TC Record Eagle : EPA grant helps environmental students

BY SARAH ELMS selms@record-eagle.com | Posted: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 2:12 pm

Grant supports hands-on environmental education

The Greenspire School students Izzy Grice, from left, and Sydney Hall plant native plants at the rain garden on campus to help filter runoff from Kids Creek.

TRAVERSE CITY — Students at The Greenspire School will be able to continue their work to reduce erosion along Kids Creek thanks to a recent grant.

Children at the public charter school designed and planted a rain garden on school grounds near the Grand Traverse Commons last year in an effort to curb runoff pollution and erosion along the creek.

The project caught the eye of Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative officials, who awarded The Greenspire School about $2,500 from a federal Environmental Protection Agency grant to buy new equipment for monitoring water quality.

Philip Girard, who teaches English and environmental stewardship at the school, said students now will have access to digital thermometers, water testing kits and hip waders so they can interact with their surrounding environment.

"You can tell as a teacher that it means a lot more when they get to be in the element, when you're outside in the environment and you're actually seeing the benefit of your work," Girard said.

The hands-on work helps students better understand the concepts in their textbooks, but it also teaches them how they can make a lasting impact on the region's watershed.

"What I love about that as a teacher is that these things don't go away," Girard said. "The efforts they make, it's not a one-shot lesson or project. It gets picked up by future students, and we can see our efforts over years and years."

Kristen Grote works closely with the school as a Grand Traverse Stewardship Initiative program coordinator and applied for the EPA grant on the school's behalf.

She said the extra resources will allow the school to collaborate with officials from the Grand Traverse Conservation District and the Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay who also are working to reduce runoff pollution and erosion along Kids Creek.

"Hopefully, when they grow up they'll want to be stewards of this community," Grote said.

More renovations for Jubilee House - Record Eagle - Traverse City

BY SARAH ELMS selms@record-eagle.com | Posted: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 11:21 am

More renovations for Jubilee House

Peggy Bunn, from left, Eunice Taylor and her husband Rick Taylor are volunteers at the Grace Episcopal Church Jubilee House at 325 Washing St. in Traverse City.

TRAVERSE CITY — The Jubilee House at Grace Episcopal Church is getting another makeover.

A $21,145 grant from Midland's St. John's Episcopal Church Endowment Committee and the Vestry of St. John's will allow church officials to make the more than 100-year-old building handicap accessible, a renovation volunteers hope will help them serve more people.

"This will allow not only patrons who may be handicapped to enter and use our services, but it will allow some volunteers who have not been in that house at all who go to our church to have a chance to contribute to the ministry if they want to," Parish Administrator Ann Hackett said.

The Washington Street house in downtown Traverse City provides laundry, showers, mail, computer use and storage year-round to those who are homeless or otherwise in need. It also functions as an emergency shelter during extreme winter weather.

The house was established in 2006 and expanded this spring to include a second full bathroom, a conference room and a quiet living space separate from the social area. The next step is to build ramp access to the back door, widen exterior and interior door frames and designate handicap parking spaces.

Parishioner Peggy Bunn has volunteered at the Jubilee House since 2011. She's happy to see the renovations all come together and said she's looking forward to seeing new faces at the house.

"I think it's going to be a great thing for people who are not able to climb stairs," Bunn said. "They can get in and have the camaraderie and the social aspect."

Officials do not yet have a start date for the construction but hope to have the work completed before winter.

"I imagine before the snow flies we'll have something in front of us," Hackett said. "That will be the desirable goal."

Open House For New Bryan Crough Dressing Rooms

May 1, 2015: TC Ticker

The City Opera House and Todd McMillen are hosting a Community Open House to tour the new Bryan Crough Dressing Rooms on Tues., May 5, 6:30-7:30pm. Crough, a longtime supporter of the arts and the restoration of the City Opera House, long advocated for new dressing rooms to better accommodate performers and also to allow it to present Actors Equity Association performances and touring companies, which require separate male and female dressing rooms. Following Crough's death in 2013, McMillen and the City Opera House launched a campaign to build new dressing rooms in honor of Crough. The project was made possible by many donors, including the Consyumers Energy Foundation, Herrington Fitch Family Foundation, Marty & Olivia Lagina, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts. The Oleson Foundation, Rotary Charities of Traverse City, Todd McMillen and many community donors. Permalink

Norte! Lands $25k Grant For Safe Cycling : News : The Ticker

Norte! Lands $25k Grant For Safe Cycling March 24, 2015

Norte!, a Traverse City group committed to inspiring youth through bicycles, has been selected by The Michigan Fitness Foundation and Michigan Department of Transportation to receive a $25,000 Safe Routes To School grant for the Traverse City Area Public Schools. This grant will help fund The Great Traverse City Bike Train Experiment, expanding Norte!'s Bike Train network to connect more Traverse City neighborhoods to more neighborhood schools. More ... Norte! Lands $25k Grant For Safe Cycling : News : The Ticker

$2M grant will bring high-tech gear to NMC

By DAN NIELSEN dnielsen@record-eagle.com | Posted: Sunday, March 15, 2015 11:42 amMore - Click here

TRAVERSE CITY — A $2 million state grant will give students at Northwestern Michigan College a chance to train on state-of-the-art equipment in nursing, information technology and advanced technology.
"The beauty of this grant is they wanted to have this available quickly," said Ed Bailey, NMC's technical division director.

Plans call for the equipment to be purchased soon, installed over the summer and available for student use in the fall.

"This really is a game-changer for NMC," Bailey said. "This will enable us to get state-of-the-art equipment we otherwise could not obtain."

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in late February announced $50 million in grants to 18 community colleges to train Michigan students for careers in the skilled trades. NMC received $2,078,174, about 4 percent of the total. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation approved 18 of the 27 applications received for funding in the Community College Skilled Trades Equipment Program.

Snyder said the grants from the state program will help the schools buy machines and other tools. Each college had to provide a 25 percent match to qualify for the state grant.

"This is the biggest grant we know of providing equipment to community colleges," said Mike Shore of the MEDC. "We think this is going to be a big payoff for the state."

NMC's nursing program will get a variety of simulation equipment. The college's information technology program will get server computers and other equipment. Its advanced technology program will get a new underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV), side-scan sonar gear and unmanned aerial equipment.
"We're basically going to outfit an entire high-tech lab," said Bailey.

The grant application included a wide range of specific pieces of equipment, including a Seaeye Falcon ROV, a hydraulic articulated crane, a pair of welding system simulators and a Sensefly eBEE UAV drone.
SenseFly's website markets the autonomous ultra-light eBee for a variety of applications including mining, emergency situations and disaster management. Made mostly of light foam, the eBee can be disassembled and folded up for storage. It has a wingspan of about three feet. The autonomous flight path can be planned in advance with the included software that allows the user plan, simulate and fly designated missions by just defining a mapped area.

Bailey said application for the grant program had to demonstrate "academic programs that aligned with the talent needs in the region."

NMC used the "Framework for Talent" developed by Northwest Michigan Works to help guide the writing of its grant application.

"Each proposal was evaluated comprehensively and individually," said Ryan Hundt, MEDC senior program manager.


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Botanic gardens continue to grow

Traverse City Record Eagle
Posted: Sunday, December 28, 2014 8:30 am

BY SARAH ELMS selms@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — The Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park will be blooming come spring, thanks to recent grant awards.

Board Chair Karen Matte Schmidt said officials and volunteers spent the last three years building the infrastructure at the garden near the Grand Traverse Commons so they can turn their focus toward planting in 2015.

"This is going to be a major year for the garden," Schmidt said.

The largest project will be planting a 4,000-square-foot walled garden at the site of a 115-year-old horse barn. The barn was torn down in 1957, but the 9-feet-high walls remained.

"This past summer we had those stone walls restored," Schmidt said. "This will be the year when we bring in the topsoil and plant that garden, and that's really exciting."

A $16,800 grant from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust will allow the garden's board to hire a part-time horticultural specialist to oversee their planting plans.

Officials plan to finish landscaping around the new visitor center and create new rain gardens in addition to completing the walled garden project.

"We knew we would need a horticulturalist to work with us at that time," Schmidt said.

A $6,000 grant from the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation will help pay for three rain gardens in low areas along the garden's trails to help filter rain water and prevent erosion.

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Arts Minigrants to regional charities

                                     

 

Media Release

For Immediate Release

Contact:      Mary Gillett, Regrant Coordinator           

                   231.883.8388           

                   mgillett@chartermi.net  

 

FY15 Minigrants Benefit 14 Local Arts & Cultural Organizations - Part of FY15 MCACA Grants Awards NorthSky Nonprofit Network/Rotary Charities Administers Region 2 Regrant Funds

DECEMBER 22, 2014- TRAVERSE CITY ---  Fourteen arts & cultural groups from five counties in northwest Michigan have been approved for minigrant funds through the Michigan Council for the Arts & Cultural Affairs (MCACA) Regranting Program for local projects  and professional development planned between January 1 and September 30, 2015.  The organizations will share $30,900 in total funding.  An additional $3,100 will be awarded for organizational development in February 2015, for a total of $34,000 in minigrant support. The MCACA regrant program is administered locally through NorthSky Nonprofit Network in Traverse City.  

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Community Foundation doles out nearly $200K in grants

Record Eagle, 19 December 2014, online edition
BY SARAH ELMS selms@record-eagle.com
Posted: Thursday, December 18, 2014 3:45 pm

TRAVERSE CITY — Love In the Name of Christ, a cooperative organization between local churches and assistance agencies, can launch a transportation outreach program, thanks to a $4,000 grant.

The program will help pay for gas, car seats and one-time emergency repairs for people who need transportation to hold employment or make it to critical doctor's appointments, said Tim Hamilton, the organization's executive director.

Love, INC is one of about 40 organizations in Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties to benefit from the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation's latest round of grants.

The foundation's board members approved $198,773 in awards for the fall grant cycle. A large portion — $74,260 — was allocated from the Youth Endowment through the Youth Advisory Council.

More than 100 students from across the five-county region participate in the council. They learn about philanthropy and grant-making and then review applications for services that benefit the youth community.
"They make the recommendations to our board. They really are in the decision-making seat," said Alison Metiva, the foundation's spokeswoman.

Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan received 11 grants from the youth endowment, and the benefit reaches all five counties.

"The youth are very supportive of that organization and generally have a real heart for supporting their peers," Metiva said.

Health and human services organizations and programs also received significant funding from Community Foundation grants.


The Traverse Health Clinic received $2,000 toward sustaining its homeless outreach program, which allows a physician and mental health counselor to make weekly visits to the Goodwill Inn.

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Rotary Awards $585k To Area Groups : News : The Ticker

Rotary Charities of Traverse City has announced the recipients of its
fall grant cycle – including $50,000 awards to ArtCenter Traverse City
in support of its merger with Crooked Tree Arts Council, the Traverse
City Film Festival toward projection equipment for the Bijou, Inland
Seas Education Association for program support, Habitat for Humanity for
capacity building and Stoneshouse (Dann's House) for programming.

More ...

Rotary Awards $585k To Area Groups : News : The Ticker

Another $1.5 Million For Boardman River Project

From TC Ticker -

September 16, 2014

The Conservation Resource Alliance in Traverse City has been awarded $1.5 million in grant funding from Sustain Our Great Lakes (SOGL) for the Boardman River Dams Restoration Project. SOGL is a public-private partnership that supports habitat restoration throughout the Great Lakes basin. The Conservation Resource Alliance is the project manager. This grant follows more than $1 million in grant funding from other public and private sources announced in July and brings the total raised for the removal of Boardman Dam and replacement of Cass Road Bridge to $7.1 million. The local fundraising goal to complete this part of the overall project is $10.8 million. The SOGL grant requires a 1:1 match in non-federal funds. Construction at Boardman Dam, beginning with the Cass Road bridge construction, is slated to begin in 2015. Construction for removal of Boardman Dam is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2016; Sabin Dam removal is expected to occur no earlier than 2017. Permalink

Former Timbers Girl Scout Camp Permanently Protected

June 26, 2014: The Ticker of Traverse City Magazine

The approximately 250-acre Timbers Recreation Area – formerly the Timbers Girl Scout Camp for 50 years – will be turned over to Long Lake Township and open to the public by the end of August. The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC) confirms that a fundraising goal of $891,300 was met with just days to spare to permanently protect the recreation area. These matching funds followed a $2.1 million grant award from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund in December 2012. The property includes nearly 9,000 feet of water frontage – 2,000 feet on Long Lake, the entire 20-acre Fern Lake within its boundary with 4,500 feet of shoreline, and approximately 2.400 on Page Lake. The property also features a network of two-tracks and trails with potential for future trails. Development of the property's management plan and activities will be conducted by the township with assistance from the conservancy. "The property was such a mystery," says Glen Chown, executive director of the GTRLC. "So many people around the lake had never set foot on it because it was a camp, and they respected the privacy of the Girl Scouts. It's so close to Traverse City and yet it's real wild country." Discussion about preserving the former Girl Scouts camp began in 2004, with negotiations to purchase the property from the Girl Scout Council in 2009. Interim buyers Don and Gerry Oleson purchased he property in 2012, holding it while the township awaited the decision on the grant award. Fundraising included an anonymous $150,000 match for all donations, a $25,000 match for donations made by, or in honor of, former Timbers campers and staff members, a $20,000 match for all donations made by Long Lake Association members, support from the Long Lake Foundation and the sale of the old troop house. Girl Scout alumnae also held a reunion and yard sale, with former scouts traveling from as far away as Alaska to support conservation of the property. Permalink

Donation Will Help Sheriffs Get New K-9

June 25, 2014: The Ticker of the Traverse City Business Magazine

The Grand Traverse Sheriff’s office says that a grant from the Art and Mary Schmuckal Family Foundation will allow the department to purchase a new narcotic detection K-9 to replace the recently lost K-9 Yogi, which had served Grand Traverse County and surrounding areas. The Art and Mary Schmuckal Family Foundation grant will cover the cost of the K-9 as well as all associated training. The narcotics detection K-9 is a multipurpose K-9 also able to search for missing persons, track criminals and provide officer protection. Permalink