Heritage Fund : The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County

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Welcoming Community II Grant Awards

Congratulations to the thirteen organizations that were selected to receive a Welcoming Community II Grant Award. The Heritage Fund’s Outreach Committee launched the grant initiative in February and invited community groups and organizations to create projects and programs that would increase the Welcoming Factor within our community. The initiative created considerable interest. Heritage Fund received 22 grant applications involving 38 organizations.

Grant awards were announced by Outreach Committee Chair, Lorraine Smith during the Heritage Fund’s Annual Report the Community at YES Cinema on May 17th. Lorraine spoke about the program, “Heritage Fund created the Welcoming Community Grant Program to not only encourage ideas but provide the means to make a positive difference. We invited organizations to create programs and projects that would impact this community broadly in terms of welcoming community by bringing residents together and provide an opportunity for increased understanding. The Outreach Committee had the very difficult task of selecting which proposals to fund that best correlated with the improvement strategies expressed in the Welcoming Community II recommendations”.

Grant Awards

• Columbus Chinese Association - Chinese New Year at the Commons 

• Columbus Cooperative Grocery in partnership with Eastside Community Center - Eating Better Together … educating low income populations about healthier eating.

• Eastside Community Center in partnership with the Trinbago Association – Family Sports Day

• Faith, Hope and Love Church - Mentoring African American Youth

• Family School Partners – Navigating the Educational System for the International Community

• Hindu Society of Southern Indiana – Understanding the Hindu Religion and Culture

• Human Rights Commission/Mill Race Center - Great Columbus Adventure in Diversity

• IUPUC – Division of Liberal Arts – In partnership with the Inclusive Community Coalition, Pride Alliance, the Human Rights Commission and Ivy Tech - Threads of Our Diversity – an oral history of the LGBT community in Bartholomew County

• kidscommons in partnership with The Arc of Bartholomew County, First Steps, Historical society, CAMEO and the Columbus Young Professionals - Being Me: Passport Project

• McDowell Adult Education Center - International Club

• Middle East Association in partnership with the Islamic Center - Get to know your Neighbor

• Su Casa – Get to Know Columbus– a program acclimating lower income groups in the Latino community to Columbus

• Indian, Pakistan and Trinbago, Associations - Cricket Camp which is a cultural education through the sport of Cricket

Organizations have up to a year to complete their programs. Heritage Fund will be following the projects and programs and will provide updates on our website. We will report the impact of the Welcoming Community Grant Program during our Annual Report to the Community in May 2013.

Women's Giving Circle Announces

2012 Grants

The Women's Giving Circle of Bartholomew County held it's second Annual Meeting on Thursday April 12, 2012 at Mill Race Center. Over 100 members of the Giving Circle attended. Members voted online prior to the meeting at which the following grant recipients were announced:

$5,000 -Boost Your Brain Enrichment Classes - First Presbyterian Preschool

$5,000 - Ramps to Freedom - Aging and Community Services & Housing Partnerships

$5,000 - GED to Work - McDowell Education Center & Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation

$4,840- Supporting Living Project - Love Chapel

WGC Chair Diane Doup announced that the circle in two years has given over $36,000 in grant to the community and has grown an endowment of over $19,000.

For more information about joining please click the WGC icon on this page.

Heritage Fund welcomes a new Scholarship Manager

Heritage Fund is delighted to welcome Chrissy Alspaugh as our new scholarship manager. Chrissy has worked for the last six years as education reporter at The Republic newspaper. She grew up in West Lafayette and moved south after graduating from Purdue University.

Her goals at the Heritage Fund include raising awareness of the scholarship opportunities available throughout the community, as well as introducing new scholarships to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse range of students in Bartholomew County.

Chrissy attends Westside Community Church and is a 2010 graduate of Leadership Bartholomew County. She has enjoyed serving on the board of directors at Sans Souci Inc. and volunteering for local programs including Book Buddies, Family School Partners and the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Auto Clinic. She runs a small photography studio in her free time and is expecting her first baby in June with her husband, Matt. 

          February, 2012: Brown Music Competition Awards Announced 

 Music students were awarded $19,000 for scholarships and music lessons at the 2012 Brown Music Competition held Saturday, February 4 at First Christian Church. Seniors Hiroki Kato won 1st place in the instrumental competition and Steven Greathouse took 1st place in the vocal competition. Seniors Natalie Burgos, Della Woon and Hannah Porter also received instrumental awards and Benjamin Seiwert and Anna Miller won awards in the senior vocal competition. Five underclassmen won instrumental awards and seven underclassmen won vocal awards. Congratulations to all winners and participants for a job well done! Click here for the Republic article on the competition.