Celebrating Community Foundation Week: November 12-18

 

Recreation is the spirit of life. Challenge Mountain’s SPIRIT Day Camp, a long-running recreation program for children and adults living with developmental disabilities, embodies that simple phrase.  For 35 years, SPIRIT Day Camp has provided experiences for its participants ranging from miniature golf to boating, concerts in the park to museum visits.

“Our community foundations are vital partners in offering Challenge Mountain’s Spirit Day Camp each summer,” said Elizabeth Gertz Looze, Executive Director of Challenge Mountain. “For many campers, this may be the only opportunity he or she may have to enjoy summertime activities with life-long friends.”

The Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation and the Charlevoix County Community Foundation are proud to partner with Challenge Mountain, one of many nonprofit organizations supported by our grants. Since your community foundations were established in 1992, grant dollars returning to our communities have totaled more than $50 million.

Providing grant dollars to area nonprofits, schools and municipalities is just one part of the work of your community foundations. We also have a seat at the table when our communities tackle bigger challenges like workforce housing, clean energy and economic development. Our staff members work alongside individuals, businesses, agencies, and nonprofits in exploring these community challenges, and we connect these conversations with the people, partners, and resources necessary to solve these often complex issues.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of National Community Foundation Week by former President George H. W. Bush. This week was created to recognize the work of community foundations throughout America and their collaborative approach to working with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to address community problems.

Our impact and involvement is made possible by friends like you. When you give to your community foundations, you make a difference today and, thanks to the power of endowment, in perpetuity.

We invite you to learn more about the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation and the Charlevoix County Community Foundation. Together we can do more.

 

David L. Jones                                                    Chip Hansen

Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area                Charlevoix County Community Foundation

Community Foundation