CASA
CASA of Northwest Arkansas was recently awarded a $26,000 grant from Jewelers for Children to increase the number of volunteers who represent the best interests of abused and neglected children in court. This competitive award is part of a $625,000 grant that JFC made to the National Court Appointed Special Advocates Association.
In 2016, 916 children from Northwest Arkansas were in the foster care system. Last year, CASA volunteers provided a voice in court for 670 of them. CASA of Northwest Arkansas is committed to providing a volunteer advocate to every child who needs one by 2020. Meeting this goal will require a 33 percent increase in its overall volunteer base over the next three years. The Jewelers for Children grant, aimed at growing the volunteer base through targeted marketing, will put the organization one step closer to serving every foster child in need.
Circle of Life Hospice
Circle of Life Hospice, an organization that provides compassionate end-of-life care to patients and their families, has received a furniture donation from La-Z-Boy Furniture of Siloam Springs. La-Z-Boy donated new furniture valued at approximately $30,000 to be used in the main living room area of the Earlene Howard Hospice Home in Springdale.
Circle of Life Hospice is focused on quality of life for patients and their families during their final months. This gift will assist in expanding Circle's mission to provide compassionate end-of-life care for a person's body, mind, spirit and family when there is no longer a cure.
Gregory Kistler Treatment Center
The Gregory Kistler Treatment Center in Fort Smith has received a $4,648 grant from the Degen Foundation for therapeutic equipment. The grant will allow the center to purchase much needed equipment including a large positioning chair, ultrasound unit, balance beam, muscle stimulator unit and supplies for the use of the equipment. This equipment will be used by therapists in occupational, physical and speech-language therapy.
Fort Smith
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced recently that the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, has awarded $2,824,799 in grants for projects in 47 Arkansas counties -- including Sebastian County -- through its County Courthouse Restoration Grant, Historic Preservation Restoration Grant and Main Street Downtown Revitalization Grant programs.
The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority received a $86,609 Historic Preservation Restoration Grant to upgrade electricity and plumbing and to make the circa 1942 Barrack 823 accessible. The Fort Smith Heritage Foundation received a $45,067 HPRG for porch restoration at the ca. 1880 W.H.H. Clayton House. The Fort Smith Downtown Network received a $1,000 Downtown Revitalization Grant.
Thirty-one projects shared $960,853 in Historic Preservation Restoration Grants (HPRG), which distribute funds raised through the Real Estate Transfer Tax to rehabilitate buildings listed on the Arkansas or National Registers of Historic Places and owned by local governments or not-for-profit organizations. Grant requests totaled $1,357,911.
Other HPRG recipients, the amount of their grants, and the properties to be restored, were Mount Salem School/Church in Logan County, $1,683 to replace non-historic windows; Boys and Girls Club of Little Rock, $20,000 to restore the rock bridges near Lamar Porter Field in Little Rock; Carnegie Public Library, $12,325 to restore the terrace porch at the library in Eureka Springs; City of Hope, $46,667 to restore the Girl Scout Little House; City of Little Rock, $100,000 for porch restoration at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History and $24,986 to restore a gate at Oakland-Fraternal Cemetery; City of Menifee, $70,000 for restoration work at the Menifee Gymnasium; City of North Little Rock, $17,136 for restoration work at the Park Hill Administration Building; City of Osceola, $21,000 to repoint masonry at the Coston Building; City of Paragould, $9,999 for a condition assessment at the Linwood Cemetery Mausoleum; City of Quitman, $14,666 for roof restoration at the O.D. Gunn Sale and Trade Barn; City of Searcy, $20,000 for a condition assessment of the Rialto Theater; City of Sulphur Springs, $33,733 for window restoration at the Sulphur Springs School Building; City of Warren, $74,532 for restoration work at the Warren & Ouachita Valley Railroad Station; Clark County Library, $26,666 for roof, window and column restoration at the library in Arkadelphia; Faulkner County Museum, $20,000 for window restoration at the former Faulkner County Jail in Conway; Helena Museum of Phillips County, $50,000 for masonry restoration at the museum in Helena-West Helena; Lutheran Camp on Petit Jean, $17,071 for restoration work on Trinity Lutheran Church; Norman Historic Preservation Program, Inc., $20,000 for electrical upgrades at Norman High School; Old Independence Regional Museum, $53,614 for roof restoration on the former National Guard armory in Batesville; Ouachita County Historical Society, $26,353 for restoration work at the McCollum-Chidester House in Camden; Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, $60,000 for tower and parapet repair at the former Winfield United Methodist Church in Little Rock; Richard L. Kitchens American Legion Post 41 in Helena-West Helena, $16,107 for restoration work at the Legion Hut; Shady Grove Delmar Historical Property Association, $20,266 for restoration work at the Shady Grove Church; Union School/Church, $10,000 for restoration work at the Union School in Logan County; Wood Avenue Presbyterian Church, $14,657 for restoration work at the church in Monticello; Cato Historic Church and Cemetery, Inc., $9,999 for monument restoration at Cato Cemetery in Conway County; Cleburne County Historical Society, $9,936 for restoration work and a preservation plan for the Cleburne County Farm Cemetery, and Nevada County Industrial Development and Charitable Foundation, $7,781 for monument restoration and tree removal at the Moscow Cemetery in Prescott.
Nineteen Main Street Arkansas programs shared $285,000 in Downtown Revitalization Grants, which are funded through the state Real Estate Transfer Tax and are available to accredited Main Street programs for building rehabilitations, parks, streetscape improvements and other design-related projects that will have major long-term impacts in the local Main Street area.
Main Street programs in Batesville, Blytheville, Dumas, El Dorado, Eureka Springs, Helena-West Helena, Osceola, Ozark, Paragould, Rogers, Russellville, Searcy, Siloam Springs, Texarkana, West Memphis, the Conway Downtown Partnership, Downtown Little Rock Partnership, Downtown Jonesboro Association and Little Rock's South Main each received $15,000 grants through the program.
An additional $16,000 in Downtown Revitalization Grants was awarded to cities involved in Main Street's Arkansas Downtown Network. Grants of $1,000 each were also awarded to the programs in Arkadelphia, Clarksville, Forrest City, Hardy, Heber Springs, Malvern, Monticello, Morrilton, Newport, Paris, Pine Bluff, Pocahontas, Rector, Warren and Wynne.
Nineteen counties shared $1,562,946 in County Courthouse Restoration Grants, which are financed through Real Estate Transfer Tax funds distributed by the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council for rehabilitation of historic county courthouses across Arkansas. Funding requests totaled $4,618,440.
Counties receiving courthouse grants were Arkansas, $16,513; Chicot, $86,963; Cleveland, $163,500; Crittenden, $98,000; Dallas, $10,000; Drew, $82,500; Garland, $100,000; Greene, $25,000; Hot Spring, $200,000; Jackson, $87,840; Lawrence, $150,000; Lee, $59,077; Logan, $150,000; Mississippi, $50,000; Phillips, $30,000; Pike, $125,000; Poinsett, $81,813; Polk, $34,240 and Van Buren, $12,500.
Boys & Girls Clubs
In conjunction with the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G, the Walmart Foundation announced three grants totaling $650,000 to area Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Arkansas
The three grants were awarded to the Boys & Girls Club of Benton County, Boys & Girls Club of Siloam Springs and the Donald W. Reynolds Boys & Girls Club of Fayetteville.
• Boys & Girls Club of Benton County: The grant will serve more than 2,200 youth through the club's after school and summer youth programs at its four facilities, Bentonville, Rogers, Teen Center in Bentonville and Bella Vista.
• Boys & Girls Club of Siloam Springs: The grant will provide more than 920 children and youth access to the club's programs by reducing fees in 2018 at four sites, Siloam Springs, Decatur, Gravette and Gentry.
• Donald W. Reynolds Boys & Girls Club of Fayetteville: The grant will provide more than 1,700 club membership scholarships to adults, children and families living in Washington County.
American Red Cross
The Farm Credit Associations in Arkansas donated $13,000 to the Northeast Arkansas chapter of the American Red Cross to support flood relief efforts across the state.
Widespread flooding in late April killed five people and displaced hundreds of Arkansans. True to its mission, the American Red Cross was one of the first agencies to mobilize and offer assistance to persons in affected areas. The Red Cross served more than 7,500 meals, distributed nearly 1,700 clean-up kits and provided 1,000 overnight shelter stays.
Peace at Home
As part of Tyson Foods' efforts to raise the world's expectations for how much good food can do and its charitable focus on building healthier communities, healthier people and addressing food insecurity, the company awarded nearly $400,000 in community grants to 17 nonprofit organizations in 10 states.
The company's efforts to build healthier communities include support for community foundations, educational institutions and emergency medical services (EMS). Examples include $20,000 to the Vienna, Ga., Fire Department for respiratory equipment, and $25,000 to the Peace at Home Family Shelter in Fayetteville for Tyson chaplain training to manage domestic abuse. A $15,000 grant was awarded to the Rogers Public Education Foundation (RPEF) in Rogers for teacher micro grants at schools near company facilities. The micro grants program allows teachers from across the district to apply for funds that will provide enhanced learning opportunities for their students, such as increased technology in the classroom, outdoor education initiatives, opportunities for students to be active, and other programs with appropriate relevancy.
Tyson Foods is also investing in improving the lives of its team members and their families. A major example is Upward Academy, a workplace education program that focuses on the needs of plant workers, many of whom are immigrants. Grants to support Upward Academy include $46,660 to Ozark Literacy Council for English as a Second Language (ESL), General Education Development (GED) and citizenship classes. An additional $13,500 was awarded to the Springdale School District to provide Tyson Foods' team members with children in the district the opportunity to receive enrollment support services during a back to school event.
Building on Tyson Foods' long-standing commitment to address hunger insecurity, $25,000 was awarded to the Tarrant Area Food Bank in Fort Worth, Texas, for a mobile food pantry. In addition, $25,000 was awarded to Neosho Bright Futures in Neosho, Mo., for a backpack program that will provide weekend meals for preschool children to high school students.
Hunger relief and innovation intersect with a $24,680 grant to the River Bend Food Reservoir, which will use the funds for logistics software and inventory tracking across a 22-county area in Iowa and Illinois. The software will reduce staff time creating daily routes, lower transportation costs and improve customer service to the more than 300 partner agencies the food bank serves.
Other organizations Tyson Foods supported with recent grants include: Catholic Charities, Omaha, Neb., $25,000, food pantry; Clarksville School District, Clarksville, $15,000, ESL training; Flintville Volunteer Fire Department, Flintville, Tenn., $9,614, swift water training and boat; Fort Smith Adult Education Center, Fort Smith, $15,794, Mobile Digital Literacy Lab; Freestore Foodbank, Cincinnati, Ohio, $20,000, operational support; House of Hope Rescue Mission, Springdale, $24,000, Operational support; NW Technical Institute, Springdale, $15,794, Mobile Digital Literacy Lab; Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, Nashville, Tenn., $23,500, operational support and hunger relief; and United Way of Northwest Arkansas, Lowell, $25,000, driver education
NAN Profiles on 07/23/2017