Spring 2009 Community Fund grant recipients

• Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, $10,000 — Purchase an energy-saving kiln.
   
• Billings Preservation Society, Billings, $10,000 — Purchase an energy efficient boiler for the Moss Mansion.
   
• Exploration Works, Helena, $8,000 — Help underwrite the "Conservation Quest" exhibit.  Focuses on conservation and renewables.  Will feature the solar water heater PPL funded in 2007.
    
• Friends of Montana PBS, Great Falls, $10,000 — Contribute towards a transmitter that will enable Great Falls residents to access Public TV.  Funds raised will be matched by the Murdock Foundation.
   
• Friends of Musselshell School, Musselshell, $5,000 — Third floor renovation of this rural school, particularly insulation in an effort to conserve energy.
   
• Greater Gallatin United Way, Bozeman, $9,000 — Expand kidsLINK, an after school program, to three more schools.
   
• HANDS, Inc., Great Falls, $6,600 — Summer field trips for 250 children per year over a three year period.  Will include Ryan Dam.
   
• Havre Chamber of Commerce, Havre, $1,000 — Support for a leadership/educational program, Leadership High School.
   
• Makoshika Dinosaur Museum, Glendive, $5,100 — Roof repair on this eastern Montana Museum.
   
• Montana Council, Boy Scouts of America, Lewistown, $10,000 — Rebuild the climbing tower at their summer campground.
   
• Montana Watershed Coordination Council, Bozeman, $5,300 — Support for annual training of Watershed Coordinators from across the state.
   
• Paris Gibson Square, Great Falls, $10,000 — After School Art Education program.
   
• Scottish Rite Clinic, Billings, $10,000 — 5 scholarships for speech/occupational/and physical therapy to children with learning disabilities.

Fall 2009 Community Fund grant recipients

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butte-Silver Bow, Butte, $10,000 — to help expand its school-based mentoring program, which matches high school juniors and seniors with elementary school children.
   
• Big Sky Senior Services, Billings, $6,500 — to help fund its Gatekeeper training program, which teaches community volunteers to spot and report possible elder abuse.
   
• Billings Village Golden K Kiwanis, Billings, $2,000 — to support reading sessions, organized by a group of retired Kiwanians, for Head Start students ages 3-5.
    
• Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, Lame Deer, $7,000 — to repair and improve the club’s aging heating system, which was inoperable for almost two months last winter. The club serves more than 600 children ages 5 through 18 with after-school programs, tutoring and meals, among other services.
  
• Boys & Girls Club of Yellowstone County, Billings, $5,000 — to replace the existing lighting system in its Bair Family Clubhouse with a more economical and energy-efficient system and to help teach children how changing a light fixture can help conserve energy.
   
• H. Earl Clack Museum, Havre, $2,550 — to help build dioramas that will allow the museum to display its world-class collection, including displays of 75-million-year-old dinosaur eggs, skeletons and castings.
   
• Habitat for Humanity Mid-Yellowstone Valley, Billings, $5,019 — to purchase equipment, including a hydraulic van lift to help volunteers load supplies, for the operation of ReStore, a Habitat-run business that generates income to build houses for low-income families.
   
• LINKS for Learning, Livingston, $8,662 — to provide a tool shed and wash station for the organization’s Learning Garden Classroom project at the Washington School.
   
• Montana Natural History Center, Missoula, $3,269 — to purchase educational equipment, including a powerful microscope and a wireless sound system, and classroom furniture to help children learn about the wonders of science in nature.
   
• Montana School for the Deaf & Blind Foundation, Great Falls, $10,000 — to help support two-week summer programs in communication, social interaction, independent living, technology and recreation. Families learn about tools and technology that can help their children learn, communicate and get around independently.
   
• Rialto Community Theatre, Deer Lodge, $10,000 — to help purchase a handicap- accessible elevator to reach the balcony in the historic theater, which was damaged by fire in 2006. The elevator is one of the last pieces of equipment needed before the theater can reopen.
   
• Special K Ranch, Columbus, $10,000 — to help replace the covering and fasteners on 14 greenhouses with a more energy-efficient system. The greenhouses provide vocational training for developmental disabled adults in a rural, agricultural setting.
   
• The Watershed Education Network, Missoula, $10,000 — to expand its river education curriculum to six new rural classes and four tribal classes and to help students learn about rivers and the culture and science that surround them. The curriculum is in high demand because it contains a Native American component that helps the schools adhere to Montana’s unique Indian Education for All Act.
   
• Townsend K-12 School District, Townsend, $5,000 — to help install a 25-kilowatt solar panel system at the school to help teach students and the community about sources of alternative energy.
   
• Young Families Early Head Start, Billings, $5,000 — to help expand three classrooms to support programs, now with a waiting list, for 32 infants and toddlers while their teen parents complete their high school education. Young parents also receive child development information and parenting skills.