On Wednesday 24th November, the community groups who had been successful in this year’s Community Foundation grants program were announced to a room full of people at the Walter J Tuck Reserve.
“It was a pleasure to be able to gather as an organisation for the first time since February,” said Ruth Rogan, Executive Officer. “The members are the bedrock of the Community Foundation, so it was important to seize the opportunity to have our meeting in person.”
Walter Aich, chair of the Grants Assessment Panel commended the recipients on the quality of their grant applications. “It’s encouraging to see that after a second year of disruption, many community groups are still continuing to do the work that needs doing in our community, from maintaining important community gathering spaces, to building capacity in governance across community organisations,” said Walter.
Mirboo North Community Op Shop’s grant will enable them to put solar panels on their building.
“This will reduce the cost of electricity for the many user groups who raise money through the operation of this beautiful space each week,” explained Lisa Burke. This project is also supported by a matching contribution of funds from local business, RACV Solar.
arc Yinnar’s grant will strengthen the offering and usability of their print room.
Funded by a collaboration of grant makers, arc expects that this will increase the usage of this dedicated space.
Mirboo North CWA is going to run a series of morning teas in early 2022.
In accepting the grant, Sue Glover explained that “many of our Seniors have done it tough during Covid, and we hope that these morning teas will help re-establish the important connections that we have all been missing.”
Mirboo Recreation Reserve is going to repair some damage and improve the hall at their Reserve so that local community user groups can continue to use it comfortably. “While Mirboo may have a small community, it still has a number of community groups that meet regularly and the hall provides a valuable space to continue that local community connection”, explained Thomasin Bales.
U3A Mirboo North & District has had two successful grants.
The first involves the acquisition of some new table tennis tables, to augment a popular class on their weekly schedule.
More important is the second, according to Val Johnson, President, which will fund governance training for U3A and local community organisation committees and boards. “Governance was one of the areas that our strategic plan highlighted as needing our focus. We are pleased to be offering spaces at this training session not only for our committee but for other community groupsalso, which will allow capacity building beyond our organisation.”
Finally, the Rooms at the Walter J Tuck Reserve will be benefiting from a new commercial dishwasher.
As a facility which hosts a wide variety of community events, from funerals to weddings, seminars to local events, together with sporting users, this will benefit a lot of users and ease the burden on volunteers running the events in the facility.
The Community Foundation wishes to congratulate all who applied for this year’s community grants, and we look forward to seeing the impact of these in 2022,” concluded Walter.
Bear in mind that if you have a project that needs grant assistance, the Community Foundation is currently assessing these at any time of the year. “Covid has made it more challenging to plan and implement projects,” added Ruth, “and the Community Foundation is committed to being responsive as and when projects beneficial to the community come online.
The application form for ‘Out of Round’ Grants is on www.mirboodistrictfoundation.org.au under ‘Community Grants’.