Organization gives out $10K in grants to 12 nonprofits

CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Carthage Area United Way is giving back to 12 local nonprofits.

Earlier this month the united way gave away a $10,000 grant to 12 nonprofits serving Carthage and Barton County.

The money will go towards several projects including updating sinks at the CCS Early Learning Center in Webb City, and helping a nonprofit provide Christmas baskets.

“Together we all achieve greatness is our slogan for this year and that’s what we truly believe. Our community supports each other here in the Carthage area and Barton County. And together we do achieve greatness,” said Della Croft, Executive Director of the Carthage Area United Way.

The grant was paid for through donations to the United Way.

If you would like to donate click here.

Carl Junction is moving forward with an archaeological survey

CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — Carl Junction is conducting an archaeological survey on a piece of land before they can apply for a grant through the National Park Service.

Last week City Council approved a $3,000 archaeological survey for a piece of land on Briarbrook Drive near the clubhouse and parking lot.

The survey must be completed before the city can apply for a $250,000 grant through the National Park Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The grant would be used to build a pavilion and playground on Briarbrook Drive.

The city says the Osage Indian Tribe requested the survey because the tribe previously lived in the area.

“If that comes back with either one of the Indian tribes or there is something historical in the area that it keys. We have to go to that next step, which is a phase one archaeological. They will actually come out to the site, take a look at it. They might take some soil samples and see if there is anything historical or archaeological,” said Steve Lawver, Carl Junction City Administrator.

A firm out of Springfield will be conducting the survey and could start soon weather permitting.

Soutwest Missouri Bank announces Corley Grant recipients

JOPLIN, Mo. – Southwest Missouri Bank, trustee of the W.R. Corley Memorial Trust, has announced the second year of grants from the generous Trust set up by the late Bob Corley. Corley, who passed away in 2019, was a lifelong area resident and entrepreneur who supported many area charities and institutions, such as MSSU, Freeman Health System, Mercy Hospital, Salvation Army, and Spiva Center for the Arts.

“This year we received applications from almost 50 organizations, and were able to assist 36 area non-profits through the distribution of $236,500,” said Chuck Brown, Senior Vice President and Trust Officer at Southwest Missouri Bank.  “Mr. Corley’s legacy will continue to enhance our local communities for many years to come, and will help these organizations provide much-needed services to our residents.”

Organizations receiving funds this year are:

  • Joplin Dental School
  • Joplin Kiwanis
  • Joplin Rotary
  • The Alliance of Southwest Missouri
  • Area Agency on Aging, Region X
  • Aspire Scholarship Program
  • Boys and Girls Club
  • Bright Futures Joplin
  • Bright Futures Neosho
  • Children’s Haven of Southwest Missouri, Inc.
  • Community Clinic of Southwest Missouri
  • Connect2Culture
  • First Christian Church Joplin
  • Foundation of Home Builders Association of Southwest Missouri
  • Freeman Health System
  • God’s Resort
  • Hearts and Hammers
  • Higher Power Garage
  • Jasper County CASA
  • Joplin Area Habitat for Humanity
  • Joplin Historical and Mineral Museum
  • Joplin NALA Read
  • Lafayette House
  • Lion Co-op at MSSU
  • Mercy Health Foundation Joplin
  • Missouri Southern Foundation
  • Neighborhood Life House, Inc.
  • Neosho Area Habitat for Humanity
  • Regional Health and Welfare Association
  • Salvation Army Jasper and Newton Counties
  • Solace House of the Ozarks
  • Spiva Center for the Arts
  • St. Ann’s Catholic School
  • Watered Gardens Ministries
  • Webb City Farmers Market
  • Wildcat Glades

MDNR grants to benefit local recycling projects

JOPLIN, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is funding 17 recycling projects in Southwest Missouri.

The projects will split a little more than $559,000 and all focus on waste reduction, material recovery and recycling. New grant recipients this year are Ritter Industries in Carthage and Noble Earth Recovery in Joplin.

Ritter Industries will fabricate a glass pulverizer that will turn bottles and other glass into a fine dust to be used for sandblasting. Noble Earth Recovery is an electronics recycler and will buy a shaker table and hammermill for the recovery of precious metals.

All of the grant recipients are privately owned.

MSSU receives grant to supply weekend snack packs

JOPLIN, Mo. – Missouri Southern’s Lion Co-Op and Wellness Program receives a grant from the No Kid Hungry Campaign.

The more than $10,000 dollar grant will go toward supplying weekend snack packs to area kids age one to five who qualify for state or tribal financial assistance. The No Kid Hungry Campaign assists in meeting the nutritional needs of children who may not be getting adequate food over the weekend.

According to Dr. Andrea Cullers, director of the Lion Co-op, the year-long grant funding will provide bags of shelf-stable food for at least one year, at which point the need will be reassessed.

“The Lion Co-op works to decrease food insecurity for all members of the Lion community, and we’re excited that through the No Kid Hungry grant funding we can help meet the needs of our littlest lions at the Lion Club Academy,” said Cullers.

New grant to help NEO A&M combat substance abuse

MIAMI, Okla. – Northeast Oklahoma A&M College receives a $50,000 grant from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to battle substance abuse.

The State Opioid Response Higher Education Community Outreach Grant (SOR) provides funds to develop communication and outreach programming to train students, staff, and faculty in culturally responsive approaches to identifying and treating opioid abuse. Officials at NEO say they are already putting the fuds to use through several training sessions. Staff participated in sessions focusing on the prevalence of substance dependency in individuals with “adverse childhood experiences,” providing resources to students who may turn to substance-seeking coping mechanisms during the rapid transition to online and distance learning, and the implications of the pandemic on addiction/overdoses.

“The pandemic has limited our ability to host in-person trainings, but we’ve been able to conduct some impactful initiatives that prepare our staff and faculty to support students,” said Rachel Lloyd, Title III Grant Coordinator. “We’ve also been able to reach out to experts in motivation and healthy coping to engage our students.”

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH), Oklahoma has made strides in recent years to combat opioid dependency and death, but providers still prescribed opioids for nearly 80 people per every 100 in 2018.

ESC’s Head Start awarded grant designation to help local families

JOPLIN, Mo. – The Administration for Children and Families Office of Head Start awarded the Economic Security Corporation of Southwest Area (ESC) a five year non-competitive grant designation. Officials say the designation will make it easier to help area families.

The noncompetitive grant designation is awarded to programs of high quality based on a number of factors such as performance on federal monitoring, financial stability of the agency and compliance with performance standards and regulations. The program recently completed both its Federal monitoring and financial audit with no findings or deficiencies.

The ESC Head Start reaches over 1,000 children and their families annually. It receives over $7 Million dollars. 93% of ESC’s Head Start children are Kindergarten ready. In addition, it leverages over $3 Million dollars, creates or maintains over 225 local jobs, supports 125 local businesses and provides 260 professionals training in early childhood.

$764,000 grant awarded to Healthy Nevada to promote rural health

NEVADA, Mo. – The Patterson Family Foundation is awarding Healthy Nevada with a more than $764,000 grant.

The money will be used to “create collective impact in the areas of rural mental health, obesity and food insecurity.”

“On behalf of Patterson Family Foundation, we’re looking forward to watching their programs and their projects over the next three years,” said Jessica Hunt of the Patterson Foundation. “We hope to be able to share the insights, the learnings and the best practices that Healthy Nevada gleams along the way. So that way we can pass those along to other rural communities seeking a similar solution and similar topic areas.”

Healthy Nevada will implement three programs to address needs in the community. Those are trauma-informed school-based health program, the farm to family program, and a family-based behavioral treatment for childhood obesity program.

USDOT announces $2 billion in COVID relief for airports

WASHINGTON – The United States Department of Transportation is making $2 billion in coronavirus relief available to struggling airports.  Airports will be able to apply for aid through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airport Coronavirus Response Grant Program.

“President Biden has made it a priority to deliver immediate relief to our transportation sectors and their workers, ensuring they can continue to provide essential services through this pandemic and beyond” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “Today’s announcement is one of many steps we are taking to protect the health of America’s travelers and workers, while keeping our nation’s airport operations and related small businesses up and running.”

The program is funded under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020. It is available to more than 3,000 commercial service, reliever and publicly owned general-aviation airports in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems.

Most of the funds will go toward helping keep people safe and in jobs by reimbursing operational expenses, debt service payments and costs related to combating the spread of pathogens at the airport. The program also includes money for rent relief to airport concessions and to support FAA contract towers for items such as cleaning and sanitizing facilities affected by COVID-19 cases.

Airports must apply for the grants by June 30, 2021.