The Greene County Community Foundation board canceled its 15th annual Awards Night, slated for April 6, due to the COVID-19 mitigation ban on group gatherings. Rather than postponing the event, the board mailed checks to recipients so the many worthy projects can be started without a delay of funding.
A total of 21 local projects received $145,085 from the Foundation, which puts the non-profit organization over $1.6 million in charitable giving to projects since its inception in 2005.
The Foundation received 36 grant applications this year requesting nearly $256,000. The board spent a little longer than four hours evaluating, scoring, discussing and voting on the requests. Since every request was reasonable and would benefit our communities in some way, the board used its collective judgment and their set of guidelines to decide which requests they could fund.
Additionally, the Foundation continues to build its permanent endowment fund through charitable donations. By building the endowment, eventually the amount of grant funds available will increase.
A full list of the recipients and the amounts that they received is as follows:
• Scranton Alumni Association – Community Center improvements including repairing gym lobby roof, replacing sidewalk, bricking up old windows, replacing exterior door and replacing community room windows, $29,435
• City of Grand Junction – Resurface 60+ year-old tennis/basketball/sports court with new concrete slab, $24,500
• Greene County conservation board – Replace dilapidated 50-year-old pit latrine at Spring Lake Park with prefabricated concrete restroom, $16,000
• Sierra Community Theatre – Phase 1 of refurbishing street side façade with focus on replacing six upper story windows, $12,650
• Greene County Community Schools – Purchase fully automatic timing system to be used for grades 7-12 track and field events as well as cross country events, $9,560
• Greene County Librarians Association – Preserve and increase access to Greene County’s historic newspapers by digitizing for electronic access, $8,300
• Greene County Community Center – Replace first floor water fountain, damaged floor and wallboard, $5,200
• Paul Nally Park (east of St Joseph Parish Center) – Replace picnic tables in the shelter house, $4,894
• Friends of Rippey – New mural depicting Rippey history, and restoration work and painting at the ball park in anticipation of Rippey sesquicentennial, $4,509
• Paton-Churdan Early Learning Center – Purchase shelving units for classroom to enhance organization and define play centers, $3,976
• Jefferson parks & recreation – Replace existing lighting at swimming pool with LED bulbs to reduce electrical cost and provide better lighting, $3,500
• Highland Township Cemetery – Monument restoration to include leveling and restoring about 100 monuments and updating existing mapping CDs, $3,324
• Grand Junction public library – Install handicap accessible doors to be ADA compliant, $3,000
• Greene County Historical Society – New exterior sign at museum to draw in more visitors, $3,000
• Greene County Youth Athletic Association – Purchase tackling dummies and replace 20-year-old shoulder pads that lack latest safety technology, $2,637
• Paton public library – New computers to keep up with current technology, $2,500
• Friends of Rippey – Historical update and written memories by persons who lived in Rippey consolidated into a booklet for the sesquicentennial, $2,250
• Greene County Community Schools – All Kids Bike, purchase 22 strider bikes, 22 pedal conversion kits and 22 helmets so every kindergarten student will learn to ride a bike, $1,875
• Greene County Extension & Outreach – Update retinal image machine for 4-H members to ID livestock to be eligible for State Fair competition, $1,500
• Greene County Community Schools – Replace current drinking fountain at elementary school with combination water bottle filling station/drinking fountain, $1,275
• Paton-Churdan Community Schools – Build a Ga Ga Ball pit at the school, $1,200
