The Albion Community Foundation is excited to announce the last grantees of 2023. With an array of focuses and organizations, this final grant round for 2023 was an exciting one.
Fund for Greater Albion
The Fund for Greater Albion awarded three grantees including ACT II Community Theatre the City of Albion, and Albion Health Care Alliance. ACT II Community Theatre received $4,500 in support of productions through the end of 2023 and into 2024, their project is “Building ACT II Community Theatre 2023”.
The City of Albion received $4,500 for the Albion Arts Commission Project. Commission member, Mary Slater shared that “the first project will be the pop-up holiday gallery at Superior Arts. In the coming months Superior Arts and the Arts Commission hope to sponsor other exhibits, sales, and workshops focused on a variety of themes. We hope to increase awareness of local artists and art works and to contribute to the vitality of downtown businesses.”
Albion Health Care Alliance received $5,000 for the Albion Chronic Disease Workgroup Project. This project is to help the health of our community residents through different healthy lifestyle programming geared to create sustainability in our residents’ lives. Rod Auton explained that “using evidence-based practices that focus on the strengths of people living in the community. Finally, we {committee members} all agreed that we will use data to guide directions that we go and decisions that we make as it relates to programs that we develop. So far, we have formed a walking group and organized nutrition education and cooking classes. Our goal is to create these types of programs, but to have them sustained by residents living in the neighborhoods that we are serving.”
Daniel Boggan, Sr. and Robert Holland, Sr. African American Community Fund
The Boggan and Holland Fund had two deserving recipients this round, including the Harrington Helpers PCO for the 2024 MLK Community Dinner and Play Right Sports Academy for general program operations. The funds granted to Play Right Sports Academy “will allow local Albion youth to engage in afterschool and team activities designed to provide exercise, learn fundamentals of team sports with leadership examples and provide self-esteem along with some additional nutrition.” Each grantee received $1,000.
Riverfront and Environmental Fund
The Earth and Environment Department at Albion College received $1,600 for their Harrington Science Outreach program. This program is grade-level designed “concepts of freshwater resources to aid in meeting state science and social studies standards. Additionally, the project seeks to raise elementary-aged student awareness of their natural environment and the importance of water culturally, historically, scientifically, and as a resource.” Dr. Joe Lee-Cullin stated that “it helps to reinforce scientific ideas while also showing students how the environment responds to things we do on the land, even if it is out of sight, out of mind groundwater. The groundwater model that this grant supports can give us a view beneath the Earth that we have to otherwise imagine. Ultimately, my hope is that, beyond grasping state standards for scientific analysis, that the students we work with will find appreciation for our natural waters and will have a very good foundation for being environmentally-conscious citizens as they navigate middle school, high school, and beyond.”
