documents, including letters, photographs, and journals from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
4. Friends of Matheson Memorial Library in Elkhorn will use the funds to enhance the Welcome Desk in the Children’s Area at the Matheson Memorial Library.
5. Geneva Lake Museum in Lake Geneva will use the funds to make the Museum building more accessible to all visitors by adding an ADA lift.
6. Kishwauketoe Nature Conservancy (KNC) in Williams Bay will use the funds for the maintenance and construction of two new boardwalk sections in the nature preserve.
7. Lake Geneva Food Pantry in Lake Geneva will use the funds to fill in gaps where government subsidies have been drastically cut for their clientele.
8. New Beginnings APFV in Elkhorn will use the funds to install HVAC units to improve their transitional housing apartments.
9. Open Arms Free Clinic in Elkhorn will use the funds to support their general operations to provide medical, dental, and behavioral health services for the increased number of Walworth County residents who are losing their health insurance due to the unwinding of emergency food and health benefits distributed during the pandemic.
10. Safe Families for Children, Southern Wisconsin in Elkhorn will use the funds to support related programming costs of their mission to keep children safe and families together.
11. Side by Side in Lake Geneva will use the funds to increase the amount of help they can give to families dealing with the loss of COVID supplements and reduced food shares.
12. Tree House Child and Family Center in Elkhorn will use the funds to purchase and offer training on child abuse prevention education materials for PreK-5 schools throughout Walworth County.
13. Walworth County Food & Diaper Bank in Elkhorn will use funds to buy food for nearly 500 families they serve monthly.
14. Walworth County Reading Project in Lake Geneva will use the funds to expand their county-wide Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program.
15. Williams Bay Lion/Lioness Club in Williams Bay will use the funds to renovate the Williams Bay Lions Fieldhouse.