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Garfield County commissioners recently awarded $25,000 in quarterly discretionary grants to qualifying area nonprofit and educational organizations.
The Board of County Commissioners, at its May 11 meeting, unanimously approved six grant requests, as well as a joint request from the Garfield County Public Library District and Colorado Mountain College (CMC) to improve access to internet services.
Recognizing its efforts to bolster area food pantry distributions, county commissioners agreed to award $5,000 to UpRoot Colorado for its charitable crop gleaning efforts.
UpRoot Colorado collects fresh fruits and vegetables from Garfield County’s farms, backyard gardens and fruit trees and donates them to the LIFT-UP food pantries throughout the county.
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In addition, Garfield County Libraries and CMC were awarded $2,500 toward the launch of a wi-fi hotspot-lending program that assists residents and students without internet access. The project comes as the COVID-19 public health response has moved K-12 and college education delivery, job functions and government services to online platforms.
The program aim to create 45 hotspots with data for the public to use on a library loan basis. The library district and CMC in Rifle are providing $5,000 and $2,500, respectively, to support the program. The hotspots are loaned to customers in a similar manner as books are lent.
Other nonprofit recipients of second-quarter grants are:
- Liberty Classical Academy — $5,000 toward the school’s theatre arts program
- Youth Water Leadership Program — $2,500 to fund watershed literacy for local students
- Roaring Fork Youth Orchestra — $2,500 to help cover scholarships for music lessons and training
- Lower Valley Trail Association (LOVA) — $5,000 toward its trail-building efforts between Glenwood Springs and New Castle through South Canyon
- West Elk Trails — $2,500 for winter recreation trails management expenses for the 2020-21 season.
Garfield County’s quarterly discretionary grants are made available to local nonprofits and governmental entities, and are capped at $5,000.
The county allocated $120,000 for 2020 out of its discretionary grant fund. The $25,000 the board awarded this quarter, coupled with $27,500 in first-quarter grants awarded in February, leaves a balance of $67,500 in the fund for the third and fourth quarters.