9 Groups Receive $43,000 in Grants

Nine organizations that provide or help people get health care in Ventura County have received $43,000 in grants from the Swift Memorial Health Care Foundation.

Recipients include Help of Ojai, which received $6,760 for its low-cost meals program for senior citizens, and Ventura County Medical Center, which was awarded $7,500 to help pay for a transportable incubator for the neonatal intensive care unit.

“Our objective is to meet Ventura County’s health care needs,” said Frank Leiblein, president of the foundation.

Swift Memorial each year gives out about $150,000 to community groups and agencies, Leiblein said. The nonprofit foundation was endowed with money from the mid-1980s sale of Channel Islands Hospital, Leiblein said.

Other grant recipients were the Assistance League School of Oxnard, $8,200 for playground and therapy equipment for handicapped children; the Channel Islands Multiple Sclerosis Society, $2,500 to expand exercise programs; Fillmore Senior Center, $2,500 to provide transportation to medical visits for senior citizens; Lutheran Social Services, $1,000 to help low-income families pay for prescriptions; American Diabetes Assn., $3,000 to help local needy children go to camp; Long-Term Care of Ventura County, $5,000 for counseling to families that have a relative in a long-term care facility, and Planned Parenthood of Ventura County, $7,500 to help pay for a new minority outreach program.

The foundation also gave out six scholarships of $1,000 each for Ventura County college students pursuing careers in medicine.