INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Impact 100’s grants leadership team has concluded its intense vetting process by selecting seven grant finalists to present to the full membership for final selection of grant recipients at the April 10 Annual Meeting at Oak Harbor.
Since the membership again numbers exceeds 400, including more than 70 new members, four $100,000 grants will be awarded, with any remaining funds divided evenly among the other finalists.
Each year, Impact 100 awards every penny of membership funds in grants to local nonprofits.
The finalists represent three of Impact 100’s focus areas: Health & Wellness; Education; and Enrichment & Environment. Impact 100’s grant finalists for the 2014 season include:
- ORCA (Education) – Their grant is for the development of a Marine Science Education Network. A team of Indian River County educators will be recruited to develop an internet-based curriculum within the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics educational framework. Active learning modules, video-based virtual field trips and laboratory exercises will enable students to access and analyze data from ORCA’s Kilroy database, which records water quality in the Indian River Lagoon – training students to be true citizen scientists. A dedicated website will allow access to all curriculum modules by students in Indian River County and beyond.
- Sebastian Charter Junior High School (Education) – Sebastian Charter Junior High School is asking for a grant to purchase 145 laptop computers, charging cart, firewall and related equipment, which will transform teaching, learning and integrating technology into all aspects of the curriculum. Class sets of laptops will be used to create a student-centric, engaging learning environment with appropriate security and access control. Ready access to laptops will contribute to the short and long-term success of the students.
- Indian River Charter High School (Enrichment & Environment) – Indian River Charter High School is seeking a grant for the retrofit of their outdoor venue to create a versatile performance space for the Charter family and community to enjoy. The space, formerly an uncovered courtyard and now sheltered by their dome-like canopy structure, will be enhanced to include a motorized weather resistant mesh to enclose all sides providing protection from the weather for performers, instruments and the audience. The grant will also provide a high-definition projector for performance and presentation purposes, as well as much needed seating.
- Old Vero Ice Age (Enrichment & Environment) – Old Vero Ice Age seeks a grant to support, coordinate, and promote excavation and analysis of artifacts at the Ice Age Site in Indian River County. In partnership with Mercyhurst University Archeological Institute (MUAI), excavation has begun; the grant from Impact 100 will underwrite analysis, preservation and documentation of artifacts, including human, animal, insect, and plant remains, tools, fossils, etc. The dig will be led by archaeologist Dr. Andrew Hemmings and Dr. James Adovasio using the highest level of archaeological and scientific procedures and standards.
- Pelican Island Audubon Society (Enrichment & Environment) – The Pelican Island Audubon Society is in the process of building a community center on property surrounded by the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area and the University of Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, and within walking distance of the Indian River Lagoon. The grant would furnish and equip the building to allow the Pelican Island Audubon Society to create programs to education and inform local residents about the ecology of the Indian River Lagoon. Programs may include nature videos, bird and butterfly gardens, a native plant propagation facility and plant ID tags.
- Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) (Health & Wellness) – Florida Institute of Technology proposes to use their grant money to establish a center for autism in Vero Beach. It is their hope to begin treating young patients as early as possible to increase the percentage of children who recover from the symptoms of autism and related disorders. FIT operates an established autism center at the Scott Center in Melbourne; this grant will allow an expansion into Indian River County, where resources for autistic children are currently nonexistent. Referrals will come from the Indian River County School District, Sunshine Physical Therapy, pediatricians, and other community-based providers.
- Shining Light Garden Foundation, Inc. (Health & Wellness) – This organization grows and donates first quality, fresh, farm to table vegetables within 24 hours of harvest to those in need – the homeless, hungry and forgotten. The grant they are requesting is for equipment that would be used to increase production by 50 percent. Another 20 acres have been leased adding to the 30 acres now worked by a group of volunteers who farm the land. The current level of poverty in Indian River County is 13.9 percent; for those under 18 years of age, the amount is even more dramatic at 23 percent. Shining Light Garden donates all its crops to local organizations which feed the needy, including the Indian River Food Pantry, Hibiscus Children’s Center and St. Francis Manor.
“The grant process began last August when all local nonprofits were invited to attend the Impact 100 grant training session. Applications were submitted and the agency mentoring process continued into the fall,” said President Linda Knoll. “The grants awarded by Impact 100 are for transformational, high-impact projects.”
The grant review process begins each January. Impact 100 members volunteer to serve on grant review panels, study the grant proposals, review financial documents and perform site visits. Those grant requests that are found to meet Impact 100’s criteria are then forwarded to the Leadership team for an all-day review and selection process. The finalists are selected and will make their cases before the full membership at the Annual Meeting April 10.
“We are delighted with the strong grants that we are putting forth to our membership. The fact that we are maintaining a membership of over 400 members enables us to continue to award four $100,000 grants to our community,” said Knoll. “Thanks to the efforts of our members this year, and in the previous five years, we will have the privilege of surpassing the $2 million mark in total grants this year. This is a tribute to the women of Indian River County.”
Find out more about Impact 100 by visiting www.impact100ir.com or on Facebook, or Youtube.com.