BOISE, Idaho — This week, the Idaho Community Foundation awarded $550,000 to community organizations in Ada and Canyon counties through the Gladys E. Langroise Advised Fund.
Langroise was known as a down-to-earth woman who understood the value of helping others.
She was raised in an upper-class family in San Francisco, then served as the first lady of New Mexico while married to her first husband. After he passed away, she married prominent Boise lawyer, Bill Langroise and moved to Idaho. This is when she is said to have started her true legacy.
She was passionate about the performing arts and their importance to society. She loved children, though she never had any of her own. She knew the value of higher education and how it improved the lives of individuals and the communities in which they lived.
Langroise passed away in the year 2000 at the age of 99, though lives on through the $15 million Gladys E. Langroise Advised Fund in ICF that she created through her estate. Her fund provides more than $500,000 in grants throughout Idaho every year.
This year funds were distributed to the Ballet Idaho, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Idaho, Boise Art Museum, Boise Contemporary Theater, Boise Public Schools Foundation, Boise Urban Garden School Inc, Boy and Girls Club of Ada County, Giraffe Laugh Early Learning Centers, Girl Scouts of Silver Sage Council Inc., Idaho Youth Ranch, Idaho Zoological Society, Learning Lab Inc., Opera Idaho, Teach for America, Inc., the Jesse Tree of Idaho, The Mentoring Network, Inc, The Salvation Army Nampa Corps, Treasure Valley Family YMCA, Treasure Valley Institute for Children's Art, and the Women's and Children's Alliance.
Awards granted were in amounts anywhere between $5,000 and $25,000, providing support for camps, counseling services, rental assistance, education programs for all ages, scholarships, meals, basic needs, and festivals.
The Idaho Community Foundation was able to award almost $100,000 more statewide through the Forever Idaho Grant Cycles.
