Rochester Area Foundation Funds Local Youth Nature Program

The Friends of the Quarry Hill Nature Center in Rochester has received $25,000 in new funding for its youth nature program from the Rochester Area Foundation. 

The funding includes a grant of $18,000 from the foundation's general fund and two grants totaling $7,000 from the foundation's donor-advised funds to support the Traveling Naturalist Program. The program will take students to remote sites for environmental studies, take nature center staff and programs to remote locations to provide off-site programs, and transport students to the nature center for classes and activities.

Another grant of $8,000 from the foundation's longtime Jenny Mo Fund went toward a request by Rochester Area Disabled Athletics and Recreation (RADAR) to purchase adaptive downhill and alpine ski equipment and assist with costs for training instructors. The project aims to increase participants' physical level of activity, socialization opportunities and self-esteem.

Other recipients of the Rochester Area Foundation's recent grants include:

• The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Olmsted County received $5,000 to help fund a three-year project to hire a part-time volunteer coordinator who would involve mental health consumers and family members as volunteers in the delivery of programs designed to empower families and support professionals.
     
• The Reading Center and the Dyslexia Institute of Minnesota received $4,865 for a project to collaborate with the Intercultural Mutual Assistance Association (IMAA) in Rochester using the highly successful Orton-Gillingham approach to increase the written English skills for IMAA staff members who are immigrants. With staff more proficient in written English, they will be better able to perform their work as advocates and counselors for clients.
     
• Rochester Area Family YMCA received $26,000 for its capital campaign for facility renovation and expansion.
     
• Rochester Art Center received $15,000 to assist it in re-examining its finances and strategic direction, including reassessing systems, staffing, processes, operations and programs at its new facility.

The foundation also awarded grants from it donor-advised funds to organizations such as Channel One, Olmsted County Historical Society, Boys and Girls Club, Catholic Charities, St. Luke's Episcopal Church and United Way of Olmsted County.

In total, the Rochester Area Foundation awarded more than $133,000 in funding in its latest grant round.

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