From education to fighting homelessness, and from farmering markets to anti-smoking initiatives, a wide range of organizations from Wareham and surrounding towns were awarded on May 17 for their efforts to make a difference in their communities.

A.D. Makepeace, a cranberry and real estate company based in Wareham, gave approximately $150,000 to various organizations during its Makepeace Neighborhood Fund Grant Awards Ceremony held at the company's Box Mill Hall.

The Neighborhood Fund, established in 2005, supports organizations that are bound by the common thread of doing something positive and unique, said A.D. Makepeace President Mike Hogan.

"If they're doing good work, and if there are a lot of people benefiting off of what they're doing, then we support them," Hogan said after the ceremony. "We were surprised by the applications that came in," Hogan said, noting that were times he said to himself: "'I never would have thought of that.'"

Makepeace also chose grantees based on whether they work in the communities in which Makepeace has a presence in, said Hogan. The approximately 30 grant recipients chosen this year are working in the communities of Wareham, Rochester, Plymouth, Carver, and Middleborough.

Recipients with Wareham-specific programs include A Helping Paw, the Boys and Girls Club, the Emmanuel Church of the Nazarene and the Wareham Clergy Association, the Good Shepherd Food Pantry, Junior Achievement of Southern Massachusetts, the Oak Grove Cape Verdean Cultural Center Organization, the Spinney Memorial Library, the Wareham Area Committee for the Homeless, the Wareham Board of Health, the Wareham Free Library, Wareham Public Schools, and the Gleason Family YMCA.

The Gleason Family YMCA won a $5,000 grant to help fund the "After the Bell After School Program," a program held after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays for kids to get help with homework and participate in less common activities such as archery and rock climbing.

"Children get to choose activities that they like to do," said Program and Camp Director Donna Maynard. "Makepeace has been wonderful to the YMCA in general. ... We thank them very much."

The New Bedford-based Junior Achievement of Southern Massachusetts won a $4,000 award to help fund programs that send volunteers into schools to teach financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship, said Caroline Paradis, president of Junior Achievement.

"We are very grateful for the support," Paradis said, adding that the award would help further expansion in Wareham.

The application process for receiving a Neighborhood Fund grant starts in January, and the last application is accepted in early March, said Linda Burke, vice president of marketing and communication for A.D. Makepeace. Awards are given out every year in early May.

"It gives us great pleasure to see the work that you're doing," Hogan told the recipients, "and to be able to play a small part in it."