Cobb Community Foundation starts coronavirus fund

March 12, 2020 Kennesaw: A nurse wearing a mask and gloves for protection from the coronavirus walks past ambulances as she leaves Wellstar Kennestone on the afternoon that Georgia authorities confirmed the state’s first coronavirus related death, a 67-year-old male hospitalized here on Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Kennesaw.   Curtis Compton ccompton@ajc.com

Credit: Curtis Compton

Credit: Curtis Compton

March 12, 2020 Kennesaw: A nurse wearing a mask and gloves for protection from the coronavirus walks past ambulances as she leaves Wellstar Kennestone on the afternoon that Georgia authorities confirmed the state’s first coronavirus related death, a 67-year-old male hospitalized here on Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Kennesaw. Curtis Compton ccompton@ajc.com

The Cobb Community Foundation announced Tuesday it would establish a special fund to provide resources to local non-profits working to alleviate the impact of the new coronavirus.

The group, which was founded by Cobb business leaders in nineties and was granted non-profit status in 2007, distributes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to charities working in the county.

According to the foundation’s President and CEO, Shari Martin, its previous focus on fundraising for a different grant will take a back seat to the current crisis.

“We are all in unchartered territory,” she said in a statement. “We don’t know what’s ahead, but we know that as a community foundation, it’s our role to build and deploy resources to help our community get through this relatively unscathed, or at least as unscathed as possible.”