Grants fund activities to bring the community together

Middletown organizations have won $30,000 in grants from the Rhode Island Foundation. The funding will support work that includes a community bike facility and landscaping for Middletown Valley park.

“We’re excited about these ideas for making community happen in more and better ways at the local level. Supporting community-building will improve shared places and quality of life, promote collaboration and increase community engagement,” said Jessica David, executive vice president of strategy and community investments. “We’re grateful to have donors who invest in our work and partners like these that understand the needs of their community.”

The local projects are among just 47 statewide to win funding from the Foundation’s competitive Community Grants Program. Most of the work is expected to be underway before the end of the year.

Lucy’s Hearth of Middletown received $10,000 to build a bicycle oasis, including secured bicycle corrals and a sun and rain shelter. The organization serves approximately 120 homeless individuals and families with housing and support services.

“The majority of the people we help are looking for ways to increase their health and well-being through nutrition and exercise programs. But, the oasis will be available to residents, volunteers, local companies, organizations and individuals that support Lucy's Hearth, and neighbors,” said Jennifer Barrera, program director.

The Middletown Tree Association received $10,000 to complete the final phase of a tree-planting plan for Middletown Valley park. Located behind the Christmas Tree Shop Shopping Center along High Street, the site had been declared contaminated by the state Department of Environmental Management.

“By planting trees in the park, we are enhancing a significant open space where residents and visitors alike can walk and enjoy the beauty of the natural environment. These trees will offer habitat for birds and wildlife and, in addition, the trees will help to contain storm water runoff in a fragile watershed area of Bailey's Brook, which runs through the area, an important source of water for the town,” said Karen P. Day, chair of the Middletown Tree Commission.

The Town of Middletown received $10,000 to sponsor the “Music and Fire Beach Night Series,” an 8-week summer music series at Second Beach complete with five community fire pits.

The grants were among more than $86,000 in funding the Foundation awarded to projects in Newport County. The other area organizations that won funding include Melville Elementary School in Portsmouth, which received $10,000 to install a 30‘ x 30’ open-sided, sunshade roof structure for a new outdoor classroom; the Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project, which was awarded $10,000 to create a monument in Liberty Square commemorating the lives of Africans who were brought to Newport as part of the Atlantic slave trade; and Bike Newport, which won $10,000 to make its new bike barn on Sunset Blvd. environmentally friendly.

"The new facility will quadruple facility size and move the program from a parking lot to a beautiful park setting - bringing learning experiences and demonstrations of sustainability and resiliency that will benefit participants, the neighborhood and the greater community,” “said Bari Freeman, Bike Newport’s executive director.

The funding from the Community Grants Program is supplemented by a gift from long-time Foundation donor Anne Sage.

The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. Working with generous and visionary donors, the Foundation raised $38 million and awarded $43 million in grants to organizations addressing the state’s most pressing issues and needs of diverse communities in 2017. Through leadership, fundraising and grantmaking activities, often in partnership with individuals and organizations, the Foundation is helping Rhode Island reach its true potential. For more information, visit rifoundation.org.