Wilsonville Spokesman Online

Opportunity grants help festivals, schools

City of Wilsonville offers new $25,000 grant program

• By: Patrick Johnson  
• Published: 1/12/2010 2:20:16 PM

Photo By: Patrick JohnsonGrant recipients
Mayor Tim Knapp (right) hands out a grant award to members of the "Four in Cooperation," which will buy tents for upcoming festivals.

The first grants awarded through the new Community Services Opportunity Grant Program will help students with summer programs and provide shade during summer festivals.

Oregon Health Career Center, a Wilsonville-based non-profit that encourages and supports young people in choosing health careers, received $2,210 for a summer interactive reading and science program.

Another grant of $7,880 was awarded to “Four in Cooperation,” a group of four Wilsonville non-profit groups that provide community events. The “Four” purchased commercial tents and canopies for the local events with the grant. The events the group represents include Wilsonville Celebration Days, the Kiwanis Fun Run, the Wilsonville Festival of the Arts and Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce events.

A total of $25,000 is available under the new program, sponsored by the Wilsonville City Council and awarded by the city’s Park and Recreation Advisory Board. There are two deadlines for $10,000 each and $5,000 in discretionary, or floating, funds for smaller, time sensitive applications. The money comes from the city’s general fund.

Although this first funding cycle began in December, in the future, the two $10,000 offerings will be in April and October.

Funding assists local individuals and organizations to produce programs, projects or services that further educational or artistic opportunities; encourage and foster diversity; foster advances in education, art or community leadership; or involve youth or elderly populations in community activities. 

Five applications were submitted for 2009 funding, with requests totaling over $52,000. Grant applications are judged objectively on the basis of the grant criteria.  The awards were approved by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board at its monthly meeting on Dec. 10.

Gary W. Wappes, president and CEO of Oregon Health Career Center, said the $2,000 awarded his group will help his non-profit provide summer interactive reading and science programs for up to 180 low income Wilsonville students during the summer. Wappes said it was library director Pat Duke that urged him to apply for the grant to enhance his programs.

“He and I got to talking about figuring out ways we might modify our science program for a summer delivery,” Wappes told the council. “The result is the proposal (city staff) and the board reviewed.”

The project will be coordinated with the Wilsonville Public Library and Boones Ferry Primary School and with funds from Wilsonville Kiwanis Club.

Bob Woodle with Wilsonville Celebration Days wrote the application for the “Four in Cooperation” for tents for the different festivals in town.

“We are cooperating because we recognized that we all need tents,” Woodle said. “Fun in the Park has the biggest need, our tents are getting worn out and we are all having to rent canopies. So what we are hoping to do is to centralize and service the needs of our four groups and other groups in the city.”

Woodle said the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce will administer the grant money. He said the Chamber will start by purchasing a large tent that will cover the large stage at the park. After that, they will try to augment what the groups already have.

“All together we need 150 tents for Fun in the Park,” he said. “The other organizations don’t need that many, and we will be able to service their needs as we pick up some of the larger ones.”

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