Cumberland Community Foundation Announces $847,127 in Community Grants

Board president, Kelly Puryear, recognized the exemplary service of two outgoing board members – Ray Manning and Lynn Legatski – both having served as president of the board of directors and chair of most committees during their tenure. Puryear also welcomed two new board members, Carol “Lani” Dickey and Melissa Short.

 
Puryear announced that the foundation would be awarding $847,127 in grants from the community foundation’s unrestricted and field-of-interest “Community Endowments.” This represents the largest grant announcement in the community foundation’s 39 year history. Each year, the community foundation accepts applications for funding from local nonprofit groups. Grants committees review all applications and recommend awards for final approval by the board of directors.
 

Organization	Amount	Project Name	Description
Airborne and Special Operations Museum	$    100,000	Honoring America's Heroes Campaign	Implementation of digital technology and an upgrade to existing exhibits.
All About Fitness, Inc.	$         1,000	Fighting Obesity and Investing in the Future of Cumberland County	All About Fitness hosts free community workouts and health/wellness instruction free of charge for Cumberland County residents. These funds will purchase needed equipment to host the boot camps.
Armed Services YMCA of Fort Bragg	$         7,760	Operation Hero	Expansion of an afterschool program that helps military children overcome challenges and connect with peers.
Better Health of Cumberland County, Inc.	$         8,458	Diabetes Self-Management and Prevention Education	The Diabetes Self-Management program includes 2 free diabetes "clinics" per week, which involve a weight, blood pressure and blood sugar check by a Registered Nurse.  The classes cover a variety of topics related to diabetes, including cooking demonstrations.
Cape Fear Regional Theatre at Fayetteville, Inc.	$         4,160	Drama Day Camp	Provide scholarship opportunities to financially disadvantaged students, allowing them to attend 6-day camp classes as well as a week-long spring break class.
Cape Fear Regional Theatre at Fayetteville, Inc.	$       17,872	Stage Rigging Update	Update the existing rigging system with more modern functions and capabilities.
Cape Fear Studios, Inc.	$       15,000	Senior Arts Program	Senior arts program held at the Blue Street Senior Center to provide seniors with social and recreational activities.
Cumberland County CommuniCare, Inc.	$       25,000	Community Opioid Response Empowerment Project	Builds community strategy with CFORT collaborative task force to reduce overdose deaths in Cumberland County by providing naloxone kits to EMS and family program on how to manage addiction.
Cumberland County Coordinating Council on Older Adults	$       52,213	Meals on Wheels	Purchase of a new truck and modification to provide more meals to isolated seniors.
Cumberland County Schools- Reid Ross Classical Middle/High School	$         3,638	Empowering the Internet Generation	A laptop cart that will charge the Chromebooks that are used regularly in the classroom.  They have been broken down for quite some time.
Cumberland County Schools- South View High School	$         4,990	Tigers Can Fly	STEM program to purchase drones for a female student club designed to encourage girls to become interested in science.
Fayetteville Area Operation Inasmuch	$       15,100	Dining Room Floor	A new dining room floor for the breakfast hall.
Fayetteville Police Foundation	$         6,231	Hope and Hugs	Refurbish rooms used for traumatic interviews by the Fayetteville Police Department to provide a more comforting environment for the victims.
Fayetteville State University/Department of Education	$       27,460	Reading Clinic	The FSU Reading Clinic will provide evidence-based tutoring via HELPS program to train students and parents to strategically tutor literacy.
Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, Inc.	$       10,000	Musical Memories	Performances for residents at local nursing home facilities to engage their memory and provide an in-person concert for those who cannot get out into the community.
Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, Inc.	$       26,500	Music Connections	Programs for young children including working with preschool and kindergarten ages and working with the Cumberland County Schools to address their needs especially with a shortage of string instrument instruction which negatively impacts middle and high school.
Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation	$       65,000	Cross Creek Cemetery #1 Renovation	Cemetery renovations and repairs to preserve the historical value and visitor experience.
Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation- Clark Park Nature Center	$         3,090	Clark Park Nature Center Tiny Beasts of NC Display	Purchase of a diorama of North Carolina biogeographic region.
Friends of the Cumberland County Public Library, Inc.	$         3,129	Census Outreach for Hard-to-Count Populations	Five laptops and cases for nonprofits to assist hard-to-count populations in completing the 2020 Census.
Heritage Square Historical Society of NC, Inc.	$       44,250	Baker-Haigh-Nimocks House Renovation	Restoration of the historic 1804 building.
Methodist University	$         8,335	Methodist Kids Association Expansion at Margaret Willis Elementary School	MU Community Engagement students tutor kids at Margaret Willis Elementary and expand on an existing tutoring program.
Methodist University	$         1,080	Hugh Shelton Leadership Challenge	The Hugh Shelton Challenge is designed to help students expand their knowledge and skills of what it takes to be an effective leader.
NC Counts Coalition	$       26,760	Census Outreach Coordinator for Cumberland County	Part-time Census fellow who will support the county's Complete Counts Commission.
Partnership for Children	$    250,000	Family Connects	Family Connects is an evidence-based voluntary home visiting program that provides support to every newborn in a community by a registered nurse. This grant will be paid out $50,000 over 5 years.
Rape Crisis Volunteers of Cumberland County	$       18,094	Intimate Partner Violence Initiative	Two IPV advocates will be hired to support e-filing of domestic violence victims with the DA and courthouse.
Service Source, Inc.	$       10,000	Bloom Art Therapy	Art therapy for Service Source clients that include selling their artwork at the Friendship House Farmers Market.
The School of Hope	$         6,007	Musical Therapy Equipment	Therapeutic technology for autistic students.

Eva Williams, board member, announced the winners of four awards. The winner of the 2019 Mary Lynn McCree Bryan Leadership Award is Jesse H. Byrd, Jr. He was nominated by Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation for tireless leadership of their endowment campaigns. Williams said, “This award was created to highlight the importance of the board member role and celebrate good examples of leadership for the nonprofit sector, in honor of Mary Lynn Bryan, who lead the community foundation board in its formative years.” 
 
Director Williams also announced three matching endowment awards: $25,000 for Fayetteville Area Operation Inasmuch Endowment, $25,000 for Cape Fear Regional Theatre, and $25,000 for Better Health of Cumberland County Endowment. Cumberland Community Foundation hosts these endowments and will match gifts up to $25,000 for each organization’s endowment.
 
The evening concluded with the foundation’s diverse group of donors celebrating together and congratulating the award winners.
 
About CCF:   Founded in 1980, Cumberland Community Foundation is a public charity with the mission of helping generous people create endowments that will improve the quality of life in the community.  The foundation has almost $95 million in assets, the sum of 560 different charitable funds it holds.  For more information, visit www.cumberlandcf.org.