Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation, the local nonprofit corporation that holds the state gaming license in Greene County, distributed almost $ 1.5 million worth of grants at its 7th Annual Awards Night, conducted in person at Wild Rose Jefferson April 5. Grow Greene County board members agree it is the highlight of their year to hand out awards to the neighboring counties’ community foundations, Greene County municipalities, long term award commitments and this year’s competitive grant recipients.
Under agreement with Wild Rose Entertainment Inc., Grow Greene receives 5 percent of the local casino’s adjusted gross gaming revenues to distribute to nonprofit, governmental, and charitable organizations. Of that total, 4.1 percent went to projects in Greene County and 0.9 percent was shared equally by the community foundations in the six counties contiguous to Greene County. They include Boone, Calhoun, Carroll, Dallas, Guthrie, and Webster. This year, each community foundation received $53,700.
The awards given out Tuesday represented gaming revenues at Wild Rose Jefferson during calendar year 2021. Wild Rose Jefferson has bounced back from the pandemic and saw record setting months in 2021. Grow Greene County benefited from these records and forwards the benefits on to area organizations through their granting of funds.
Distributed grants included allocations to the Greene County and Paton-Churdan school districts and each municipality in Greene County, $150,000 to the Greene County Community Foundation for its grantmaking, the first installment of a 3-year commitment totaling $201,000 to the Greene County Animal Shelter, and the second installment of a 4-year commitment totaling $500,000 to the Greene County Early Learning Center.
Additionally, 12 competitive grants were awarded. The total funding awarded from 2021 gaming revenues was $1,940,200.
Click here for the complete list.
The Grow Greene County board of directors includes president Norm Fandel, vice president Craig Marquardt, secretary Peg Raney, treasurer Bob Allen, and board members Lori Mannel, Brenda Muir, Kate Neese, and Rick Morain. Ex-officio board members added in 2019 are Dawn Rudolph, Greene County board of supervisors and Matt Wetrich, Jefferson city council. Board attorney is Mike Mumma and Cindy Duhrkopf is the part time administrative assistant.
