June 16, 2004
Grant givers receive praise
Youth Advisory Council members dole out $25,000
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Celebrating youth activism, attendees at the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation's annual trustees meeting applauded 43 area teens who guided $25,000 in grants this spring.
Held Thursday evening at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute, the trustees meeting also featured student projects from the Sci-Ma-Tech program and displayed two pieces created by local artist Glenn Wolff as part of the Watershed Suite project. Both are projects helped by the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation.
The meeting also welcomed new board chair Sydney McManus to a two-year term and thanked outgoing chair Jon Armstrong. Jeanne Snow, executive director of the foundation, discussed two programs that have received grants: the Grand Traverse Kennel Club and the Habitat for Humanity in Antrim County.
"Giving really isn't magical, but we live in an area where people care about their community," Snow noted.
Even with challenging economic times that hit during Armstrong's tenure, where investment income dropped dramatically, Snow said he was a record breaker for the organization.
"We had more grant money go out last year than ever before," she said.
The meeting also recognized some of the high schools students from Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau who completed a year-long Youth Grantmaker Certificate program. The core of this program was divvying up $25,000 among projects in the five counties, with each county receiving an equal share.
The foundation's Youth Advisory Council offered the Youth Grantmaker Certificate program for the first time last fall. It included a series of training classes throughout the school year to guide students in the basics of philanthropy. Led by Christie Heller, the Youth Advisory Council program coordinator, the students completed a six-step program.
First, they assessed community needs and investigated grant applications. Then they evaluated grants, presented recommendations to the foundation's board and visited past grant recipient sites, such as the Boys and Girls Club in Traverse City. The visits determined whether the previous year's grant request goals had been met, giving students tools to evaluate future requests. The final step, acknowledgment, came Thursday evening.
"This is my first year doing it and it really helped us learn how the whole process works, giving out grants," said Dana Szpond, a 2004 graduate of Traverse City West High School. "It was hard, but I really enjoyed it."
Students from each county received a portion of the money to spend on projects that would affect youth in their area. Together, each group sifted through applications and made the first cut on projects. Then the challenges began.
"We actually sat down with the whole group and decided on who would get the grants," recalled Szpond, who plans to attend Northwestern Michigan College next year. "We got a lot of grant requests and if they were realistic, we kept them."
Formed in 1992, the Youth Advisory Council allows high school students to determine funding for projects geared to youth. Over the past 12 years, participants on this council have granted more than $840,000 in the five-county region. This year's recipients ranged from area schools to the Third Level Crisis Center.