Information on 8-Ball Welfare Foundation grant applicants is confidential. However, Emmy winning photographer Ken Moore of KTTV Fox 11 in Los Angeles and Venice McClean, a budding broadcast journalist, are two recipients who have allowed us to tell their stories publically.

Venice McClean

Venice has been honored many times for the uplifting spirit she brings to her community. When the Foundation first learned about her, she was a student at West Los Angeles College and a broadcast intern for the Congress of Racial Equality in Los Angeles. She was on CORE's local radio outlet and on cable TV. She had her press cards and was well on her way.

Then she suffered a stunning health setback. As Venice explains: "After covering the Martin Luther King Day Parade one year, I went home and could not move. I had suffered a stroke."

Venice was both a student and a working mom. But in the days and weeks after the stroke, she couldn't study or work. "I was going through a tough time and needed some help," she says. Venice heard about the 8-Ball Welfare Foundation through the Press Club, where she was a member. As a result, for the first time, a Foundation grant was approved for a student.

Venice tells us now: "It was so overwhelming. I received funding which helped to pay some of my bills. If I had continued without any help, there would have been late fees and it all just would have gotten worse."

Venice's boss at CORE, Adrian Dove, says: "The 8-Ball Welfare Foundation came through for Venice just at the time when she needed it in her life."

Ken Moore needed help too. His beloved wife, Lydia Faye, was fighting pancreatic cancer. The emotional and financial toll on Ken became crippling. He lost Lydia in 2008 and the 8-Ball Welfare Foundation stepped in.

Ken Moore

 

In Ken's words: "The 8-Ball Welfare Foundation came to me when I lost my wife to cancer and I was in a horrible, horrible depression and it was a tough, tough time. I had lost my second income. There were medical bills and more. And they really helped save me financially."

Ken and Venice joined members of the Foundation Board in 2009 when we were honored with a $5,000 grant by the Good News Foundation of Los Angeles, a group of anchorwomen and reporters from local TV stations. The "Good News Gals" saluted the Foundation for its many years of helping those in our own profession in time of need.

In late 2010, we received our largest ever single donation: $50,000 from Jacki Wells Cisneros (left) who, with her husband Gilbert, scored a big payday courtesy of just plain good luck… and the California Lottery. At the time, Jacki was an Assignment Editor at KNBC, the NBC television station in Los Angeles. Jacki wanted a way to give back to her profession, and she certainly found it. Her enormous generosity will go far to helping many, many others. Jacki served on the foundation’s Board of Directors from 2011 to 2013.

Venice McClean says: "I would definitely spread the word and let everyone know about the organization and the wonderful work that they've been doing." And Ken Moore concludes: "The 8-Ball Welfare Foundation gives money to people at times when they are desperate and I can't thank them enough. They saved me at a time when I was in really dire straits."

Chairman Bob Krauch and his wife Sue with grant recipient Venice McClean