An Oxnard nonprofit that grew out of the city’s shuttered Carnegie Art Museum has endowed CSU Channel Islands with a $50,000 scholarship fund for art and art history students.

The nonprofit, Carnegie Art Cornerstones, was founded when the museum closed in 2019 due to city budget cuts.

Two CSUCI art students chosen each year will receive $750 scholarships, according to an April 26 news release from Carnegie Art Cornerstones. The students must meet several criteria, including carrying at least 15 units, keeping at least a 3.0 grade point average and mentoring other young artists.

“I think this is really going to help students, especially coming out of a pandemic,” said CSUCI Art Professor Liz King, the chair of the university’s art program. “We’ve always had such an amazing relationship with the Carnegie Art Museum. Some of our faculty have had shows there, our students have been interns — it’s a treasured, vital relationship and I’m so happy to hear about Carnegie’s transition to Cornerstones.”

The gift to CSUCI is similar to those Carnegie Art Cornerstones has given to Ventura College and Oxnard College. The community colleges are using the money for art exhibitions and student assistance.

“Being from the area, it’s pretty awesome to be able to give back to the institutions that helped me make my career,” Brian Paumier, the vice president of Carnegie Art Cornerstones, said in the group’s news release. “It’s important we support the young creatives in the area. If we can give them a platform to tell their story and be successful, they can serve as an example to others.”

Paumier is from Oxnard and attended Ventura College before becoming a successful artist and commercial photographer and videographer.

CASA PACIFICA TO TEACH TRADES

Casa Pacifica Centers for Children and Families, a Camarillo-based nonprofit that supports and educates foster youth and other at-risk children, will be launching a vocational education program with a $75,000 donation from the Gene Haas Foundation.

Students will be able to learn trades such as woodworking, construction and plumbing, as well as culinary arts and computer and digital arts. There will also be a Business Enterprise program.

The Haas Foundation, founded and funded by the founder of Haas Automation, will cover the new program’s general operating expenses as well as those related to COVID-19 prevention, Casa Pacifica said in an April 22 news release.

SAN FRANCISCO BANK MATCHES VC CREDIT UNION DONATIONS

FHLBank San Francisco is donating $25,000 to three Ventura County nonprofits to match funds donated by Ventura County Credit Union.

The recipients are Food Share, Ventura County Community Foundation and Health Care Foundation for Ventura County, according to an April 22 news release. The nonprofits received donations from the credit union last year, and are now receiving an equal amount from FHLBank. The bank matches up to $25,000 for donations to nonprofits and small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

HOSPITAL VOLUNTEERS RETURN

After more than a year away due to the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers returned the week of April 18 to at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo.

At the two Dignity Health hospitals, volunteers do jobs such as working in the gift shop and food pantry and providing spiritual care to patients and administrative support to the staff.

All volunteers were offered a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to the hospital. They must wear personal protective equipment and have their temperature taken before every shift, Dignity Health said in an April 21 news release.

“It feels great to be back,” St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital volunteer Mary Fish said in the release. “It has been a long and trying year, and I know many of us are so thankful to be able to give back again.”

RITTER JOINS SBEF BOARD

The Santa Barbara Education Foundation has elected Warren B. Ritter II to its board of directors.

Ritter is a financial adviser with Wealth Management Strategies Insurance and Financial Solutions and also volunteers with many nonprofits in the Santa Barbara area. Originally from South Carolina, he started his career with South Carolina’s Business Chamber of Commerce and later moved to Santa Barbara to work in corporate banking.

The Santa Barbara Education Foundation is a nonprofit that raises money for Santa Barbara’s public education system.