The Denton Benefit League announced its annual grants this week, and as always, the list was eclectic, interesting and inspiring.

Since its founding in 1973, the Denton Benefit League has been in the business of helping people who are helping people. It raises money throughout the year and then doles it out once a year to deserving organizations that could use some help with a specific project or a strategic goal.

The Benefit League has never had a political, social or financial ax to grind; it just raises money, looks for worthwhile projects and gets the two together. Nobody has ever gotten rich or famous as a Denton Benefit League “executive,” and no charity has ever become fat and complacent from its gifts.

The League announced $229,246 in grants this week. They will go to 47 different agencies that range from the American Red Cross and Denton Community Theatre to a tiny but dedicated group based at the University of North Texas that works to rescue feral cats.

The largest grant went to Cumberland Presbyterian Children’s Home, one of Denton’s most venerable and honorable institutions. The $14,994 grant will remodel the kitchen in one of the home’s residence cottages, enabling the eight girls and two house parents who live there to prepare their own meals. The kitchen hasn’t been updated since the house was built some 35 years ago; we envision a lot of harvest gold appliances chugging along on their last legs. A modern kitchen will not only make life easier for the residents of the house; it will likely mean a better future for its residents. They will get literal “in-house” training for later life by working in a modern home kitchen, in addition to honing the delicate social skills that come from having 10 cooks and one pot of broth.

The smallest grant — $1,000 — went to the aforementioned UNT Feral Cat Rescue Group for a spay-and-neuter program. This has got to be a labor of love — until the anesthetic kicks in, there is probably no more thankless or arduous medical procedure in the world than catching and neutering a cat that doesn’t want to be caught or neutered.

As we scanned the list of grants, we were struck, as we are each year, by the catholic nature of the Benefit League’s largesse and the wide range of needs the grants address: $10,000 to the Denton Kiwanis Club’s Children’s Clinic; $1,380 to The Arc of Denton County to finance a dance for disabled adults; $2,500 to the Denton Public School Foundation’s homeless liaison for clothing, furniture, medicines and personal hygiene products; $9,326.43 to Interfaith Ministries of Denton to buy school supplies for needy children.

While some of these gifts stir the heart, others assist worthy programs with the mundane expenses that must be met in order that they continue their good work: Two months’ rent for Seniors in Motion; new carpets for the Salvation Army shelter; shelves and label protectors for the Krum Public Library.

The Denton Benefit League has given out more than $3 million in such gifts since 1973. The good it has done is immeasurable.