What do you do when there is a need in your community that goes beyond what the Township can provide? If you’re a caring community like Canton, you create an organization like Canton Cares.
Canton Cares was established in 2018 to fund projects, programs and support for residents. It established a fund that can do what taxpayer dollars can’t. Since its beginning, Canton Cares has distributed over $110,000 to people in need.
“If there’s a natural disaster or a tragedy for a community member, like a fire,” said Laura Mortier, Chair of the Canton Cares Committee, “we may want to support that family with clothing or a new vehicle, but we can’t take taxpayer dollars to buy them what they need. So, Canton Cares is a way for people to fundraise money or look for sponsorships to support these kinds of programs.”
The organization provides financial support for youth programs, senior services, veteran programs, a Therapeutic Recreation program for children and adults with disabilities and more. Canton Cares works with the Canton Community Foundation as its fiduciary, which holds and distributes the funds. This allows them to apply for nonprofit grants and get corporate sponsorships.
“For example,” said Laura, “Masco Corporation donates every year to the BLOCK Youth and Teen Center to support some of our initiatives. Masco can only give to nonprofit organizations. So, our fiduciary for the fund makes sure it’s properly spent, held and reported.”
Besides programs, Canton Cares is there for residents in need who can’t find resources.
“We had an immobile resident in a wheelchair who recently became a widow,” Laura shared. “Her landscaping was so out of control; you couldn’t even enter or exit the front door anymore. So, the Canton Cares Fund paid for a landscaping company to come clean everything up and then replant with more maintainable and manageable things so it wouldn’t happen again in the future.”
Canton Cares isn’t just about supporting programs and individuals in need. It also provides a way to recognize and honor the heroic or "above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty" acts of Township employees.
“We had someone collapse at the Summit on the Park and our 16 and 17-year-old lifeguards performed lifesaving measures,” Laura explained. “That person was hospitalized and ended up coming out of it. So, we recognized the lifeguards at a board of trustees meeting with awards that our fund paid for.”
There are three different ways money is raised to help support Canton Cares. First, individual donors can go to the Canton Community Foundation website and donate at any time. The second is by fundraising. The committee has two fundraisers each year, the annual Road Rally in April and the Chili Cookoff that is part of the Booze, Brats and Bands event in Heritage Park on September 13, 2025. The third is through sponsorships and grants.
If you know a Canton resident in need or a township employee who deserves honoring, you can contact Laura Mortier at laura.mortier@cantonmi.gov. If it is something they would typically fund, she’ll send you a form to get more information. Then, it will go before the board to decide whether it is something they would fund or not.
Canton Cares. It’s more than a name. It’s a fact about the community we live in. And it’s an organization making a difference for the people who live and work here.
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