Martin County Positive Impact

Shoals Community Schools Rox Center

Shoals Community Schools created the Rox Center as a welcoming environment for students in Grades 6-12 seeking mental wellness support. Utilizing a large space within the high school, they constructed three counselling offices, a conference room, a Minds in Motion room, and a comfortable waiting/gathering space. A mural in the gathering space creates an inviting atmosphere. Set apart from the school office, the Center provides privacy and confidentiality for students.

The school utilized an MCCF Grant to cover the cost of the materials for the renovation, mural paint, and sensory items for the Minds in Motion room. Construction was completed by the Constructions Trade II class. This provided invaluable experience for the construction trades students in addition to lowering the cost of the project. These students can feel a sense of pride in what they accomplished whenever they see the Center. This project is a win for everyone.

Martin County 4-H Club Council

To meet the needs of the growing poultry program, the Martin County 4-H Club Council was awarded an impact grant to update the poultry barn and purchase tables, cages, and other supplies to accommodate more poultry for showing.  As an older, metal building with no windows the poultry barn was dark and very hot. Updates to the lighting and ventilation were needed for the comfort of the birds, 4-H poultry participants, and visitors, and to improve the visibility for judges. Existing lighting was adapted to accommodate fluorescent lights and quiet, wall mounted fans were installed. Tables, plywood platforms, cages and cage cups were purchased to house birds. The poultry program has grown from 23 birds in 2021 to 57 birds in 2023. The caging will now accommodate chickens, turkeys, waterfowl, gamebirds, and pigeons. The plywood platforms support larger cages on the tables and allow for stacking as necessary to accommodate all the birds. After the improvements were made, a clerk that came with the poultry judge remarked that the Martin County 4-H “poultry barn building and set-up is the best he has ever seen for a 4-H poultry show.”

Loogootee Pickleball

A dedicated group of pickleball enthusiasts utilized MCCF grants and other funding to develop a four-court pickleball complex at Loogootee City Park. With a goal of providing an avenue for physical activity for residents of all ages, the group started raising funds in October of 2022. In the summer of 2024, they had achieved their dream, and the courts officially opened. Tackling a project of this size was at times daunting, but the group never faltered.

Loogootee Pickleball leaders estimate that over 200 area residents have participated in the sport, many at clinics hosted by the group. They are looking forward to holding more clinics, hosting tournaments, and, of course, playing pickleball.

Pickle ball was invented by a group of enterprising dads who developed the game in response their children’s summertime complaint of “I’m bored!” It is played on a court about the size of a badminton court with a net height of 34 inches in the center. Players use a composite or wooden paddle about twice the size of a ping pong paddle and a perforated plastic ball. An estimated 48.3 million people in the United State play Pickleball. It is the fastest growing sport in the country.

Martin County
Cancer Patient Services

In 2023, Martin County Cancer Patient Services was founded with a mission to assist individuals fighting cancer and managing the difficulties that come with it. Through their HUGS4U2 initiative, they offer cancer support essentials like Ensure and Boost dietary supplements, ostomy bags and accessories, head coverings or wigs, walkers, canes, and more. With the help of an MCCF Boost Grant, MCCPS was able to procure and distribute many of these items.

The volunteers at MCCPS, manywith personal experiences of cancer, truly understand the challenges faced by patients and families dealing with this illness. They gladly offer assistance and understanding. One man, in particular, who suffers from esophogeal cancer and cannot consume solid food, received as been particularly appreciative of this support. He has esophogeal cancer and can’t eat solid food, received liquid nutritional supplements from MCCPS. This support not only ensures he receives essential nutrients but also eases the financial strain of battling cancer. MCCPS has made a robust start and remains committed to aiding individuals in Martin County confronting cancer.

Town of Shoals

In early 2020, MCCF prioritized health, wellness, and recreation after working with E-Solve Solutions and the READY Martin County Coalition. in Alignment with this focus, the Town of Shoals received a $130,000 grant from MCCF to install a preschool playground, new walkway lighting, safety netting for the existing playground area, and new fencing for the front part of the main ballfield at the Shoals Community Ballpark. The playground includes a jungle gym with slides and climbing apparatus, a tunnel, and addaptive swings. The collaborative grant from MCCF was made possible with support from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its $100,000 leadership grant from Lilly Endowment’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) VII initiative.

The City of Loogootee
Park Board

The Loogootee city square has had a water fountain for decades. As travelers passed through Loogootee on US 231, they couldn’t help but see this landmark. The citizens of Loogootee and surrounding areas often stopped and visited the fountain. It was a place to meet friends, sit and relax, and enjoy community events. Unfortunately, the fountain deteriorated to the point it needed constant repairs. This prompted the city, Park Board, and Hoosier Uplands to team up to try and obtain a new fountain. With help from a $20,000 grant from the Martin County Community Foundation, funding from the City of Loogootee, Hoosier Uplands, and personal donations, that new fountain is now a reality.  

Finding a fountain to fit the original fountain’s footprint was a challenge. That challenge was magnified by the request of some of the private donors to include lions in the design. The pandemic added further challenges, but the Park Board never gave up, a beautiful fountain has been installed, and people are once again visiting the fountain and enjoying the city square. 

Shoals Community Schools
Jug Rox Robotix

Jug Rox Robotix is a competitive robotics team at Shoals HIgh School. The team competes in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) where they design, build, and program a robot to meet a new challenge each year.

The 2020-2021 year was very successful for the thirteen-member team. Jug Rox Robotix qualified for the Indiana State Championship at the South League Championship where the were undefeated in the first six rounds of match play. In the final round, they teamed with I.C.E. Robotics from Bloomington and remained undefeated making them the Winning Alliance of the championship. They also came in Second Place for the Inspire Award in which judges interview the team and evaluate their robot design, outreach, and business plan.

In the Indiana State FTC Robotics Championship, Jug Rox Robotics was ranked No. 1 going into the final matches. Their ranking entitled them to captian their alliance team in the final matches. The alliance team included the Jug Rox, I.C.E. Robotics, and XLR8 from Grangers. The alliance was defeated in the first match, won the second, but couldn’t capture the win the final match and became the Finalist Aliance. Jug Rox Robotix wond the Control Award which is given to the team that demonstrates inovative thinking to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, improving mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results.

During one of the State FTC Robotics Championship semifinal matches Jug Rox and I.C.E. scored 407 points which is the highest score in the state this year by a team in face to face play. You can watch the match here.

Martin County
Historical Society

The Martin County Historical Society received a grant from the Martin County Community Foundation to help with the cost of renovating the future Veterans Room at the Martin County Museum located in the former Courthouse. This room will house military displays to honor our local Veterans and heroses.

Humane Society

The Martin County Humane Society received a $10,000 Impact Grant to help them expand their shelter to provide spay/neuter and wellness services to the region. For six years the Martin County Humane Society has partnered with Pets Alive, a non-profit clinic, for their spay/neuter services. As a non-profit, Pets Alive offered their services at an affordable rate. Recently Pets Alive informed the Humane Society they were closing and there wasn’t another non-profit clinic within a 50-mile radius. To meet their own spay and neuter needs and to fill a void in the area, the Humane Society decided to create their own clinic. Their plan is to have a full-time veterinarian, veterinarian technician and a receptionist/custodian. Over the last six years the Martin County Humane Society has provided spay/neuter services through Pets Alive and local vets for over 1,500 dogs and cats in Martin County.

Shoals Public Library

When the Shoal Public Library’s boiler stopped working and they learned they needed a new heating and cooling system, the MCCF Board stepped in with a $16,000 Board Directed grant to help the Library purchase a new HVAC system.

Curt Johnson, MCCF Development Director, and MCCF Board members Angie Risacher and Annette Taylor presented the grant check to Sylvia Albaugh, Shoals Public Library Director. Also present are Library Board members Kathy Collins, Liz Chattin, and Barb Loomis and Assistant Librarian Mary Holt.

Youth First

Youth First’s mission is to strengthen our youth and families by providing programs that prevent substance abuse, promote healthy behaviors, and maximize student success. They do this my placing a social worker in a school system and implementing programs to meet their mission.

Youth First received a $5,000 2020 Impact Grant to implement some of these programs in the Loogootee Community School Corporation. The LCSC Youth First office also received a surprise $5,000 grant awarded at this year’s MCCF Annual Dinner event.

Trinity Springs Mustering Elm

Trinity Springs Mustering Elm Park received a 2019 MCCF Impact Grant to construct a deck with a pergola in a grove of trees near the playground. The deck could be used for parents to enjoy the shade while their children play at the playground, community members to enjoy the park and events, and weddings. The pergola has lights and outlets to accommodate wedding décor and lighting.

Town of Shoals

The town of Shoals has a particular charm with a historic district recognized by the National Register of Historical Places. The Shoals Beautification Board is working hard to maintain that charm throughout the town. They added flower pots and window boxes throughout town and along the HWY 50 Bridge crossing the White River with a 2019 Impact Grant they received from MCCF. They’ve received a lot of positive response to these improvements and plan to do more. This year their goal is to add additional planters throughout town. They also plan to install new street and stop signs posts that will accommodate both signs creating a tidy appearance at street corners and enhancing the historic feel of the town. A $20,000 Board Directed Grant from MCCF will help the Board continue in it’s efforts to further beautify Shoals.

The town of Shoals plans to add "Wayfinding” signs that will complement the signs the Beautification Board plans to install. The Wayfinding signs will help people locate important community buildings such as Town Hall and the Courthouse as well as the many natural resources in the area. The signs will help create an inviting public atmosphere for residents and visitors alike. The Town of Shoals received a $5,000 Board Directed Grant from MCCF to assist with the project.

Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP Volunteer Center)

RSVP’s “Ready, Set, Go!” program provided Disaster Preparedness Kits for Martin County senior residents. The kits include items such as first aid supplies, flashlight, whistle, candles, matches, water bottles, and even a deck of cards. An education event was planned to provide information on how to prepare for and handle a disaster situation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event had to be cancelled. Educational information was provided with the kit. The kits were purchased with help from a Martin County Community Foundation Impact Grant.

Kim Herbertz, of RSVP, tells of a local couple in their 80’s who lost everything they had to a home explosion. Fortunately they got out safely, but all they had was the clothes on their back. For Herbertz, it brought to light how seniors need to think about these situations and have a kit ready to grab in an emergency that contains at least some essentials and personal items like medication and copies of important papers. It is her hope the “Ready, Set, Go!” program will help others who find themselves in similar situations due to tornado, home fire, or other disaster to be prepared.

Improving Connectivity

Connecting to the internet has become more important than ever since the COVID-19 Pandemic. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints or simply the location of someone’s home, not everyone has connection to the internet. When schools moved to home learning in response to the state mandated quarantine due to the Coronavirus, it quickly became apparent that not all students could readily participate in e-learning as a result of connectivity issues.

The Martin County Community Foundation awarded Emergency Relief Grants to Loogootee and Shoals Community Schools to provide internet hot spots to address the connectivity needs of their students improving their ability to complete homework assignments and participate in e-learning should the need arise to return to home learning. Through these efforts, the schools are ensuring that all students have easier access to the resources needed for learning in today’s technological environment.

The Lawrence County Community Foundation awarded a Board Directed Grant to the Mitchell Public Library to provide hot spots that can be checked out from the library enabling patrons to access the internet for homework, e-learning, completing job applications and more.

Martin County SOAR

Established in 2009, Martin County SOAR (Success and Opportunity at Reading) is a community based non-profit literary program who’s mission is to enrich the lives of the residents of Martin County by building life and literacy skills through a free tutoring service. They match volunteer tutors with adult individuals who want to improve their literacy skills. SOAR serves individuals and families, as well as inmates of the Martin County Security Center, in areas of reading, writing, mathematics, high school equivalency test preparation, English as a second language, and work/life skills. But their efforts don’t stop there.

The U.S. Department of Justice states “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.” In order to avoid academic failure, SOAR has developed the Promoting Family Literacy project.

The project provides each Head Start family with a book designed to teach the alphabet, beginning sight words, and how to form letters. First graders are given a book to encourage reading for fun. Third graders are given dictionaries to encourage them to read to learn. Fourth graders are given a thesaurus to find alternate words. SOAR is adding kindergarten and second grade students to complete their preK-4th grade early childhood literacy cycle.

Soar reaches approximately 600 elementary students and 35 Head Start families in Martin County. An Impact Grant from MCCF helped defray the cost of the books, dictionaries, and thesauruses.

Encouraging literacy in children and adults not only opens the imagination but positive opportunities in life as well.

Haysville Community Volunteer Fire Department

We hope to never have need of our local fire departments, but we are so very thankful and comforted to know that they are there for us when we need them. These individuals are willing to risk their lives in order to keep us safe.

It is important for their safety to be addressed as well. Turnout gear that meets the most current safety standards is one way to do this. The National Fire Protection Association requires fire departments to retire turnout gear that is 10 years old, regardless of how many times it has been used. One set of turnout gear can cost between $2,000 and $3,500. This is an expense that can be very difficult for fire departments to meet.

With the help of a Martin County Community Foundation Challenge Grant, The Haysville Community VFD was able to purchase new turnout gear for their fire fighters. A challenge grant requires that the grant recipient raise a portion of the funds on their own prior to receiving their grant. A challenge grant enables the recipient to raise more money than the grant can provide and brings awareness to the community of the need that exists.

Backpack Blessings

Many children in our community depend on school lunches to provide the main meal of their day. With schools no longer in session, many of these children would be going hungry if it wasn’t for programs like Backpack Blessings which provides food for these students.

Throughout the school year, Backpack Blessings provides weekly packets of food for students to take home to assist families with meals over the weekend. Ordinarily they provide their food packets for 175 students per week. Since the schools closed, that number has increased to 634 students per week.

With help from an Emergency Relief Grant from the Martin County Community Foundation, Backpack Blessings was able to make 1,700 bags of food. They anticipate this will last about 2 1/2 weeks. Their current goal is to continue to provide food through the beginning of May.

EMERGENCY RELIEF GRANTS FOR LAWRENCE COUNTY NON-PROFITS

Due to the unprecedented global Coronavirus crisis, the Community Foundation Partnership, Inc., serving the Lawrence and Martin County Community Foundations, activated an Emergency Relief Fund.  The Community Foundation was able to address the community’s most pressing needs by granting to trusted nonprofit partners throughout Lawrence and Martin Counties who become overwhelmed by requests for assistance. 

Emergency Grant Recipients:

• Backpack Blessings, Redemption Christian Church

• Hoosier Hills Food Bank

• Hoosier Trails Council, Boy Scouts of America

• Hoosier Uplands

• Loogootee School Corporation

• Martin County 4-H Club

• Mustering Elm

• Redeeming Grace Center for Women's Ministries

• RSVP

• Shoals Public Library

• Shoals School Corporation

• Youth First