Spring 2008 Community Fund Grant Recipients
Billings Catholic Schools, Billings, $7,000 — To upgrade and automate the library’s catalog to give students access to the Montana Shared Catalog, an electronic network of library reference materials.
Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, Lame Deer, $9,092 — To support the club’s Healthy Habits Program, which is aimed at improving physical activity and nutrition to prevent diabetes in children.
Cascade Elementary School, Cascade, $3,000 — To help the library restock its outdated book collection to help children improve their reading and writing proficiency and complete research projects.
Court Appointed Special Advocates of Missoula, $10,000 — To train 15 volunteers to act as guardians in the court system for abused and neglected children.
Eastern Montana Mental Health Center, Glasgow, $1,500 — To purchase audiovideo equipment, enabling the center to deliver its services to clients, many of whom live on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and don’t have the resources to come in to the clinic.
Educational Opportunities for Central Montana, Lewistown, $10,000 — To purchase tools for a program that teaches vocational skills to students from 13 surrounding rural communities. By year’s end they will have built a modular home.
Equinox Theatre Co., Bozeman, $4,620 — To expand an outreach program that takes “Science Theatre,” an innovative program about environmental awareness, to rural communities.
Golden Triangle Gymnastics Club, Conrad, $4,225 — To match a grant to purchase gymnastics equipment for a new physical education program for young girls in Conrad, Shelby, Choteau, Valier and the surrounding rural areas.
Great Falls Community Ice Foundation, Great Falls, $10,000 — To construct a skate rental shop at a new nonprofit ice arena for youth and adult physical education.
Habitat for Humanity, Billings, $3,000 — To provide exterior lighting and signage and purchase storage bins and shelving at the new location of Re-Store, the organization’s retail store of surplus
materials.
homeWORD, Missoula, $1,500 — To support the “Sustainability Tour,” a forum of environmentally friendly green building practices in up to 10 homes where homeowners share what they learned during construction and remodeling.
Margaret Leary Elementary School, Butte, $9,888 — To install Smart Boards, an interactive tool that allows teachers to project computer images on a white board that’s visible to an entire class.
Miles City Elementary School District, Miles City, $10,000 — To install Smart Boards, an interactive tool that allows teachers to project computer images on a white board that’s visible to an entire class.
Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Bozeman, $4,600 — To fully fund one Shakespeare performance in Great Falls this summer.
Montana Water Trust, Missoula, $3,375 — To purchase five TruTracks, water monitoring equipment to be used in four streams with the endangered bull trout.
Ruby Valley Swimming Club, Sheridan, $1,200 — To purchase a chair lift to provide pool access for the elderly and people with physical disabilities.
Scottish Rite Clinic, Billings, $5,000 — To support a speech, occupational and physical therapy clinic, offered free of charge to children with a variety of disabilities.
The Angel Fund, Helena, $2,000 — To help needy children in Grades K-12 purchase school supplies, gym shoes, winter coats and materials for school projects.
Fall 2008 Community Fund Grant Recipients
Family Service Inc., Billings, $7,559 — To provide about 235 school backpacks, tailored for specific ages and grade levels, for underprivileged children.
Hellgate Writing Center, Missoula, $1,000 — To help fund a volunteer tutoring program for elementary schoolchildren in Missoula.
Montana Conservation Corps., Bozeman, $10,000 — To support volunteer opportunities across Montana for teens to teach civic responsibility and build an appreciation for the outdoors.
Montana Conservation Science Institute, Missoula, $2,500 — To help establish a pilot program for blind children called “Camp Eureka!” The program will establish an outdoor camp for six children and provide them with audio learning tools.
Montana Natural History Center, Missoula, $7,950 — To provide mechanical upgrades to improve safety on the buses used for field trips as well as some scholarship opportunities for underprivileged children to learn about science and the world around them.
Montana Outdoor Science School, Bozeman, $5,000 — To fund an outreach program, “Ways of the West,” in Gallatin County and surrounding areas. This curriculum promotes outdoor science programs, environmental literacy and creative problem-solving.
Montana School for the Deaf and Blind, Great Falls, $10,000 — To purchase Braille-equipped laptops so students can type and print documents in Braille.
MSU Foundation for Montana Watercourse, Bozeman, $9,332 — To support the annual Water Summit, led by Montana Watercourse, which gathers students and teachers from across the state for training on water management and watershed protection.
Rialto Community Theatre, Deer Lodge, $6,400 — To provide insulation and roof repairs to the historic theater, damaged in a 2006 fire. The restoration of the Rialto Community Theatre, on the National Register of Historic Places, has received overwhelming community support.
Roy Ambulance Service, Roy, $9,315 — To help purchase a hydraulic gurney to safely move patients in and out of the ambulance. This is the final step in a fundraising drive, which raised $140,000 and purchased a new ambulance to serve this small community in Fergus County.
Sanders County Hunter Education, Thompson Falls, $2,100 — To purchase sturdy hunter orange safety vests, with the PPL Montana logo, for students who complete a hunter safety education course.
Stillwater Community Hospital, Columbus, $3,864 — To purchase a Pediatric Trauma Care Cart to equip medical staff to safely and quickly treat an injured child.
Thompson Falls Public Schools, Thompson Falls, $3,000 — To purchase a Smart Board for the Junior High School Technology Center. The interactive tool allows teachers to project computer images on a white board that’s visible to an entire class.
Virginia City Preservation Alliance, Virginia City, $2,500 — To help the alliance establish interpretive signs throughout the historic city, the original territorial capital of Montana. The signs would complement National Register of Historic Places plaques already in place.
Writer’s Voice of the Billings YMCA, Billings, $5,500 — To provide matching funds for a National Endowment for the Arts grant to support “The Big Read.” This literacy program will focus on teenagers in the Yellowstone Valley and surrounding areas who will read Jack London’s novel “The Call of the Wild.”
Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, $5,000 — To support the Young Artists Gallery, which features artwork from students in the Billings area, including the Crow Indian Reservation. The formal setting to display and appreciate art enables young artists to build confidence and inspires learning.
Yellowstone Western Heritage Center, Billings, $8,980 — To help fund Phase 2 of the ECHOES Project, which records stories from the people of the Northern High Plains and Yellowstone River Valley. PPL Montana funded Phase 1 last year, which allowed historians to travel throughout eastern Montana to record oral histories from senior residents. Phase 2 will fund four listening stations, which will be part of a three-year evolving exhibit that shares these stories, photos and interviews. |