Chamber awards trolley grants

CORTEZ – More than a hundred people packed the Seafood Shack’s Neptune Room on Jan. 25 for the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce’s latest Business Card Exchange, which featured the annual Trolley Grant Awards.

This year’s awards went to 16 nonprofit organizations that requested money for specific projects to better the community through their efforts.

To keep the familiar trolleys that carry passengers up and down the Island free of charge, the AMI Chamber sells advertising space on the inside and outside of the trolleys. After administrative costs and expenses are covered each year, excess revenue is dispersed in the form of grants to nonprofit organizations on the Island and in Cortez. The annual award winners are selected by a committee and awarded annually on the fourth Thursday of January based on submissions that are due in mid-December.

The program was founded by Ed Hunzeker, former Manatee County administrator, along with the late David Teitelbaum, of Anna Maria Island Resorts.

This year’s ceremony gave back more than $25,000, bringing the total grants given to nonprofits on the Island and Cortez since the inception of this program to more than $471,000. AMI Chamber officials say they are honored to manage this program with Manatee County that gives back to the community.

Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce Trolley Grant recipients:

• Anna Maria Elementary School PTO

• Anna Maria Island Art League

• Anna Maria Island Garden Club

• Anna Maria Island Privateers

• Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring

• Annie Silver Community Center

• Artists’ Guild of Anna Maria Island

• Cortez Village Historical Society

• Friends of the Florida Maritime Museum

• Friends of the Island Branch Library

• Island Players