News About Town: ast night, during the Board of Commissioners meeting, the Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resource Advisory Committee made its second recommendation for tourism grants within the Town of Matthews. Originally the committee made recommendations to allot $63,000.00 (an arbitrary dollar amount typical of years past) in grants dispersed between six organizations (Charlotte City Ballet, Matthews Athletic & Recreation Association, Matthews Chamber of Commerce, Matthews Kiwanis Club, NC Youth Rugby Union, and Matthews Playhouse). Town Commissioners considered the budget and conceded that a percentage of tourism revenue would make more sense in the grant process. For 2019 onward the finance department estimate 5% of the end of year tourism revenue to calculate the tourism grant budget. Using 5% of the estimated revenue for next year allotted the committee an additional $19,400 for a total budget of $82,400.

Good Things Around Town: It’s #GivingTuesday and Matthews has an abundance of worthy nonprofits to support. Here are five of our favorites (there are so many more):

• Bright Blessings is a volunteer-led organization that will impact more than 10,000 homeless and impoverished children this year through its core programs, Bless-A-Birthday, Bless-A-Baby, Gift of Literacy and Gift of Care. 

• Habitat and Wildlife Keepers (HAWK), founded in 2006, as the first chapter of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation (NCWF), is a non-profit organization dedicated to environmental education and conservation.

• MANA doesn’t go for all of the complicated “vision-mission-values” exercises. Their purpose is simple: to end malnutrition. They do it, they do it ingeniously, and they do it from right here in Matthews.

• The Matthews Library is easy to forget in terms of being nonprofit, but they are. Their mission is to improve lives and build a stronger community, which is exactly what they do for Matthews.  

• Matthews Playhouse is a 501(c)3 non-profit, community-based, theater organization committed to enriching the lives of children and adults through the world of performing arts.