Fulton County Community Foundation
Announces 2010 Fall Grant Cycle and Grant Workshop

The Fulton County Community Foundation (FCCF) is pleased to announce their 14th year of supporting the area through grants, scholarships and endowment building.

“Many local service providers have received the grants that the community foundation awards each year.” says Brian Johnson, Director of Development for the FCCF. “We try to support organizations throughout the entire county.” added Mr. Johnson.

Community Foundation grants are open to charitable organizations and the applications can be found at the Community Foundation office at 715 Main Street in Rochester, at any library branch throughout Fulton County and at the bottom of this article.

A grant workshop will be held at the Rochester Library on August 31st starting at 4:30pm. At the workshop you can ask questions about applying for a Community Foundation grant and also get information on the “Grant Station” computer system located at the library.

GrantStation is an online funding resource for organizations seeking grants throughout the world. The computer and software was donated to the library by the Community Foundation.

If you have question about the workshop or applying for a grant through the community foundation, contact Corinne Becknell Lucas, at 574-223-2227 or toll-free at 1-877-432-6423.
Applications are due in the foundation office on September 30th 2010.

2010 Fulton County Grant Applicaton

Fulton County Community Foundation Awards 2009 Fall Grants

Thirteen county organizations received an early Christmas present from the Fulton County Community Foundation. “It’s wonderful to support organizations that work so hard to make our community a better place,” said Brian Johnson, Director of Development of the Community Foundation. “Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we are able to make grants to some very worthwhile projects.”

Compassionate Health Center's Joyce Sroufe and Leanne Schaller along with Barbara Lutterbein (center)

The grants are part of the Community Foundation’s Unrestricted Funds which allow the community foundation to assess the greatest needs of the community and assist the community's individual programs. The funds that make these grants possible are the: E. Paul and Annabelle Baker and Harold and Mildred Turk Unrestricted Fund, Baxter, Inc. Fund, First Federal Savings Bank Unrestricted Fund, Mary and Fred Fraser Fund, Fulton County General Unrestricted Fund, Fulton County Heritage Endowment Fund, The Eugene and Marilyn Glick Fund in Honor of Faye Biccard Glick and the George and Dorothy Groenleer and Lyle and Doris Hillman Unrestricted Fund

Choosing the projects that receive funding was a challenge this year Brian explained, there were twenty seven applicants with a total request of over $344,000. The process involved a committee comprised of Fulton County residents and Community Foundation board members. The committee reviewed all the applications and narrowed the selection down to the final eleven organizations who received the $44,000 that was available for the committee to grant this year.

The arts in Fulton County were well recognized with grants to the Akron Area Fine Arts League, Ltd., Psi Iota Sorority Holiday Pops Community Concert and Rockfest Ministries each receiving $1,500.00 for arts programming.

Area youth were also recognized by a grant to CASA of Fulton County Inc. who received $1,326.00 for program advertising costs, CAMP WE CAN received $2,900.00 to purchase a cargo trailer for camp supplies, Junior Achievement’s JA America Works Program was granted $1,500.00 and the “A.C.T. Out” Ensemble of Indianapolis will bring education and awareness of violence recognition and other social issues to local students through a grant of $2,000.00 to the Victims Advocacy Domestic Violence Taskforce of Fulton County Inc.

Building community pride and preserving our history are reflected in the grant to 2010 Kewanna’s H.E.A.R.T. Festival in the amount of $5,000.00, Fulton Improvement Committee Inc. will be one step closer to building their Community Center with a grant of $4,500.00, Fulton County Habitat for Humanity, Inc. received funds for the handicapped ramp for their current project in Akron in the amount of $3,075.00 and the Fulton County Historical Society received $5,000.00 to continue their efforts on the preservation of local historic structures.

In an effort to make our county healthier and safer the committee granted the Fulton County Free Medical Clinic a grant of $12,400.00 for medical equipment and Joyfulhans Community Development Corp. new office machines and furniture for their emergency shelter with their grant of $2,000.00.

A fund that specifically supports the arts in the Rochester Community School system is the Eric E. Smoker Memorial Fund. This year the proceeds were awarded to the Rochester High School Art Department for the “Art Room Wall of Fame” project which will feature works by former RHS graduates who are now professional artists. Also the high school art class will work in conjunction with the English department to illustrate scenes from novels that are being studied this year.

Since 1997 the Community Foundation has awarded over 1.3 million dollars to local organizations and projects that make a difference in Fulton County.

The Eric E. Smoker Memorial Endowment Grant
Funding For Fine Art Projects

Ernest and GeNelle Smoker, Eric's parents pose with one of Eric's pieces of art.

The purpose of the Eric E. Smoker Memorial Fund is to provide support to fine art projects within the Rochester Community School system. These projects must be within the field of fine art (meaning painting, sculpture, drawing and architecture but not music, literature, drama or dance)

In 2009 the award was granted to the Rochester High School Art Department for their "Artistic Wall of Fame" which brings the art works of past RHS graduates who are working as artists to the attention of students.

Also the Senior English department is working with the art dept. to illustrate novels that the class is reading. This project was also supported by the Eric E. Smoker Memorial Fund.