Community Foundation of the Ozarks

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. (more…)

Congratulations to the St. James Area Community Foundation for receiving a $10,000 grant from the James Foundation to assist with the cost of a feasibility study future options for the St. James community swimming pool. The St. James Area Community Foundation raised another $4,200 to cover the additional costs of the study.

The Community swimming pool was originally built by the James Foundation I the 1960s, and the community recreational facility is need of several major repairs and upgrades in order to continue to provide St. James families with a summer time recreational activity. The study will determine what the best options for the facility’s future are. For the next step in the process, the St. James Area Community Foundation will conduct a community awareness campaign and seek input from residents.

The work of the St. James Area Community Foundation here is good reminder of the unique position foundations are in to meet important community needs through leadership and asset development.