Foundation for the Tri-State Community
Makes 35th Anniversary Grant
HUNTINGTON (Sept. 24, 2008) -- The Foundation for the Tri-State Community celebrated its 35th anniversary today by making a $35,000 grant to 21 organizations in the tri-state that will work collaboratively to bring music, art and drama to pre-kindergarten children.
Announcement of the grant was made by Foundation Chairman Curtis Anderson and President Mary Witten Wiseman. Grant recipients include the following:
|
Kentucky |
Ohio |
West Virginia |
|
Boyd County Early Childhood Learning Centers (north and south) KinderCollege, at Ashland Community & Technical College Ponderosa Elementary Russell Independent schools |
Ironton-Lawrence County CAO Head Start, at Central School Lawrence County Proctorville Head Start Rock Hill Child Sybene Head Start |
Child Development Academy Children’s Place Kiwanis Day Care Playmates Preschool (six sites) River Valley Child Development Services (two sites) |
The project, named IMADE2, will be coordinated by the Cabell-Wayne Early Childhood Council. IMADE2 is an acronym for “integrating music, art, and drama in early education.”
“The year-long project will directly impact more than 400 pre-kindergarten children, but will ultimately impact thousands of children and their families in the tri-state,” said Wiseman. “When the Foundation announced it would make this very special grant, it was in the form of a ‘challenge’ to tri-state organizations to develop a project or program to improve the quality of life in the tri-state. A key part of this grant was that applicants must initiate an interstate collaboration with other nonprofit, educational or governmental organizations serving all or a portion of the tri-state area.
“The Foundation is very pleased that this 35th anniversary grant exemplifies the collaboration of organizations across the three states, as well as the important addition of art, music and drama to the pre-kindergarten curriculum of our area’s young children,” Wiseman said.
“The importance of this grant goes far beyond the financial reward to these agencies,” said Anderson. “Our Foundation is proving that organizations across the tri-state can work collegially and productively together for all citizens of the entire area. It is, I believe, particularly impressive that this project involves our area’s younger, more impressionable children.”
The IMADE2 project will use a combination of professional performing arts consultants, community volunteers and boards of education to provide a series of age-appropriate, in-classroom instructional sessions and workshops to enhance training of the performing arts, according to Jeanette Barker, chairperson of the Cabell-Wayne Early Childhood Council.
IMADE2 also will include a community outreach component to raise the awareness of parents and others to the importance of the performing arts in early education, especially in social, emotional and cognitive development.
Barker expects the project to implement outreach strategies, which will include field trips, a culminating event and various media venues to increase parental and other stakeholder awareness. She also anticipates the project will produce a professional development program for early child care providers and volunteers.
“The Foundation initially received 10 excellent applications,” said Wiseman. “Through the grant’s competitive process, which began last year, the Foundation narrowed the list to two outstanding applications, and, ultimately, selected IMADE2 . The Foundation’s board has been extremely pleased with the imagination and innovation shown in all the applications.”
The announcement was made at the Playmates Preschool & Child Development Center in west Huntington.
The Foundation for the Tri-State Community is the oldest community foundation in the area. It has its offices in Ashland, Ky.