Community Foundation of the Ozarks

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.

CAPTION: Jill Reynolds, Vice President of Commerce Trust and CFO board member, along with Doug Thornsberry, CFO board member, present grant awards to representatives from the Ripley County Caring Community Partnership.

The Louis and Dorothy Coover Regional Grantmaking Program, a partnership between Community Foundation of the Ozarks and Commerce Trust Company, awarded $109,475.00 to 8 agencies serving the Missouri Ozarks in a grant presentation held on November 17th. This year’s Coover awards focused directly on solutions aimed at fighting rural poverty. The review panel received 35 applications representing $485,909.00 in requested funds. Organizations with regional service areas that are primarily outside of metropolitan Springfield and Greene County are encouraged to apply. Mrs. Coover, a 30 year employee of Commerce Bank, established the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in 1992 to honor the memory of her husband.

Recipients of the 2009-2010 Coover Regional Awards are as follows:
Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks – $14,000
This grant will allow the Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks to assist additional children from rural Taney & Stone counties, ages 6-15 years, who fall at or below 125% of federal poverty guidelines. The children will have access to high-quality, day-long youth development programming opportunities & physical activities during the summer.

Cabool Development Foundation – $13,000
This grant seeks to make affordable primary health care available to 43,000 residents of a 4-county region in South Central Missouri. Cabool Development Foundation has partnered with a federally qualified Health Center (Southern Missouri Community Health Center in West Plains) to help realize that goal through medical, dental and mental health care services.

Care to Learn – Bolivar, Nixa and Ozark – $15,000
Funding available through this programming will address emergency hunger, health, and hygiene needs of students in each district through food backpacks, food vouchers, clothing vouchers, hygiene items, and financial assistance for medical needs. This project is based on the very successful model started through Mr. Doug Pitt’s “Care to Learn Foundation” in Springfield.

Hope’s Bridge – $14,500
This organization is dedicated to the temporary care of children whose families are in crisis in Polk, Dallas, Cedar, Hickory, Benton and Webster counties. Funding from this grant will provide for additional staff & operational needs and is intended to double the capacity to provide temporary care for the children; thus helping families remain intact while their needs are being met.

Ozarks Resource Group – $13,950
The programming and grant assistance provided through this grant will help provide a centralized, safe location for parents to access when they need assistance through the Family Resource Center; and, help assist students in Hickory County to make healthy and responsible choices.

Ripley County Caring Community Partnership – $9,025
The funding being made available to this program will provide impoverished students with evening meals, while participating in the Ripley County CASASTART Program — a community-based, after school program that provides Doniphan R-1 students ages 8-13 the opportunity to work with tutors and mentors.

Samaritan Outreach Center – $15,000
This center in West Plains provides emergency shelter and a viable means of support to homeless people in the South Central Ozarks who need assistance in re-entering society. The services available for individuals who access the facility include referral and placements for employment, housing, transportation, educational opportunities, mental health services, and a broad range of children’s services.

The Samaritan Center – $15,000
The Samaritan Center is the only food and clothing distribution center in Henry County and has provided services for clients in Henry, St. Clair and Benton County for 22 years. This grant will allow the center to increase its services to 100 additional families by providing 150,000 pounds of meat, fruits, and vegetables. This will increase their total service outreach to 800 families in the counties served.

To view and/or listen to the story on KSMU/National Public Radio about these grant awards, please click here. 

Nine of Missouri’s ten poorest counties, in terms of per capita income, are in the rural Ozarks (Douglas, Hickory, Oregon, Ozark, Ripley, Shannon, Texas, Washington, and Wright). All of the counties and towns across the Ozarks are familiar with the problems associated with rural poverty. In the spring, The Louis and Dorothy Coover Regional Grantmaking Program, a partnership between Commerce Trust Company and CFO, awarded a number of grants targeting poverty in rural Ozarks communities.

Formalizing the precedent established in the last round of grants from the Coover program, a fall grant cycle that will exclusively seek to support grants that directly impact the effects and conditions of rural poverty in the Ozarks has been added for 2009.

The Coover regional grantmaking program supports organizations with regional service areas outside of metropolitan Springfield and Greene County.

• Coover grant requests are due by 5:00 P.M. October 30, 2009.
• Awards are November 17, 2009.

For more information or to apply visit the Coover Regional grantmaking program page of our website.