CAMDEN — P.A.W.S Animal Adoption Center in Camden has been awarded $1,000 from a Community Spirit 9/11 Mini-Grant program.

Will Knight and Patricia Staab, employees of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, nominated the organization for the award.

Funds will be used to provide shelter, food, and medical services to local animals in need.

To commemorate those Harvard Pilgrim members who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, Harvard Pilgrim and the Foundation created the Community Spirit 9/11 Mini-Grant program. This program allows each Harvard Pilgrim employee to award a $500 grant, completely funded by the Foundation, to the local charity of his or her choice each calendar year.

Since this community grants program began in 2002, Harvard Pilgrim employees have directed more than $6.3 million to thousands of organizations throughout Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, according to the Foundation, in a news release.  

“We are so fortunate to have generous and dedicated employees who enrich our company and the communities in which we all live and work,” said Karen Voci, president of the Harvard Pilgrim Foundation, in the release. “The Mini-Grant program is a wonderful way to support our employees as philanthropists and to help them make an impact in their own cities and towns.”

In 2018, 96 percent of Harvard Pilgrim employees participated in at least one form of service or giving through volunteering, the Mini-Grants program, or Harvard Pilgrim’s annual Employee Fundraising Campaign.

Created in 1980, The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation supports Harvard Pilgrim's mission to improve the quality and value of health care for the people and communities it serves, according to the release. The Harvard Pilgrim Foundation provides the tools, training and leadership to help build healthy communities throughout Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

In 2018, the Harvard Pilgrim Foundation awarded more than $1.25 million in grants to 855 nonprofit organizations in the region. Since its inception in 1980, the Foundation has awarded $150 million in funds and resources throughout the four states.

For more information, visit www.harvardpilgrim.org/foundation.