The CFO was honored to host Dr. Chris Nicastro, Commissioner of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, for visits to Rural Schools Partnership projects in Purdy and Aurora on Wednesday, Sept. 1.

Dr. Nicastro came to the Ozarks to learn about the CFO’s rural schools initiatives as well as meet with leaders from Missouri State about alternative-education programs at its West Plains campus. Drury University hosted a dinner to discuss its educational administration curriculum with Dr. Nicastro, who was named the DESE Commissioner a year ago.

“I’m here to learn about the programs you’re working on to strengthen Missouri’s rural schools and communities,” she said.

After a brief overview in Springfield, the first stop was at Purdy High School, which received a $16,000 Coover Place-Based Education grant for its full-service, student-run industrial recycling program that serves both the school and the community.

The project is run by the school’s Spanish class and club, which is advised by teacher Gerry Wass.

“We were a new club and we had a lot of clubs already out fundraising in our community,” he said. “We needed a new idea.

“This recycling project also has the effect of showing some of the flow of money out of our community from trash,” he said.

The group then traveled to Aurora so Dr. Nicastro could see the High School’s award-winning solar-car project. Aurora received a $19,325 grant to purchase additional alternative-energy modules. The students also are studying how to build a LEED-certified, solar-energy Habitat for Humanity home in the community.

“We’ve got some really neat things going on here with some bright kids,” teacher and advisor Brad Boettler said.

The grants are made possible through the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Regional Grantmaking program, a partnership between the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and Commerce Trust Company.

The deadline for the 2011 Coover Place-Based Education grant program is April 11, 2011.

At a recent Ozarks Food Harvest Mobile Pantry in Joplin, 150 people received eggs, cheese, meat, bread, cereal, Gatorade, and snack foods to feed their families

CFO affiliates raised $105,000 and received $100,000 in matching funds from the Walmart State Foundation to fight chronic hunger in their communities.

A total of 19 affiliates successfully completed the Challenge Grant, which is being channeled primarily through the Ozarks Food Harvest, which has a 28-county service area that largely mirrors the CFO’s region.

The CFO affiliates that completed the Hunger Challenge are: Aurora, Bolivar, Cassville, DACO (Dade County), Dallas County, El Dorado Springs, Finley River (Ozark area), Houston, Jacks Fork, Southwest Missouri (Carthage-Joplin area), Marshfield, Nixa, Oregon County, Seymour, Stockton, Table Rock Lake, Taney County, and West Plains.

The Wal-Mart State Foundation State Giving Program selected the Ozarks Food Harvest for its challenge grant program last year, which began in response to the national report – “Hunger in America 2010” – describing the extent to which hunger plagues Ozarks communities. An estimated 155,000 Ozarkers face chronic hunger issues, according to the report.

For more information, see the full  Hunger Challenge news release .

Bolivar Superintendent Dr. Steve Morgan and Intermediate Principal Laura Boyd received a ceremonial check for $10,000 from CFO Executive Vice President Julie Leeth.

Bolivar R-1 Schools received $10,000 in matching funds after raising $20,000 to create a Care to Learn Endowment Fund as part of the second phase of the Harry Cooper Supply Company Campaign for the Ozarks Challenge.

Intermediate School Principal Laura Boyd said the Care to Learn program, which addresses health, hunger and hygiene needs for schoolchildren, has gotten off to a successful start in its first year of serving about 100 third- through fifth-grade students.

One of the main components of the Bolivar program is a backpack snack program, which provides healthy foods for 50 kids who have the backpacks filled 10 times a year.

Bolivar, one of 25 members of the Rural Schools Partnership participating in the Cooper Phase II Challenge, is the third school district to receive the $10,000 matching grant. This challenge, which concludes at the end of the year, is intended to help RSP partners build educational endowment funds.

Meramec Regional Community Foundation President Laura Antolak (left) listens to Secretary-Treasurer Richard Cavender, at a recent organizing meeting in St. James.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks welcomes the Meramec Regional Community Foundation as its 42^nd affiliate.

This represents the CFO’s first collaboration with a planning commission: The Meramec Foundation is a new venture within the Meramec Regional Planning Commission, which serves eight counties in central Missouri – Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Osage, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington – and 32 cities within those counties.

The MRPC provides economic development assistance, housing assistance, planning and development expertise, solid-waste management, emergency-management planning, grant writing and administration, small-business loans, transportation planning, and other communication and community-building services.

The newly created Foundation will support community charitable grantmaking within its service area. The Community Foundation’s existing affiliates within this region will continue to operate their own asset-building and grantmaking programs based on their specific priorities.

Meramec Regional Community Foundation President Laura Antolak said the Foundation was a natural outgrowth of the services provided by the regional planning commission.

CFO President Brian Fogle said he expect the existing affiliates within this area to continue doing their important work; the new Foundation will provide a means to expand to other underserved areas that aren’t being reached by existing community foundations.

The organizing board members for the Meramec Regional Community Foundation are: President Laura Antolak; Vice-President Russell Scheulen; and Secretary-Treasurer Richard Cavender. Each county in the Meramec region will have a representative on the MRCF board and appointments are underway.

The Hartville R-II School District established The Hartville Teacher’s Support Fund so that each teacher will have first day of school classroom funding. Hartville is a new Agency Partner in the education category.

The newly formed Hartville School Foundation established a fund to support the programs and projects of the Hartville R-II School District. The Foundation also becomes a new Agency Partner in education.

A group of Ozark women established the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Fund. Lisa Engel, Shirley Wikander, Linda Thomas, Ginger Holzer and Jeanette Hipskind established this fund to assist them as they hold fundraisers to help make the Ozark community a better place to live. This fund is part of the Finley River Community Foundation.

The Missouri Medical Assistance Program Fund will support the mission of the Missouri Medical Assistance Program to assist low-income individuals and families within the community who need  immediate assistance with their medical bills and debt. MOMAP is a new Agency Partner in the health category.

The Greater Ozarks Audubon Society established The GLADE Fund to support the GLADE project and student conservation projects of students who have participated in GLADE. This is the group’s second fund.

The Rotaract Club of Springfield Fund has been established to provide an endowment to support  charitable activities and programs in the area. Rotaract is the Rotary organization for members under the age of 30.

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson leads the ribbon cutting of the new Ozarks Medical Center emergency department in West Plains.

The dedication of a new 16-bed emergency department at the Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains also represents the first project completed under the CFO’s new Mission-Related Investment program focusing on the “double-bottom line” of investing in our own communities.

The facility, which will open for patients at 7 a.m., Tuesday, July 20, offers improvements such as individual rooms for patient privacy that surround a nurse’s station with state-of-the-art patient tracking. Each patient room also has its own cardiac-monitoring system, access to portable imaging equipment, and EKG monitoring capabilities to speed up response time for potential cardiac patients. The previous facility had one EKG system that was shared among the treatment rooms and some of its 12 treatment rooms were separated only by curtains, which gave patients less privacy.

Two of the rooms are larger for major trauma cases and another room is equipped as a haz-mat facility if decontamination is necessary. Two of the rooms also are designed as “negative pressure” spaces for infectious patients where the contaminated air is prevented from reaching other parts of the hospital.

Construction of the new emergency room began more than five years ago. The shell of the building was completed in 2005, but challenging economic conditions and access to financial markets halted construction. In 2009, the CFO made its first mission-related investment – a $1 million low-interest loan. The hospital also received a $500,000 federal grant and the Ozarks Medical Center Foundation has raised $2 million toward its $3 million capital-campaign goal.

Construction resumed last August; the Sunday, July 18, dedication took place two months ahead of the estimated completion date. OMC President and CEO David Zechman noted with pride that 87 percent of the contractors for the project were from the West Plains area.

CFO Board member Dusty Shaw, also on the OMC Foundation Board, recognized the CFO’s role during his remarks at the dedication ceremony. New CFO Board Chairman David Pointer also was recognized as the hospital’s legal counsel.

The goal of the Mission-Related Investment initiative is to invest up to 2 percent of the CFO’s assets for low-interest loans for community needs when conventional financing options are not available.

We’d like to welcome this latest group of new funds established since mid-June. Watch the website during the coming year for future acknowledgements of our growth in planned-giving and capacity-building funds.

Beshore Family Foundation – Lance and Sharon Beshore of Carthage established this family and community fund with the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri to assist them with their charitable giving.

John & Betty Brecht Endowment Fund for United Methodist Church in Clinton – Betty Brecht established this designated endowment fund to benefit the United Methodist Church in honor and memory of her late husband, John. Mrs. Brecht also established the John & Betty Brecht Endowment Fund for Clinton Arts Council in honor and memory of John. These are component funds of the Truman Lake Community Foundation.

Community Support Services of Missouri Fund and Community Support Services of Missouri Endowment Fund – These funds were established by Community Support Services in Joplin to help fund the organization’s work with children and adults with developmental disabilities. These also were established with the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri. We also want to welcome Community Support Services as a new agency partner in the social services category.

Billy Coyle Leadership Fund – Bill Coyle established this designated endowment fund to provide a student leadership award to the Conway School District. The student must demonstrate traits and qualities of a leader or have been involved in laboratory opportunities for leadership. Preference will be given to students pursuing higher education as a science teacher, then in the science field and then in law enforcement.

Dallas County Pet Outreach Program Fund – This capacity-building fund will provide for the needs of animals in the Dallas County area, such as spay/neuter services, animal medical bills, and improved living conditions. A component of the Dallas County Community Foundation, the program also will join the CFO as a new agency partner in the environment/animals category.

The Gary Funk Running Jenny Fund for Rural Schools – This Field-of-Interest Fund was established to honor and commemorate outgoing CFO President Gary Funk’s service to the Foundation. Grants from the fund will be used to assist rural schools and education.

Meramec Regional Community Foundation Community Grantmaking Fund – This unrestricted endowment fund will support long-term grantmaking for the Meramec Regional Community Foundation. The Meramec Regional Community Foundation also established a Capacity-Building Fund to provide dollars for grantmaking in the area.

Tri County Pregnancy Resource Center Fund – The newly established Tri County Pregnancy Resource Center established this capacity fund to help support its mission. This component of the Aurora Area Community Foundation also joins the CFO as an agency partner.

West Plains Agriculture-Science Building Fund – The West Plains R-7 Educational Foundation established this capacity-building fund as a component of the Community Foundation of West Plains to support an agriculture-science building project.

EMH at West Plains High School Fund – Haley Bray and Kathy Miller, along with the West Plains R-7 Educational Foundation established this capacity-building fund to support the Educating the Mentally Handicapped program at the high school. This is also a component of the Community Foundation of West Plains.

The Challenge has been made possible by a $100,000 gift from the Walmart Foundation State Giving Program available to match each dollar raised through the CFO’s network of participating affiliates, which largely mirrors the Ozarks Food Harvest’s 29-county service area across southern Missouri.

The Challenge grant was developed in response to a dramatic report - “Hunger in America 2010” – that described the extent to which hunger continues to plague Ozarks communities. Made even more pronounced by the recession, chronic hunger diminishes the lives of some 155,000 Ozarks residents a year.

“According to the landmark “Hunger in America” survey, 25 percent of food pantry clients in southwest Missouri have been laid off in the past 18 months,” says Bart Brown, President and CEO of the Ozarks Food Harvest. “More compelling, one in four of those clients were laid off from professional or managerial jobs.  We’re seeing a new type of client – the unemployed middle class.

“These people have assets such as homes and cars, and if they can manage to hold onto them, these assets disqualify them for federal food programs,” he adds. “The need for private food assistance here in the Ozarks will continue to increase for the next several years because we will be dealing with sustained long-term unemployment, higher and deeper poverty levels, and dramatic increases in food insecurity.”

Brown and the OFH staff are gratified by the feedback they receive from clients who have found the food bank’s network of programs, including the mobile food pantries, the Weekend Backpack Program and the Kids Café, which serves hot meals or snacks to about 1,000 children each night in 26 Ozarks communities.

Here are some examples of what they’ve told the Ozarks Food Harvest:

“A lot of times we don’t have enough stuff to put a meal together. We eat a can of vegy for a meal or sometimes plain rice. If it was not for the pantry, we would not eat at all.

–Rebecca, age 42

“At the age of 31, I lost my job, couldn’t get any assistance, had two young children and I went to the restaurant dumpster each evening to get whatever food  I could to feed my kids. For about two and a half months, that was how I fed my family.”

–Kerry, age 40

“I’m hungry all the time. It gets on my nerves. It makes me have a big tummy ache. Geez.”

–Wade, age 5

One of the benefits of tackling hunger through the Ozarks Food Harvest is that it is able to use its network of resources to leverage about $10 in food for every $1 donated, which is why the $100,000 Walmart grant has the capacity to leverage $1 million in food.

For more information on how to help CFO affiliates meet their challenge goals, please e-mail Winter Skelton, Development Operations Coordinator, or call 417-864-6199.

On the Web:

This animated graphic visualizes the spread of unemployment across the United States.

This “Hunger in the Ozarks” video was presented by the Jeannette L. Musgrave Foundation, the Roy W. Slusher Foundation, and the Lelia Heuer Foundation.

Springfield public radio station, KSMU, aired a June 14 report on the program, which is made possible through the CFO’s Ozark Plateau Initiative to bring visiting artists to rural communities.

Shell Knob hosted a performance by Jim and Kim Lansford Saturday, June 12, to accompany the exhibition “This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs of the 1930s,” which continues at the Old Church Gallery through June 15.

Mountain Grove also hosted an “Opry-style” performance Saturday, June 12, by Les Gillham, to go with the “The Grand Ole Opry” exhibit, which continues through June 15 at the Mountain Grove Senior Center. The local history and Arts Councils developed this project to coincide with Mountain Grove’s community fair.

Willard’s exhibition – “Apron Strings: Ties to the Past” – continues at Rocco’s Italian Restaurant through June 15. Colleen Mallette performed there to accompany the exhibit.

Eldon also chose “The Grand Ole Opry” as its exhibition, which will run from June 21-25 at the Senior Center of Eldon. Jim and Kim Lansford will perform on June 25 at the Senior Center.

Houston selected the “Apron Strings” exhibition, which will run from June 23-July 7 in conjunction with Licking’s summer Rodeo, along with a performance to be announced.

The Ozark Plateau Initiative, created in 2005 through leadership provided by Springfield philanthropist Sally Baird, undertook this project with the Mid-America Arts Alliance to serve CFO’s regional affiliate communities. Since its inception, programs have taken place in Salem, Seymour, West Plains, Cuba, Stockton, Forsyth, Gainesville, Poplar Bluff, Carthage, Clinton, Hermitage, Mt. Vernon, Marshfield and Ozark. The Missouri Arts Council has joined the partnership by providing resources to continue the program for more communities in the future.

John White, U.S. Department of Education deputy assistant secretary for rural outreach, speaks at the Rural Schools Partnership conference in Thomasville.

To hear more about the conference, listen to KSMU’s report.

The newly christened Ozarks Teacher Corps is an innovative partnership that will be worth watching to see if it can be replicated in other rural areas, said John White, a U.S. Department of Education leader who attended the annual Rural Schools Partnership conference Thursday in Thomasville, Mo.

White, the Department’s deputy assistant secretary for rural outreach, joined more than 120 rural educators and students in the tiny Oregon County community for a day of celebrating new projects and learning more about the principles of placed-based education that define the Rural Schools Partnership.

The inaugural class of the Ozarks Teacher Corps includes 18 students from Drury University, Ozarks Technical Community College and Missouri State University’s campuses in Springfield and West Plains, who will receive annual $4,000 scholarships in return for a commitment to spend at least three years teaching in a rural school after graduation. This program is made possible by the Chesley and Flora Lea Wallis Scholarship Fund, a $1.7 million Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ charitable fund.

White said he came to the Ozarks to see this new program in hopes that it can create a model to help fill critical teacher shortages in rural communities across the country.

“One of the things we want to do from Washington is figure out what from a policy level will be most applicable and work at a local level,” White said, citing programs such as using Skype technology for distance learning and installing technology on school busses for learning during long daily commutes.  “We want to provide support in different ways instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.”

He said the U.S. Department of Education is advocating for more discretionary uses for federal education dollars instead of strictly formula-based funding to schools.

“We can use that to identify programs that are unique, innovative and that work and then invest in them so they can be replicated,” he said.

He also said the Department has made a conscious decision to focus on the philanthropic sector through programs such as the Investing in Innovation Fund grants, an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act initiative to encourage partnerships between school districts and nonprofits such as foundations.

“We know rural philanthropy is alive and well and we’re going to try to set the stage to help more rural schools and communities invest in and rebuild themselves,” White said.

Gary Funk, president of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, which sponsors the Rural Schools Partnership and hosted the Thomasville conference, said he appreciated White’s remarks about the role philanthropy is playing in rural-education needs.

“We have to think of thoughtful ways for how we as a society and we as communities keep these schools open,” Funk said. “We’re going to have to look at public-private partnerships. We know we have the resources in this country to merge philanthropy, partnerships and economic development and do a better job.”

During an afternoon workshop with the Ozarks Teacher Corps’ students at picnic tables along the bank of the Eleven Point National Scenic River, White asked for their ideas on how the federal government can help improve rural schools. Their recommendations included reducing the emphasis on “teaching for tests” in the upcoming reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act; supporting networking groups like the Future Teachers Association; encouraging flexible schedules for non-traditional students; and offering stipends for national board certifications.

“A generation of kids is looking to make the profession more noble,” said Mykie Nash, of Nixa, who is studying elementary education at OTC and MSU.

Melissa Payne, a Drury University elementary education major from Sparta, articulated why many of the students are interested in returning to their rural communities:  “Teachers were always a big part of our lives whether at school functions or at something like the rodeo. I think what made me want to be a teacher was how they treated us as students.”

White reiterated after the workshop that he plans to take back to Washington the seeds of the fledgling Teacher Corps program to plant in other rural communities.

“What’s unique is it’s specifically intended to create the next generation of teachers, which is critically needed,” he said.  “It’s encouraging to see they are all on the same wavelength about how to elevate the profession.”

The inaugural class of the Ozarks’ Teachers Corps includes:

• Class of 2012: Kathy Bradshaw (Norwood) Drury, Secondary English; Rachel Buck (Monett) OTC/Drury, Elementary Education; Derik Collins (Dora) MSU-West Plains, Secondary Business; Rachel Dean (Hurley) MSU, Middle School Math/Science; Chelsea Fox (Dora) MSU-West Plains, Elementary Education; Rhiannon Hadley (Birch Tree) MSU-West Plains, Elementary Education; Nicole Matney (Willard) OTC/MSU, Secondary Mathematics; and Mykie Nash (Nixa) OTC/MSU, Elementary Education

• Class of 2011: Lauryn Albrecht (Republic) Drury, Elementary Education; Albert Bryant (Everton) Drury, Secondary Mathematics; Lucas England (Koshkonong) MSU-West Plains, Secondary Social Studies; Suzanne Feldman (Buffalo) Drury, Secondary Mathematics; Jessica Joiner (Lebanon) Drury, Elementary Education; Morgan Mais (Marionville) Drury, Elementary Education; Lita Meeks (Monett) MSU, Elementary Education; Whitney Packwood (Billings) Drury, Elementary Education; Melissa Payne (Sparta) Drury, Elementary Education; and Glenda Wahlert (Cassville) MSU, Elementary Education