By JOHN HOLLAND
BEE STAFF WRITER

Taxes paid by smokers will provide Stanislaus County children with a host of things, from swings and slides to help with learning and health care.

The county's Children and Families Commission on Tuesday distributed $822,761 from the tobacco tax created by state Proposition 10 in 1998. It was the county's first grants under the measure, which specified that the money benefit children from before birth through age 5.

The commission approved two large grants -- $50,000 to Community Housing and Shelter Services to help homeless families, and $49,290 to the county Health Services Agency for an effort to keep expectant mothers and fathers from smoking.

The commission gave grants of $372 to $19,014 to another 172 recipients. Many of them are child-care providers who asked for things as simple as playground equipment and picture books.

"You could just tell folks were very, very appreciative of the opportunity even to apply," said Rebecca Ciszek, director of community impact for the United Way of Stanislaus County, which handled the applications for the commission.

Some child-care centers got money for basics such as pavement, landscaping and fencing. Nonprofit groups, churches and other recipients will use grants for parenting education, health fairs, meal programs and other services.

Several child-care sites operated by Modesto City Schools will get $4,000 each for backpacks filled with literacy materials. The Stanislaus County Library will spend a $1,000 grant on its "dental hygiene story time."

Ciszek said applications came in English and Spanish, in handwriting and computer printouts.

"What mattered was they were meeting a targeted population," she said. "They were addressing what needed to be addressed."

The county will get an estimated $7.2 million a year from the tobacco tax and had about $15 million on hand when the grant process started in June.

The $822,761 distributed Tuesday is part of $2 million in the first round of grants. The commission will consider several other grants of up to $50,000 at its Oct. 23 meeting.

Commission members said they want to give another chance at any remaining money to applicants losing out Tuesday. They said some of them fell short merely because of missing information or other technicalities.

"Modesto City Schools might have a grant (application) writer, and then you have somebody in Waterford who maybe never wrote a grant at all," said member Pat Paul, a county supervisor.

The commission also asked for more time to review competing proposals for two grants of up to $50,000 each. One of these is targeted at childhood obesity; the other at lack of health insurance for children.

The commission is still seeking applications for another three grants of up to $50,000 each for specific programs. These are aimed at teen-age pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse during pregnancy, and children endangered by drugs.

Bee staff writer John Holland can be reached at 578-2385 or jholland@modbee.com.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee.