Ross Awards First Grants

Ross Benefits from First Ross Community Foundation Grants

Give where you live has been the rallying cry of the Ross Community Foundation (RCF) Advisory Board for a year now. Today they are celebrating the fruits of their labor with grant awards, their first as a grant making organization.

“We as a Board have been so determined to raise money for the Ross Community Foundation,” says Martha Mehl, RCF Advisory Board President. “We were determined because we know the day would come when we could put money to great use right here in Ross.”

The Ross Community Foundation Advisory Board recently met to review grant applications in the Foundation’s first grant cycle.

“It’s quite an accomplishment within a year of establishing themselves to be awarding grants in their community,” says John Guidugli, CEO and President of the Hamilton Community Foundation, the parent Foundation to RCF. “We are impressed with their dedication and certainly the Ross community is seeing how a Community Foundation can truly benefit them.

Arts, Hunger, Education and Human Need were the focus of the first round of approved grants and the Board would have liked to have done more! Grants were given to the following:

• RLS Choral Program: $2,500 was granted to Ross Local Schools to help offset the cost of choral uniforms for families who need assistance.
• Butler Philharmonic: $2,500 to support concert costs in the Ross area, thereby promoting local access to the arts.
• Ross Township Historical Society: $500 for equipment that will allow the Historical Society to conduct historical presentations and displays.
• St. Joseph Consolidated School: $5,000 to support the purchase of doors for the first-grade classes that can be safely locked and safety stenciling for outside doors.
• Ross and Morgan Ministries (RAMM): $5,000 for pantry items, particularly meat, for families in need.
• Inspiration Studios: $2,000 for clients to create mural at the Ross Firehouse.
• Ross Local Schools: $4,000 for language arts intervention materials to help students with reading and writing instruction who have fallen behind in these areas of study.
• Harts for Hope: $2,250 for neighborhood initiatives that bring people together and create a sense of community.
• Ross Middle School: $3,200 for Jump Start Summer Band Camp