Members of the Chequamegon Bay Area Community Fund gather at a reception Thursday announcing grants made by the Fund totalling $5,000 to the Mount Ashwabay Educational Foundation and the City of Ashland for their Ecological Stories Mural in the Lake Shore Drive tunnel.
Members of the Chequamegon Bay Area Community Fund gather at a reception Thursday announcing grants made by the Fund totalling $5,000 to the Mount Ashwabay Educational Foundation and the City of Ashland for their Ecological Stories Mural in the Lake Shore Drive tunnel.
A pair of $2,500 grants will enable a pair of non-profit organizations to carry out plans to benefit the Bay Area community.
The funds come from the Chequamegon Bay Area Community Fund, an affiliate of the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation.
aThey work to raise endowed funds, which are aforever funds,a permanent funds in the community,a she said. aThey take the earnings from those funds and grant them every year to area non-profits.a
The Fund began making grants last year, awarding $1,000 each to aResource Reusea the Ashwabay Outdoor Education Foundation for the Friday night youth program and Junior Ski Patrol, the city of Ashland for the East End Community Garden internship, Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua for the Free Families Matinee and BART bus transportation, Northland College for a summer camp for Native American youth, and Recreation and Fitness Resources, Inc. a Home Base for the North Coast Sailing Program.
This year, the awardees included the city of Ashland for their Ecological Stories Mural in the Lake View Drive tunnel, part of the City of Ashland Mural Walk project, and the Ashwabay Educational Foundation to fund a part-time outreach Education coordinator to teach area school children how to use winter outdoor recreational equipment.
aThis one is really neat,a said Dennison. aThey are actually going to be going into the schools in Bayfield, Washburn and Ashland to teach the students how to use snowshoes and Nordic skis.a
Dennison said the goal was to teach students the fundamentals of winter outdoors equipment in a low-key manner that will help prevent the natural embarrassment school children face when trying something new for the first time.
Dennison said there were significant benefits for getting youngsters involved in winter outdoor activities.
aIn northwestern Wisconsin, we have long, dark winters, and for our mental and physical health, itas so important to get outside, so the neat thing about Ashwabayas program is that they are starting them early and going into the schools rather than asking them to come all the way out to Ashwabay,a she said.
Dennison noted that the city of Ashland is the Mural Capitol of Wisconsin, and has spawned mural projects in Marengo and Highbridge.
aThis ecological stories mural is going to talk about the human relationship with the ecology of the Lake Superior basin, specifically, the Chequamegon Bay area,a she said.
She noted that the grant awards had been increased for this year.
aThat is a testimony to the growth of the fund; they more than doubled their assets last year,a she said. aIt shows that there is support in the community, and it shows that we have an educated community that understands if you give to a permanent fund, you are permanently supporting the community, and when the non-profits need it, we have the funds there ready for them.a
Dennison said the funds come from community donations, and a number of fundraising events, including the Brownstone Days Trail Run and the annual Turkey Trot 5K run.
This year there have also been two new funds established and administered by CBACF that provide grant funding for educational and charitable purposes as advised by the donors, including the Dave Olson and Kathryn Grafsgaard Family Fund, aimed at supporting the preservation of the Lake Superior basin, and to assist with funding for Our Lady of the Lakeas initiative to allow students to attend the Catholic school, and the Albert H.
aWhat does it mean to us? aWe are the Ashwabay Outdoor Education Foundation, and we will be able to meet that mission, we will be able to reach the community in a different way.a
Rose Spieler-Sandberg, an assistant planner with the city of Ashland, said the grant means that not only does the mural project have more financial support, but it represented an additional measure of support from the greater community.
aIt means that the greater community is saying, aYes, we want this to happen,aa she said.
Spieler-Sandburg said the mural would be a work celebrating the ecology in the Chequamegon Bay region.
aIt will be a painted landscape going from a hardwood forest to a wetlands, to the lake, with mosaic animals interspersed throughout,a she said.
