ICE Grant Winners Announced
Huron County Community Foundation Awards ICE Grants
Back in March, the we introduced our new Innovative Community Enhancement Grants, $500 grants designed to bring spark to a community through placemaking or creating a new program to benefit local communities. When we closed the application process, 14 projects were eligible for the ICE Grants. "We were absolutely floored by the number and quality of applicants we received for the first year of this program" said Executive Director of HCCF, Mackenzie Price, "Our Grantmaking Committee, Chris Boyle, Kelli Jo Osentoski, and Michael Sage, commented on the widespread impact these grants will have multiple times throughout the process. We had projects submitted from Sebawaing to Harbor Beach and everywhere in between."
The projects were submitted to usw in March and presented a "30 second elevator speech" at the Annual Celebration in April. This event served as the launch date for online, Facebook voting that decided which five projects would receive grant funding. The five projects that received the most Facebook votes are:
- Owendale Garden Club and Seed Lending Library - Brian Backus Nature Trail Gazebo in Harbor Beach
- Paint Our Playground- Bad Axe Public Schools Elementary Project Playground
- "Loads of Love" Laundry Project
- Sebewaing Rotary Club Community Garden
"While the Foundation funded five of these projects, we are challenging the county to make all 14 projects a reality in 2015!" added Price. The idea of placemaking, utilizing community resources to create spaces people want to be, is one of our strategic priorities. This priority area spurred us to open the ICE Grants in the first place. We will provide updates on each of the top five projects throughout the implementation process. Below are the submitted pictures for the 5 ICE Grant recipients!
