COEUR d'ALENE - Whether bowling or singing or golfing or stitching, members of the Cancer and Community Charities (3Cs) have been very busy this past year.

The ladies generated a whopping $100,000 to give to nonprofit organizations in Kootenai County, $12,000 more than the 2014 total.

"We're really proud that we raised that money in this last year," said 3Cs Appropriations Committee chair Sally Cannon. "Everybody plays a part."

The 14-member Appropriations Committee met at Cannon's house Thursday morning to decide where the money will go. After more than five hours of deliberating, they decided to distribute the funds between 32 different nonprofits. The benefiting organizations will be announced in August at the 3Cs Appreciation Brunch and personally notified before the event.

"This is just a special group," said 3Cs President Judy Gardner. "It's sort of mind boggling to be able to do this, to earn the money in one year and then to give it to the Kootenai County charities."

Each year, the 3Cs invite several nonprofit entities to apply for grants paid with funds the 3Cs raise through two major fundraisers, the Spring Fashion Show and the Fall Fest, and though the different member activity groups.

"We all pay to play," Gardner said. "We join everything, and even though you don't necessarily always go, everything we pay goes back into the pot. Membership fees, activity chair fees, all the activities kick money back in."

Appropriations Committee members conduct site visits and interviews with grant applicants. Once they have a good understanding of how the funds will be used, committee members meet to discuss how they will split up the money and how much each nonprofit will receive.

"All of the nonprofits in Kootenai County are worthy," Gardner said. "We just wish we had more money to give everybody what they wanted. We can't always do that."

Cannon explained that $163,000 was requested by the various groups this year, but with only $100,000 to distribute, the 3Cs had to fine-tune their final decisions.

"We have to really scale things down for quite a few organizations," she said.

Last year's grant recipients included the Alzheimer's Association, Birthright of Coeur d'Alene, Children's Village, Inc., Elderhelp of North Idaho, Fresh Start, Hospice of North Idaho, Kootenai County Food Bank, TESH, Trinity Group Homes and several more.

The 3Cs Appreciation Brunch is at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 21 in The Coeur d'Alene Resort and will feature entertainment by the Coeur d'Alene Chorus of Sweet Adelines.

Info: www.ccc-northidaho.org