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News From The McConnell Foundation |
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| Helping Build Better Communities
Through Philanthropy | Early Spring 2011 |
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Greetings!
Welcome to the second issue of our e-newsletter.
As with so many other organizations dedicated to sustainable practices, we're publishing fewer print publications and moving toward the immediacy and freshness of online communications.
We hope you'll find the information here informative, current and compelling. As always, we're interested in your thoughts and questions.
Please let us know what you think!
With Best Wishes,
The McConnell Foundation |
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Grantmaking in Southeast Asia: Hope Amidst Poverty
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Dick Stimpel, Dee Domke, and Apsara C. with The Himalayas in the background |
This past November, Karen Bennett, The McConnell Foundation's Director of International Programs, made a visit to Nepal and Laos with two of the five Foundation directors, Doreeta (Dee) Domke and Richard J. (Dick) Stimpel. Karen, who travels to Nepal and Laos several times a year, prepared the directors thoroughly for their first trip to Asia to witness our grantmaking in action.
And though they were well prepared in advance, the experience was still transformative and held some surprises.
Both Dick and Dee were moved when they were invited on very short notice to share a meal with a Nepalese family. After hiking up a narrow path on the side of a mountain, Dee, Dick, and Karen were graciously served food in the family's tiny one-room hut with a dirt floor. Dee said, "They seemed to be so happy and yet they have nothing. You normally don't see hope in people's eyes when you see poverty, but you do in Nepal."
The Foundation has been making grants in Nepal since 1999 and Laos since 2006. Projects funded in Nepal and Laos are in the areas of community mediation, women's leadership development, peace building, improving access to justice, and water quality monitoring.
Dick was impressed by the meeting of the Forest Users Group in Nepal, which took place during their visit. "They've had great success bringing about compromise. They have found compromise in 82 to 83 percent of their mediation sessions." The Forest Users Group works to strengthen the varied user groups and to increase their awareness, reducing poverty of local people through forest resource management. It emerged out of the idea that forest users from all parts of the country should be linked in order to strengthen their role in the policy-making process. Since its inception in July 1995, it's grown into a social movement organization with about 8 million people who work on solutions for sharing the resources of the forests.
Dee and Dick also met women participating in the Women's Leadership group in Nepal. The women came from all over the country, some traveling three days to get to Kathmandu, to participate in meetings and classes. Many could neither read nor write as recently as three years ago and are now extremely proud of their accomplishments and independence.
Dee felt strongly that the visit was crucial to understanding The Foundation's grantmaking there. "We hear the stories and read the reports, but being immersed in the programs with the participants was awe inspiring. It was fun to interact with them ourselves; they're a very appreciative, very warm people."
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Dorris Anticipates Completion of Community Center
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Butte Valley Community Center, January 2011 |
Five years of community planning, support, and momentum are coming to fruition in Dorris, a town in Siskiyou County (far Northern California). Dorris will finally get a long-awaited community center that will meet the needs of an underserved population of about 15,000 residents, including those in the surrounding communities of Macdoel, Tulelake, Merrill, Malin, and Southern Klamath County.
The Butte Valley Community Center, a 5,446 square-foot Lodge Pole Pine building on 32 acres, will be a central location for the delivery of programs, services, and activities addressing health, positive development of youth, senior nutrition, parenting classes, and recreation. "The building is beautiful and gaining its own landmark characteristics as each day ends," said Rennie Cleland, president of Ore-Cal Resource Conservation and Development Area Council, the 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization which acted as the conduit for funding.
The Dorris Lions Club spearheaded community fundraising efforts and showed a tireless commitment to volunteerism. The City of Dorris, through a partially used 2002 State Parks and Recreation per capita grant, offered $197,000 toward the project. The Ford Family Foundation of Roseburg, Oregon then provided the lead gift of $330,000. The McConnell Foundation's grant of $285,000 is a "last dollars in" grant after years of demonstrated need, community fundraising, and individual gifts.
The Community Center building, nearing completion, is the first phase of a project that will include an equestrian and junior rodeo arena, outdoor recreational development such as a skating rink, walking trails, cross-country course, and interpretive kiosks identifying wildlife, and natural resources of the area.
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Sundial Bridge Scheduled for Cleaning, Tile Replacement
This spring, expect to see a cleaner bridge and newly-replaced white tiles on the Sundial Bridge.
A collaborative effort is underway to improve the appearance of the bridge by replacing broken ceramic tiles with sturdier -- but still beautiful -- porcelain tiles. The underside of the bridge, a favorite habitat for spiders and birds, will now be power-washed regularly by the City of Redding.
The McConnell Foundation built the bridge and then donated it to the City of Redding upon its completion in 2004. The City, The McConnell Foundation, and Turtle Bay Exploration Park all share the same goal of improving the appearance of the bridge, a major tourist attraction, which spans the Sacramento River to link Turtle Bay Exploration Park and the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens.
Eric Ross Tile, the contractor who originally installed the tile in 2004, will do the tile work once the weather is dry for a prolonged period of time.
To learn more about the Sundial Bridge, click here.
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Are You Eligible for Meeting Space?
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The larger meeting space at The McConnell Foundation |
Did you know The Foundation has two separate meeting spaces available to qualified groups? If your group is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, a government agency, or a school group, you may be able to use meeting space at no cost.
The Foundation, as part of its mission to help build better communities through philanthropy, hosts up to 100 groups per year for such purposes as strategic planning by non-profit boards, statewide fire planning collaboratives, and high school conflict management trainings.
The space is not available for weddings or other social events.
Full eligibility guidelines and an application can be found on The Foundation's website.
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 Redding School of the Arts
in the News
The Redding Record Searchlight recently ran an article about the construction and green features of RSA.
Click here to read the article, by Damon Arthur. |
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