The Winona Community Foundation Awarded $62,000 to nine organizations benefiting the Winona area in its first quarter grant cycle. The following organizations received funding:
• Apple Tree Dental: $10,000 to help purchase specialized dental equipment to expand services for people with special needs in Southeastern Minnesota including clients of Winona’s Home and Community Options – to not only improve their overall quality of life, but to also reduce the need for costly hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of the 7 Rivers Region: $7,805 to incorporate emotional wellness programming with their matches through youth, mentor, and family engagement through informational workshops and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Science and Mathematics) projects.
• Great River Shakespeare Festival: $5,000 to help provide guided conversations between community members and the Cymbeline cast about issues facing today’s society, including such themes and issues as morality, loves, lies and deceit, compassion, grace, forgiveness, and patriotism.
• Habitat for Humanity – Winona-Fillmore Counties: $8,340 to purchase five AED machines and construction safety equipment to increase worksite safety and preparedness to help keep their volunteers, homeowners and staff safe.
• Hiawatha Valley Mental Health Center: $1,000 for a summer girls’ skills program for teenagers aged 12-16. The group will provide adolescent females a space to explore a wide range of issues that affect their daily lives, including bullying, peer pressure, self-image and self-worth. Already launched, they have a waiting list and are looking at ways to expand the program.
• Manitou Center: $10,000 for resiliency training for first responders, a collaborative pilot project designed to reduce emotional and behavioral health problems, increase stress tolerance, and reduce negative health outcomes for those involved.
• Mid West Music Fest: $7,500 for support for the 2019 festival, which provides a multi-genre, community building, music event that creates cultural and economic growth in Winona.
• Winona Area Poverty Roundtable (fiscal agent is Catholic Charities of Southern Minnesota): $10,000 to hire a consultant with knowledge of transitional housing facilities and of potential funding sources to develop transitional housing in Winona.
• Winona County Historical Society: $2,970 to help create an activity area for preschool visitors, with hands-on activities related to larger exhibits in the museum.
