Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation

Berkshire Taconic Awards More Than $78,000 to 34 Columbia County Nonprofit Organizations

September 3, 2008

GREAT BARRINGTON, MA –Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation today announced that 34 nonprofit organizations in Columbia County have been awarded grants from two of its area funds: the Fund for Columbia County and the Quailwood Fund. The Quailwood Fund provides grants for the Red Rock area and the Fund for Columbia County serves the entire county.

The Fund for Columbia County awarded $54,500 to 30 organizations:

Animalkind: $950 to purchase fundraising software.

Chatham Real Food Market: $2,500 for a three-day management training program to promote a more localized food system.

Chatham Rescue Squad: $2,684 for backboards and other equipment used to immobilize patients with possible head, neck and back injuries.

Clausson Raught Rescue Squad: $1,300 for a patient evacuation chair to transport patients.

Columbia Arts Team: $1,000 to hire consultants to create a promotional plan and cultivate new audience members.

Columbia County Habitat for Humanity: $1,750 to create a more user-friendly and efficient website.

Columbia Festival Orchestra: $2,000 to produce a promotional CD.

Community Hospice: $1,000 to train hospice volunteers.

Concerted Effort: $2,000 for curriculum materials that use the performing arts to increase literacy skills.

Copake Fire Company: $2,000 for an industrial system to clean and decontaminate personal protective equipment for firefighters.

Darrow School: $2,000 for new, historically accurate railings on the south side of the Heyniger Memorial Library.

Family Life Resource Center: $1,450 to create a more efficient website and obtain technical support for web maintenance.

FASNY Museum of Firefighting: $2,000 to catalog the volumes in the firefighting museum library.

Friends of First Presbyterian Hudson: $3,000 to repair and paint the west wall of the historic church.

Friends of Lindenwald: $1,390 to create a wardrobe of clothing historically accurate to Lindenwald between 1840 and 1850.

Greenport Historical Society: $2,000 to make emergency repairs to the historic Columbia Turnpike West Gate Toll house.

Haitian Community Development: $2,000 for technical assistance to strengthen the organization as a whole.

Hillsdale Economic and Development Corporation: $2,000 for an aquifer study and groundwater protection plan, and to identify productive and safe public well sites.

Hillsdale Fire Company: $2,000 to reconstruct a pavilion to house an all-terrain brushfire search and rescue vehicle.

Historic Hudson: $2,000 for a professional consultant to help the board meet the needs of its rapidly increasing membership and responsibilities.

Hudson Area Association Library: $2,000 to develop the Local History Room into a resource that meets the needs of patrons and to make its contents available on the web.

Hudson Opera House: $2,000 for a redesigned and expanded website.

Kinderhook Memorial Library: $1,805 for a heavy-duty, free-standing, outdoor book return unit.

Literacy Connections: $1,500 to create program and marketing materials to support its mission of providing basic literary services to residents of Hudson and the surrounding area.

Nature Institute: $2,000 to aid in the construction of a flagstone walkway and lighting to connect the Nature Institute Building to the parking area.

Roeliff Jansen Historical Society: $1,367 to complete the restoration of the Old Copake Iron Works School House by repairing the chimney and roof.

Roeliff Jansen Library: $3,000 to prepare for the building of a new library that uses green technology.

Spencertown Academy: $2,000 to purchase and install appropriate window treatments for the historic academy building.

Town of Chatham: $1,800 for a waterline to provide adequate irrigation to the Community Garden at Crellin Park.

Town of Clermont: $1,000 to purchase and install one high-band and one low-band radio at the Clermont Town Hall for emergency response situations.

The Quailwood Fund awarded $24,478 to four organizations:

Canaan Conservation Club: $2,478 for a new, environmentally-friendly septic system.

Columbia Land Conservancy: $8,000 to create a master plan to formally open 142 acres in Red Rock for public access as part of the Schor Conservation Area, including a network of trails based on existing pathways.

Red Rock Fire Company: $8,000 to build a kitchen for use at fundraising events.

Red Rock Historical Society: $6,000 to restore the three interior plaster walls.

The Fund for Columbia County and Quailwood Fund are overseen by a committee of local residents who review grant applications and award grants based on excellence of the project or service, its impact on the organization or community and the ability of the organization to carry out the project. The Fund for Colmbia County is currently focusing its grantmaking on increasing organizations’ capacities to carry out their mission.

The next deadline for grant applications for the Fund for Columbia County and Quailwood Fund is April 1, 2009. Applications are available here or by calling Berkshire Taconic at 413.528.8039

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation builds stronger communities and improves the quality of life for all residents in the region it serves: Columbia County and northeast Dutchess County, NY; Berkshire County, MA; and northwest Litchfield County, CT. Founded in 1987, Berkshire Taconic currently has over 500 funds and manages more than $86 million in assets. Each year, it distributes more than $7 million through grants and scholarships, helping thousands of donors achieve their philanthropic goals and hundreds of nonprofits carry on their good work.

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