Lee Rhodes, administer of the local hospital, joined the Horizon program. As a small community hospital that has economical hardship they where looking for tools to help their facility. A healthy hospital is a vital part of a Healthy Community.
The Community Library has been struggling for years to save enough funds to put in an electric door for the handicap patrons. Even though the Library is one level, the manuel door has been a major problem for wheel chair access. After one patron got a wheelchair stuck in the door frame and had to be manually pulled out by the Librian, the Library Board decided to put their used book sale money towards buying and wiring a new door. They found this to be a very slow and frustrating process. The Board then approached the three government entities (County, City, School) that fund the Library to see if they could help. Due to fiscal constraints, none of the entities had funds for the project. The Board then decided to look into grants to boost their meager savings. Two members of the Library Board attended the Mike Vogel grant workshop through the Horizons Program. They then pursued some of the resources given to them through Mike and another Grant attendee that had knowledge for handicap access. The Friends of the Library offered to help with the project as well. All this networking brought about a successful grant application to fund the new Library door, which will be installed this summer.
The Roundup Memorial Hospital and Medical Center has developed a grant committee to assist with ongoing needs of the facility. Two employees from the hospital attended a grant writing workshop that was held in Roundup. This workshop inspired the formation of the grant writing committee. The committee consists of staff, administration, and hospital board members.
The group has already submitted a proposal for a new autoclave. The existing autoclave is 60 years old. The committee is currently working on several other proposals as well.
Sarah Earwood, the chair of the committee, stated “we know that we can not run a hospital on grant funds alone, but anything we can do to improve the facility and the quality of service provided to the patients will have a huge impact to the community.”
A grant writing workshop was identified as a need through the Horizons program. MSU Extension and the Horizon program brought Mike Vogel to teach the all day class.
Mike Vogel was a guest in Roundup to present a work shop on grant writing through the fiscal support of Horizons. Again, the city, county, schools, library, hospital and other groups were present to learn how to write effective grant applications. Mike did an overview of grant language, avoiding review process pitfalls, potential grant sources and grant accoutablity. Numerous groups left armed with the knowledge and ability to pursue grants/funds to enhance and/or fund projects that otherwise would not happen.
The Web page continues to grow and has now added the option for the Local Government Entities to post their minutes. The County Commissioners were the first Board to use the site. They have stepped to the plate to promote Community Communication for the needs and development of the County and to promote local citizen understanding of how County Government works.
In addition to using the web page listings for Community Communication, the group also started a monthly Share Meeting at which local groups can do a brief presentation of their upcoming activities and or needs. At the April Share Meeting the school presented a promotional on their school levy for building repairs and new technology, the Mason announced the free shoe distribution for needy children, the Museum announced their pancake breakfast to earn maintenance money, the Library talked about getting support for a handicap access. These meetings have proven vialble to motivate the communty to take part in these activities to donate help or funds or to just help spread the word to communicate to those who could benefit.