Students inside Leeton's Bulldog Express.

A couple of weeks ago, the current class of Ozarks Teacher Corps members took a trip to Leeton, Missouri, to learn about the place-based projects that the school has implemented, partially with the help of some grants from the Rural Schools Partnership and CFO. Chief among those projects is the Bulldog Express, a student-run store that serves as the only grocer in the small town of about 700 people. You can see photos of our visit here.

But the Ozarks Teacher C0rps were not the only folks visiting Leeton from afar this month; ABC World News with Diane Sawyer als0 came to town as part of their Bringing Back America series. The spotlight was on the store and the students, and the benefits for the town which fell victim to big-box stores in neighboring cities and the flailing economy.

You can watch the store here (sorry, no embed code that we could find). This is a huge spotlight for a town and district that deserve all the praise they can get for their forward-thinking, action-oriented cooperation.

UPDATE: You can keep up with the Firehouse Coffee Shop’s progress on Facebook.

What a difference a year makes.

Twelve months ago, the city of St. James was in mourning. A tragic school bus accident last August, just up the road on I-44 in St. Louis, had killed a student and injured many more, and also took a bit of the town’s innocence.

With the accident as a backdrop, school began just a few short weeks later. For the first time the staff included Terrill Story, a former youth pastor who was a last-minute addition to the overburdened counseling staff. But as the school healed, Terrill saw in his position more than a temporary job – he saw a new way, with the help of a dedicated faculty and administration, to drastically improve students’ lives.

Over the course of the 2010-11 school year, Terrill went to work, establishing the school’s active Youth Empowerment Project chapter (he is currently the sponsor) and submitting an application for a 2011 Coover grant (click here for information and an application on the 2012 Coover program). The mission: to transform a dilapidated, abandoned city firehouse into a coffee shop that would not only raise funds for the YEP chapter’s local philanthropic efforts, but also give students and the community a safe, comfortable place to eat, study and gather.

(Click and watch Terrill Story explains what he hopes the coffee shop will accomplish for the students of St. James)

The project was one of eight selected to receive 2011 Coover grants, and was awarded to the chapter in May at the RSP’s annual get-together in Thomasville, Mo. Work began late that month, just days before school ended.

“I thought nothing short of a stick of dynamite would help the place,” says St. James High School Principal Keith McCarthy.

But all it really needed was an energetic tenant. The building is leased from the city of St. James, which agreed to rewire and bring the space up to code in exchange for a $5 monthly rent. (In fact, one St. James YEP member was so excited that she drove to city hall and plopped down the first month’s $5 from her own pocket.)

It’s taken a small army of students and endless hours from Terrill and his family, but the project is taking shape, and should open for business sometime in early September.

It will take a similar small army to keep the coffee shop – dubbed Firehouse Coffee Shop – staffed and operational. While students can’t be there during the day, Terrill says a number of groups have agreed to help out, including townspeople, home-school students and parents interested in getting involved, and members of the Missouri Options Program, run through the St. James Alternative School. These students spend half the day in studies, and the other half either in jobs or community service.

One of these students is Brandon Toebben, 18, who on a recent Tuesday was on hand to help Terrill sweep up the exterior of the coffeehouse before heading to practice with the St. James football team. Brandon is interested in a career in in the culinary field, and sees the kitchen at Firehouse Coffee Shop, which will service light meals including soups, salads and sandwiches, as a great step toward that goal. He also hopes to help further the hangout’s mission of keeping fellow students from getting into bad situations and making bad choices.

(Click to watch Brandon talk about how he hopes Firehouse Coffee Shop helps students.)

There are a few things still to do, though much of it is the city’s donated electrical work. Terrill keeps detailed “to-do” lists posted around the coffee shop, and even though the new school year has already started in St. James, he and the school’s art faculty and Art Club (who are responsible for much of the interior) are pulling long hours along with their students to get the project completed.

If early buzz is any indication, St. James is ready for Firehouse to open for good. From a practical standpoint, St. James currently doesn’t have a dedicated coffee house. And from a sentimental standpoint, many in St. James are excited to see the previously abandoned ex-firehouse turn into a vital part of the community once more. In homage, Firehouse Coffee Shop will feature donated firefighter gear, old photos of the station and trucks in action, and other odes to the history of the town and department.

(Click and watch Terrill talk about the community’s reaction to the renovations.)

Other tasks to complete include the exterior, which already includes a sensational mural bearing the coffee house’s name. Terrill hopes to partner with the Environmental Club to build a small “reflection garden” for students to remember the classmate they lost, and provide a spot for quiet thought.

But in the end, it’s about learning, tutoring and peer-to-peer connecting.

“I really want this to be a place for kids to go when home isn’t the best option,” says Terrill. The shop’s after school-to-6 p.m. hours (open to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday) should make that possible.

“This should be a place of continuity, a place to pay it forward and invest in something.”

There’s no denying that it has been a heat bomb of a summer in the Ozarks. The sweltering temperatures have made outdoor work miserable, and keeping living things alive has been something of a challenge.

With that in mind, students in the Chadwick R-1 School District should be doubly impressed by the transformation that awaits them when the new school year begins August 22. And a number of community volunteers, students and school staff from the small, rural town in eastern Christian County have put in the sweat equity to make sure it gets done.

With the help of a $19,989 Coover grant the Chadwick campus, instead of a hardscrabble space between school buildings, will now have a fully functional outdoor classroom and Ozark Mountain herb garden. With a little financial boost, students, volunteers and staffers from Lowe’s in nearby Ozark have turned a previously useless patch of gravel and grass into one of the most innovative classroom projects in southern Missouri.

With the additional help of a $5,000 Heroes Grant from Lowe’s–which included materials, plants, furnishings and expert advice–multi-tiered levels of decks and sitting space have been erected where previously there was limestone chat and scrub brush. Umbrellas, a shade awning and multiple access points make the space comfortable and useful for all students.

For the schools, the herb garden will serve cross-curricular purposes; students will not only maintain and grow the plants, but learn about their home uses, medicinal properties, and importance to the Ozarks’ early history and ecology in classes spanning from elementary school to high school.

Other project objectives, as outlined in the grant proposal, include a website to track the project’s progress, a space in the garden reserved for elementary students, a community display at Chadwick’s annual Railroad Days celebration and collaboration with Christian County’s Master Gardener chapter for professional assistance.

The project was one of eight to receive more than $140,000 in 2011 Coover grantmaking funds last May at the Rural Schools Rendezvous in Thomasville, Mo. Selected projects must meet the Rural School Partnership‘s mission of connecting schools and communities through the principles of place-based education. The RSP now taking applications for the 2012 Coover grantmaking round; click here to apply. The application period ends March 2, 2012.

The grants are made possible by the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Place-Based Education Grantmaking Program of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks in partnership with Commerce Trust. The Rural Schools Partnership is a CFO initiative.

This week in Chadwick, the deadline heat to complete the project before school actually outweighed the temperature heat. The sky was overcast and temperatures mild as a parent-volunteer pounded pavers and Lowe’s employees assembled furniture.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Ashlee Jones, president of Chadwick’s Future Farmers of America chapter, and a few of her fellow officers looked around the space and talked about its potential uses. They had also helped unload a mountain of lumber when it was delivered earlier in the summer. “We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into with the size of that lumber delivery,” she said with a laugh. “This is something that shows Chadwick is taking a step forward, and something that the students can be proud of.”

Wheeler takes the long view: When asked what purpose he hope the space is serving 10 years from now, he says he hopes to be able to sit in the corner, sip on some sweet tea, watch the students and “plan what to do with the next 10 years.”

We can only hope that summer isn’t quite as hot.

Soon after Monday’s announcement that the CFO would open the recovery fund on behalf of its largest affiliate, the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc., donors began expressing their faith in Joplin’s future with an estimated $250,000 in direct donations and commitments so far. The CFO is committing 100 percent of the donations for mid- to long-term recovery grants to non-profits working on the civic, economic, human services and educational needs created by Sunday’s historic storm.

While the immediate work in Joplin remains focused on emergency needs and search-and-rescue efforts, the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri is starting to form a Joplin area leadership group that will take responsibility for developing recovery grantmaking strategies.

“My heart is still so sad, but today we’ve been able to start helping people recover, so that’s the good news,” said Michelle Ducre, the CFO’s staff associate for the Joplin-Carthage area.

The CFSWM also opened the Joplin Tornado First Response Fund this week at the request of the City of Joplin for shorter-term needs.

Some examples of the generosity and support that donors have announced include:

• The Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation, a long-time partnership between Commerce Trust and the CFO, quickly matched the CFO’s $10,000 donation to seed the Joplin Recovery Fund with a $10,000 donation.
• U.S. Bancorp donated $50,000 to the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, as part of its $100,000 commitment to Joplin’s relief and rebuilding efforts. U.S. Bancorp, which operates U.S. Bank locations across Missouri, also donated $25,000 to the Greater Ozarks Chapter of the American Red Cross and $25,000 to United Way.
• The City of West Plains, where the CFO has one of its two regional offices along with the Joplin-Carthage area, endorsed the Joplin Recovery Fund for its residents interested in helping its western Missouri neighbor rebuild.
• Regional community foundations, including the Tulsa Community Foundation, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Southeast Kansas, are encouraging their interested donors to support the Joplin Recovery Fund.

Private donors from 25 states and Canada also have made contributions this week, some fueled by local connections and others moved by national media reports projecting Joplin’s resiliency and humanity in coping with nature’s fury. And several Joplin-area employers have opened  benevolence funds to assist their own employees who have lost family members, suffered injuries, or sustained major property losses.

Donations can be made online at: http://www.cfozarks.org/donate. Please note either “Joplin Recovery Fund” or “Joplin Tornado First-Response Fund” in the fund/program box. Checks can be sent to: Community Foundation of the Ozarks, P.O. Box 8960, Springfield, MO, 65801. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by the IRS.

For any questions about the Joplin Recovery Fund, please call the Community Foundation at (417) 864-6199 or e-mail: cfo@cfozarks.org.

The second annual Rural Schools Rendezvous in Thomasville, Mo., last week brought together some 150 educators, students, philanthropists and experts for a day of sharing ideas and inspiration for maintaining rural schools.

The CFO’s Rural Schools Partnership held the conference at the Thomasville Community Center in Oregon County, where CFO Executive Committee member Dusty Shaw hosted the group.

The day then featured a series of presentations and workshops facilitated by Margaret MacLean, Jereann King Johnson, and Robert Mahaffey of The Rural School and Community Trust in Washington, D.C.; Jim Beddow, Randy Parry, and Mike Knutson of the Rural Learning Center in Minor County, S.D.; Lavina Grandon of the Rural Community Alliance in Arkansas; and CFO’s own Carol Silvey, who led a lively discussion on building school foundations.

New members of the Ozarks Teacher Corps were introduced and the inaugural class was recognized. The  2011 Coover Place-Based Grant recipients were honored at the Rendezvous picnic under a big tent.  Eight schools received grants totaling $140,823 for projects that promote the Rural Schools Partnership’s mission of connecting schools and communities through the principles of place-based education.

The grants are made possible by the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Place-Based Education Grantmaking Program of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks in partnership with Commerce Trust.

Here is a summary of this year’s grants:

• Leeton R-X: $20,000 for the School Based Enterprise Bulldog Express, which will expand the community grocery in a larger location and  add a coffee shop/deli.
• Chadwick: $19,989 for a project to study the edible and medicinal benefits of Ozark Mountain herbs and build an outdoor classroom.
• Sherwood-Cass: $20,000 for “The Sherwood Forest,” a campus Master Treescape and Beautification Plan and enhance the carbon-credit awareness and green operational strategy capacities of the students and community.
• Fairview – $19,534 for a water awareness project to train middle-school students about freshwater quality and mentor lower-elementary teachers to teach younger students. The project will culminate a community-wide “Fresh Water Awareness Festival.”
• Stockton: $16,700 for a “Tiger Community Pride”  project to build a pavilion, and a vegetable/flower garden, including  research on Missouri wildflowers and their benefits.
• St. James YEP – $20,000 to start Firehouse Coffee, a student community enegagement center in a 2,500-square-foot old firehouse that also will host summer concerts to generate revenue for the YEP fund.
• Glenwood:  $4,600 for ”Grow Our Strengths,” a project to build raised beds to grow produce to use in the school kitchen and donate to the community food pantry, along with learning to compost school kitchen waste.
• Dora:  $20,000 for ”Dora Digital Story Telling,” where students will complete a “digital story” based on a community inquiry project that analyzes an aspect of the Ozarks.

Building trades student Robert Eubanks works on installation of a lighting fixture at the Willard Transition House under construction adjacent to Willard High School.

Construction of the Willard Transition House is right on schedule despite recent stretches of winter weather.

The 29 students in Steve Vaughn’s building-trades classes at Willard High School rotate work shifts at the house during the class periods. The 3,000-square-foot house will serve as a living classroom for special-needs students to learn life skills when the next school year starts in August.

The Willard Transition House received a $20,000 grant last year from the Coover Place-Based Education Grants made possible through the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Regional Grantmaking Program in partnership with Commerce Trust. The project also is supported by federal stimulus funds and the Willard Children’s Charitable Foundation.

With Vaughn and the professional contractors by their side, the students do the actual construction work. When that work is largely completed, students from other classes, such as agriculture and interior design will move in to work on landscaping and furnishings.

“It gives you something to look forward to during the day,” said senior Dillon Johnson. “You’re pushing your limits – everybody’s growing on this job site because you’re doing things you’ve never done before.”

A full story about the Willard Transition House will run in the CFO’s spring newsletter.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks, in partnership with Commerce Trust Company, awarded $105,000 to 12 organizations serving rural poverty needs across southern Missouri.

The 2011 Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Regional Grantmaking Program has awarded a total of 194 grants worth $2.6 million for efforts to fight rural poverty since the program began in 2003. This year’s awards focus heavily on hunger and backpack programs to help ensure that kids and their families have enough nutritious food, particularly over weekends when school breakfast and lunch resources are not available. The grant committee reviewed more than $500,000 in requests for this competitive grant cycle.

“We had many strong requests, but the review panel felt that our highest priority should be working to defeat the chronic problems that affect kids across our region,” said Jill Reynolds, vice president at Commerce Trust and secretary of the CFO Board of Directors. “Kids can’t succeed at learning or at life if they are hungry, or need medical or dental care. All of these recipients honor the work Mrs. Coover wanted to support through her legacy gift.”

Mrs. Coover was a 30-year employee at Commerce Bank who established the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in 1992 to honor her husband’s memory.

The following agencies received 2011 Coover Regional Grantmaking awards:

• Southwest R-V School District: $13,000 for a backpack program.
• Gift of Hope, Inc.: $6,000 for its Backpack Club program serving Taney County students.
• Weaubleau, Wheatland and Hickory County school districts: $15,000 for a Back Snacks program run by teen volunteers.
• Halfway R-III School District: $16,000 to provide Back Snacks for students in need.
• Ozark County Community Foundation, Gainesville R-V School District and the Ozark County Ministerial Alliance: $14,000 for a weekend backpack program.
• Carthage Crosslines Ministry: $2,500 to apply toward cost of a freezer to increase food-storage capacity.
• West Plains Christian Clinic: $10,000 to renovate and equip a room in the clinic.
• Children’s Smile Center: $6,000 to provide dental screenings for an additional 450 children in Christian and Stone counties.
• Faith Community Health: $7,500 to provide for nearly 400 additional patient appointments for Stone and Taney County clients.
• Cardinal Cares Program: $5,000 to provide food and clothing for children in the Clinton School District.
• Newborns in Need, Inc., Southwest Missouri Chapter: $3,000 for services for sick and needy babies and their families in Douglas, Laclede, Ozark, Webster and Wright counties.
• Sigma House of Springfield: $7,000 to help clients who suffer from treatable medical or dental conditions in Greene, Christian, Taney, Stone, Barry, Lawrence, Dade, Webster, Polk, Dallas and Douglas counties.

This partnership between the CFO and Commerce Trust Company will award grants to agencies outside of Springfield-Greene County that are working on new or innovative programs aimed at fighting rural poverty.

Last year, more than $109,000 was awarded to eight regional agencies.

The applications can be submitted online. Any questions about the Coover Regional Grantmaking Program can be directed to Julie Leeth, (417) 864-6199.

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.