Community Foundation finds Frontenac County once again

Jeff Green | Jun 05, 2019

Twice a year, the Community Foundation of Kingston and Area (CFKA) makes grant announcements for community groups and not-for-profits in Kingston. Most of the time, Frontenac County based groups receive grants as well.

There was an exception in late November of last year, when all of the grants went to Kingston. With its spring grant announcement, the CFKA has made it clear that those fall 2018 grants were not the beginning of a trend. This time around, fully one third of the grants, representing over 25% of the $160,000 that was divvied out went to programming for Frontenac County residents.

And the money is going to every corner of the vast county.

The six Frontenac recipients were: the Elbow Lake Environmental Centre (Perth Road area) $9,000, the Clarendon-Miller Archives (Plevna) $6550, Wintergreen Studios (Bedford) $3283, South Frontenac Community Services Corporation (Sydenham) $10,041.20, Rural Frontenac Community Services (Sharbot Lake) $5,500, and RKY Camp (Parham) $8946.06 – over $43,000 in all.

The Elbow Lake Environmental Centre grant is for the "Navigating the Landscape" program. The program will provide the opportunity for youth to actively experience their local environment while learning how to use GPS technology, with the money going towards equipment and bus subsidies to bring youth to the centre.

The Clarendon Miller Archives grant is going towards the "Unravelling History - One Tombstone at a Time" project and the creation of a worldwide searchable on-line database providing historical reference and research of the local cemeteries in North Frontenac, with images to link families with their ancestors and village settlements via a website.

The Wintergreen Studios grant is going to Project Bee. It will help establish an apiary at Wintergreen, which, coupled with year-round workshops, will educate the general public about maintaining healthy bee populations. Project Bee will also enable local schools to join the Bee City Canada school network. Students will have an opportunity to exchange knowledge with beekeepers in Saudi Arabia through a school in Riyadh.

The Southern Frontenac Community Services grant is going to enhance the agencies home making services program, to enable more physically and financially vulnerable seniors to remain living at home safely.

The Rural Frontenac Community Services grant will be used to help fund a ride sharing program, enabling more seniors to attend social events, medical appointments and shopping so more people can participate fully in the community.

The RKY camp grant is going towards the purchase of a new 36” flat top griddle with an oven and holding cabin, to help in the preparation of 600 nutritious and delicious meals to active RKY campers each and every day during the summer camp season.

“A common theme we saw this round in the applications were projects that aim to create a sense of belonging in our community,” says Community Foundation for Kingston & Area (CFKA) Executive Director Tina Bailey. “We know that providing opportunities for engagement, inclusion and participation are some of the strategies to decrease social isolation. This is particularly true for some of our neighbours, especially youth, newcomers, seniors and those with disabilities.”