Community Foundation of the Ozarks

A Youth Empowerment Project grant that was awarded to the Parkview High School Green Team and student cabinet funded the Saturday, April 26th student-led effort to remove trash and debris from Fassnight Creek along a half-mile stretch between Campbell Avenue and Grant Street. This meandering part of Fassnight Creek borders and bisects historic Fassnight Park, which features construction elements from the Works Progress Administration of the 1930’s. Nearly 20 P.H.S. volunteers participated in the effort, and they collected nine bags of recyclables, sixteen bags of trash, and removed several construction-related objects from the stream bed.

The YEP grant funded the purchase of gloves, bags, and trash “jabbers” that allowed the students to nab some of the nastiest articles that had found their way into the stream. These items will allow P.H.S. Green Team members to provide stream stewardship for years to come. Parkview freshman Carsen Miller said it best: “The stuff we took out was really icky, but I am glad that we did it. In fact, the ducks that were swimming in the stream seemed to appreciate our efforts!”

Welcome to the new and improved CFO web site. If you’d like to read more about some of the items featured in this spring’s newsletter, we’ve listed the links below to make your browsing easier. If you’re visiting our site for the first time, be sure to browse around or use the search features to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Click here to read about the 11 projects funded through the Louis and Dorothy Coover Regional Grantmaking Program and how these projects will benefit Ozarks communities.

Visit the Harry Cooper Supply Company Campaign for the Ozarks page to get the latest news from the 37 affiliate foundations participating in the campaign.

Learn more about CFO’s investment policies and asset allocation here.

The “Growing Smarter” report from the James Irvine Foundation that featured CFO can be downloaded on our publications page.

A PDF version of the Spring 2008 newsletter is also available on our publications page.

The staff at CFO spent an hour Tuesday morning celebrating Earth Day planting plants in the building’s new rain garden. The James River Basin Partnership, the City of Springfield Storm Water Department, and the Missouri Department of Conservation partnered with CFO to create the rain garden.

Runoff water from storms leads to flooding and erosion downstream and also carries pollutants that degrade water quality. Rain gardens are shallow depressions filled with native plants that catch the torrents of storm water. The native plants with their deep roots work to filter pollutants and recharge the groundwater aquifer, making runoff water a resource rather than a downstream problem.

With funding through a grant from Community Foundation of the Ozarks, the James River Basin Partnership has planted several demonstrative rain gardens. The gardens are part of a larger project to increase public awareness of water pollution issues. These efforts encourage environmental stewardship on a personal, house-to-house level.

Feel free to stop by CFO at 425 E. Trafficway to learn more about rain gardens and to check out downtown’s latest “green” feature. More pictures below the fold.
(more…)