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Community foundation doles out $60K in grants

Pharos-Tribune - 8/31/2018

Aug. 31--The Cass County Community Foundation awarded almost $60,000 to four local nonprofit organizations Thursday.

--$8,000 to Servants At Work to work with the Logansport Juvenile Correctional Facility on building and installing handicap ramps in Cass County

--$10,900 to the Emmaus Mission Center for a forklift at the center's food pantry

--$27,921 to the Cass County 4-H Association for goat/sheep barn renovations at the Cass County 4-H Fairgrounds

--$12,528.51 to the State Theatre Preservation Society for new audio equipment

Bud Reed, chairman of the Cass County Community Foundation's all-volunteer board; and Lisa Swaim, who chaired the committee on the grants announced Thursday, presented the awards.

Rik Hagarty, founder of Servants At Work, said he started the organization 15 years ago in Indianapolis based on the recognition that there are people having difficulties getting in and out of their homes.

"Everyone has seen the blue parking spaces and the cutouts in the walks, automatic door openers, all of the accommodations that local, state and federal governments have decreed and made available for people with disabilities, but none of that means anything to an individual who can't get out of his own house," he said.

This year the organization surpassed the 2,000-ramp mark and has 31 construction groups around the state, including Cass County, Hagarty said.

Servants At Work prefabricates its ramps with assistance from detainees at the Logansport Juvenile Correctional Facility, using locally sourced materials before installing them out in the community.

The Emmaus Mission Center requested $8,900 for the forklift, having raised the remaining needed funds itself.

"But the committee felt that you could use that money better for food," Swaim told Emmaus representatives Thursday, adding the foundation would be providing the forklift's full amount.

Jason Mitchell, executive director of the Emmaus Mission Center, recalled how its food pantry started out with two shelves at its homeless shelter in the 1990s. The pantry later expanded into a building on College Street, where today it serves 550 to 600 families a month and where volunteers unload the 160 tons of food it receives a year by hand.

A building just down the road from the food pantry that's about eight times larger was gifted to the Emmaus Mission Center in 2016. Mitchell said the organization hopes to move its food pantry operation into it by next year.

"There's so many people that need it and we want to be instrumental in trying to solve the problem with food insecurity," Mitchell said.

The community foundation's grants committee approved more funding than what the Cass County 4-H Association requested as well. The association sought $21,587 and raised the remainder for the goat/sheep barn project but the grants committee decided to provide the full cost of $27,921.

"We felt that you could finish other projects with the money you've raised," Swaim said.

Sherri Gehlhausen, who chairs the Cass County 4-H Association Goat Committee and serves as treasurer of the association's board, said the funds will go toward cementing the floor and installing new pens in the goat/sheep barn. Wheelchairs and strollers will be able to make it down the aisles of animals easier, allowing more people to see and learn about them, she said. Gehlhausen also said cement floors will mean less dust.

"Agriculture is very important in our area," she said. "We want people to be in there, we want people to learn."

Barry Taylor, chief financial officer of the State Theatre Preservation Society, said the funds granted to the society Thursday will be used to enhance and improve the theatre's audio system. The equipment upgrade will help improve the performances of entertainers, he said, which include organizations like the Civic Players of Logansport.

The State Theatre also regularly works with local nonprofit organizations to host functions, like an upcoming Cass County Domestic Violence Task Force fundraiser.

"It's great to have a venue like that where we can offer a wide range of entertainment and also offer the facility to those organizations," Taylor said.

Kevin Burkett, editor of the Pharos-Tribune, is an unpaid State Theatre Preservation Society board member.

Cass County Community Foundation President Deanna Crispen said the funds awarded Thursday were made available by donors to the foundation's unrestricted community endowments. Proposals with total costs of $5,000 or more were eligible for the grant cycle to help organizations focus on bigger needs, she said. When determining the awards, Crispen said committee members focus largely on charitable impact and how many people proposed projects would affect.

The foundation, which is celebrating its 25th year, has awarded $131,474 in community grants to date in 2018.

Reach Mitchell Kirk at mitchell.kirk@pharostribune.com or 574-732-5130.

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(c)2018 the Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Ind.)

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