The Greene County Community Foundation once again made the choice to not hold its annual Grant Awards Night due to consideration of COVID gathering guidelines. Grant recipients were mailed their checks.
Since the opening of Wild Rose Casino, the local foundation no longer receives state funds distributed to non-gaming counties, but now receives a portion of gaming proceeds from Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation, the non-profit that holds the gaming license for Wild Rose.
This year the Community Foundation received $125,000 from Grow Greene County, bringing the cumulative total to $872,565 received since 2015.
A total of 17 local projects were funded either fully or partially this year, which puts the non-profit organization over $1.7 million in total charitable giving to projects since its inception in 2005. This year the foundation received grant applications requesting nearly $200,000. Their board met in two sessions to evaluate, score and discuss the requests. Since every request was reasonable and would benefit our communities, 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:
- Greene County conservation board – Vesta Dixon Walking Trail Bridge in Paton, $30,000
- Churdan 2.0 – Churdan restoration and beatification of neglected properties, $10,000
- Jefferson Matters: A Mainstreet & Chamber Community – Greene County small businesses social media marketing internship program, $10,863
- Jefferson parks and recreation/Greene County Community Center – 18-hole disc golf course at Daubendiek Park, $17,780
- Churdan public library – parking lot completion, $8,025
- Food Bank of Iowa (FBOI) – Feeding Greene County, $7,500
- Greene County Extension and Outreach – meeting room audio/visual, $7,000
- Heart of Iowa Habitat for Humanity – Helping Hands 2021, $5,000
- Thomas Jefferson Gardens of Greene County – Renovate the TJG rose garden, $4,875
- Kiwanis Club of Jefferson – Raccoon River Trailhead Gardens, $3,021
- Shelter Housing Corporation dba The Bridge Home – Shelter and help for Greene County homeless, $3,000
- William Paton Public Library – Adult nonfiction book update, $2,000
- Greene County Iowa Historical Society – Historic plaque/marker in Squirrel Hollow Park, $1,712
- Greene County Iowa Historical Society – Museum garage door, $1,575
- Jefferson Matters: A Main Street & Chamber Community promotion team – The Historical Plaque Project – adding the celebration of the life of Justice Albert Gates, $1,535
- Friends of Rippey – Safety measures for Rippey Baseball Park, $6,045
- GCCF – New website allowing on-line applications, $5,069
