Ski Town Rotary Club Announces 2022 Grant Recipients, $35,000 Awarded

2023 Ski Town Rotary Club Grants

Every year the Ski Town USA Rotary Club (the Morning Club) awards grant funding to a variety of local nonprofits to support great community causes. The 2022 grant cycle year was no different, with the club giving out more than $35,000 in local grants as part of its efforts to help support the local community. “Our local annual grant cycle is one of the most important things that we do every year, and we're proud to help out these important local organizations that are doing so much good for our community,” says committee chairman Todd Carr. Without further ado, this year’s grant winners are (drum roll please):

SB High School After Prom Committee: Helps support a safe, drug and alcohol free after party for the High School Students attending this event that is free to all students that is monitored and hosted by adult chaperones. Total Award: $1,500

Integrated Community: Integrated Community’s goal is to strengthen our community through building respectful relationships between immigrant and local neighbors while creating awareness of different cultures within our community. Its programs break down the linguistic, cultural, and systemic barriers that prevent people from accessing services and resources in our community. In particular, its Study Friends program focuses on providing at-risk school-age youth with additional tutoring in order to improve their English and cognitive skills giving them the ability and confidence to integrate and actively participate at a level equal to their peers. Total Award; $2,500

Lift Up of Routt County: Rocket Pack Program: This grant funding will be used to purchase snacks for Lift Up of Routt County’s Rocket Pack program, whose healthy snacks and summer lunches for children program currently serves 600 Routt County children per week. It’s intended to prevent children from being hungry during the school day, so that they are nourished and better able to focus on classes, rather than being focused on hunger. Any adult can register a child for Rocket Pack, with Lift Up’s staff ordering the snacks, shopping for fruit and creating the menu for each week. Total Award: $2,500

Northwest Colorado Health’s Youth Resiliency Program: These funds help garner supplies for Northwest Colorado Health’s expanding Youth Resiliency Program, which utilizes small groups, classroom presentations, community music events, and adult trainings to address the feelings of adversity that youth experience associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). The program is aimed at decreasing the negative behavioral and physical health outcomes that have been linked with ACEs, increasing protective factors associated with positive outcomes. It utilizes a variety of materials to support resiliency skill building, emotional processing, and creative expression, a proven way for children to access, process and understand emotions, connect with others, and build resiliency skills. Total Award: $1,500

Steamboat Tennis Association: SERVES started in Routt County in 2018 with the support of USTA Colorado. SERVES is a program for under resourced children. This program teaches tennis skills and life skills, including teamwork, controlling tempers, integrity, respect, gratitude, and trust. Total Award: $500

Partners for Youth: This Community-Based Mentoring (CBM) program serves youth, ages 7-17, that are victims of abuse or neglect, familial incarceration, substance abuse, and other defined risk criteria by matching them with an adult volunteer (mentor) that is recruited, screened, trained, and supervised by a Partners Case Manager. Partnerships make a commitment to spend three hours a week for a minimum of 12 months together, serving as a friend, advocate, and role model to the mentee. Total Award: $5,000

The Cycle Effect: Funding from this grant helps The Cycle Effect’s growing program to purchase additional equipment needed for one new participant, offer free bike tuning and provide more scholarship opportunities. TCE additionally offers scholarship and fulfills every request so that cost is not a barrier to entry. Total Award: $1,000

Steamboat Reading Org: With a significant number (31%) of students in the Steamboat Springs School District not reading at grade level, Steamboat Reading is uniquely positioned to fill the gaps and help ensure that all children learn to read—with the right supports, 95% of children can gain the skills necessary to be successful readers. Total Award: $2,000.

Routt County Riders RCR: Bike Match Program: This year’s grant helps Routt County Riders continue to outfit the Bike Match trailer as a mobile bike shop, used the trailer to conduct mobile maintenance events throughout Routt County. While most volunteer mechanics are only available for events in the evenings, their work period is constrained by available daylight and time spent pumping up bike tires with a hand pump. The grant will be used to help outfit the trailer with a solar power supply, electric compressor, and LED area lighting, allowing volunteers to work past dusk and reduce time currently spent inflating tires. Total Award: $1,000.

Steamboat Art Museum: SAM received funds for its Education Programming that reaches youth and school groups, elder groups, human service groups as well as adults and families of all ages, incorporating subjects such as the heritage of the West, English language learning, vocabulary building, public speaking, art history, and natural science. It welcomes Homeschoolers, Boys and Girls Club, Yampatika, Discovery Center Preschool, Kids Kabin, Emergent Bilingual Students, and Caseys's Pond, Questers, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, Young at Art Writers, Totally Kids Camp and City Kids Camp. It anticipates reaching over 850 in youth and student groups throughout the year. Total Award: $1,000

Soroco Agricultural Education and FFA: Soroco has a new commercial kitchen built at the high school,; this funding will help it purchase equipment and supplied to be installed to fulfill the needs to teach food processing. Total Award: $2,500.

Boys and Girls Club: The Boys & Girls Club has a bike fleet of 80 bikes all tuned and safe for youth to ride. Over the course of the summer, 586 kids ages 6-14 rode a bike at least one time—riding on field trips to the Botanic Gardens, Strings concerts, Old Town Hot Springs, parks and more. As we plan for summer 2023, we see a great opportunity to increase skills and enjoyment associated with riding bikes by adding bike ramps and skills obstacles to our program. The grant helps those efforts, as well as increasing skills by engaging with jumps, ramps, balances beams, teeter totters and more. Total Award: $1,000

Generation U: Generation U uses the talents of young athletes here in Steamboat Springs to help change lives in Africa by providing communities 8,000 miles away with clean water. Gen U Athletes help raise awareness about the water crisis in Uganda and other parts of Africa, while learning about the science behind well-building, the socioeconomic benefits of these communities having access to clean water, and visiting said communities to assist with building the wells. Total Award: $4,000

REPS Reaching Everyone Suicide Prevention: Reaching Everyone Preventing Suicide (REPS) provides education, prevention, intervention, and postvention in Routt and Moffat counties. REPS currently provides two programs designed specifically for youth in the schools throughout the county: It Takes Courage (Middle School program) and High School Presentations, both providing direct education to youth related to bullying, mental health, depression and suicide prevention. It is working to update these programs to be more inclusive and incorporate LGBTQIA+ information and resources to destigmatize the issue and provide a lifeline for struggling youth of all demographics. Total Award: $2,000

Warhorse Ranch: Warhorse Ranch is actively expanding its collaborations with community organizations to advance mental health wellness among children by 1) working with NWBOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services) to provide mental health services to select High School students through NWBOCES’ School to Work Alliance Program; 2) partnering again with the Colorado New Play Festival and International Rescue Committee (IRC), which last year created a life-changing experience for six Syrian refugee children who had lost their fathers in the Syrian civil war; and 3) collaborating with the Boys and Girls Club and its Torch Club teens coming to the ranch to groom horses and discuss topics the children may be struggling with. Total Award: $1,000

Yampa Valley Autism: YVA students spend hours in therapy, classroom settings and training programs designed to prepare them to engage with their peers, family members and employers in typical social societal settings. This grant will help them also have fun participating in activities like alpine skiing or mountain biking with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC), while practicing their social skills. The Special Activities Support (SAS) program provides specialized, highly trained staff to individually support kids during their participation in SSWSC activities. For 2023, SAS has so far served nine kids participating in winter SSWSC programs, with the hope to allow all qualifying, interested kids to access SSWSC programming this year. Total Award: $1,000

True North: True North provides day programming for young adults with disabilities, including opportunities for continued learning, socialization, and acquisition of work skills. Independent living skills are taught and practiced in real-world settings to help each person maximize their potential and independence. With this funding it plans to develop comprehensive, individualized plans for all True North clients, and develop a strategy to ensure their strengths are celebrated, weaknesses are targeted, and they have actionable steps to make towards their goals. Total Award: $1,000

Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club: This is an ongoing annual grant made to SSWSC to help its programming for area youth in Steamboat Springs. Total Award: $1,000

About the Grants:

SKI TOWN ROTARY GRANT APPLICATION

Ski Town Rotary supports organizations working to better our youth’s livelihood through programs serving youth in Routt County. Grant requests need to be for a specific new or existing programs or projects. Grant awards range from $1,000 - $5,000 dependent upon amount of Grant requests received and based on need. We encourage and allow organizations to leverage other Grants or financial resources that can be used in combination with Ski Town Rotary Clubs Grant to help you reach your goal.

Important Dates and Grant Information:

· Grant Release Date: February 1st, 2023

· Grant Application Due Date: 02/28/2023 by midnight

· Submit applications via email to: skitownrotaryclub@gmail.com

· Questions about Grant Applications may be emailed to skitownrotaryclub@gmail.com or you may contact Todd Carr at 970-846-4954.

· Grant Review Committee will review Grants throughout the month of March.

· Grant Award Announcements will be no later than 04/01/2023

· Grant Checks will be mailed out by no later than 04/14/2023