ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

The Meade County Community Foundation recently wrapped up its summer grant cycle, and Director Cheyenne Federau said she was quite pleased with the results.

“We had 25 applications, and we were able to grant to 20 – not quite everybody, but pretty close,” she said. “It was $15,390 we were able to grant out this cycle. We had two that were right at $2,000. We had four that were $1,000 or more, and we had several smaller ones – a couple $300 ones, a couple $500 ones. It varied quite a bit this cycle.”

One particular grant went to the USD 483 school district to help with the upcoming Family Literacy Night at Kismet Elementary School and Plains Elementary School.

“They’re going to invite all of their families in,” Federau said. “They’re going to do games and activities, and they’re going to have a meal. We specifically sponsored the books. Each kid will get to take home a book from that event. We were pretty excited about that one. That’s a fun one.”

This grant cycle saw MCCF partner with the Western Kansas Community Foundation, who gave several area community foundation, including Federau’s, $2,000.

“We were asking what could we do with it, and a board member asked if we could add it on to our grant cycle,” she said. “I said that’s great. We gave that to the Meade County Conservation District for their grant. They got the $2,000 we got from them, and it is for an inflatable fire house they’re going to use at their Ag Safety Day. It has a fog machine. The kids are going to see how the smoke rises, and you need to crawl on the ground to be away from the smoke and how to escape the building.”

Adding to this, Federau said the Meade County Conservation District is partnering the Clark County Conservation District on the project.

“They’re going to share it to alleviate the costs. They don’t each need one because they’re not using it every day,” she said. “To me, that project is so cool, and they take it to all the schools in both Meade and Clark County. We’ve got Seward County too because we’ve got Kismet in there.”

Fires have dominated much of the region’s news this year, with multiple fires happening in both Southwest Kansas and the neighboring Oklahoma Panhandle, and Federau said MCCF was able to help out with those relief efforts as well.

“We had some that were in our Seward and Meade County area too where people had lost their homes, the livestock and fences,” she said. “Our fire departments had been through it, and when this Meade County fire complex started back up, the Ashland Community Foundation reached out to us and wanted to know if we wanted to partner with them to get relief to the fire victims.”

Federau said the Ashland foundation has a grant application program for those who lost their homes and livestocks.

“They are able to get relief to the fire victims through that,” she said.

Federau said MCCF’s board immediately liked the idea of partnering with Ashland.

“We’re so thankful to them for all the work they’ve done and the funds they have got to our Meade County residents who have lost their homes, their fencing and their feed,” she said.

Federau said donors were contacting foundtion officials to see how they could help with the fires.

“You can always donate through us to non-profit organizations,” she said. “That’s not anything new, but it’s something I don’t think people realize they could do. We had over $40,000 that came in people wanted to allocate to the fire department. We had it where they could donate countywide, or they could donate to departments specifically. We were able to get those checks out to our different fire departments over the last month and get those funds to them.”

During the annual Fowler Threshing Days parade, firefighters in that community were surprised with a check from the foundation.

“We had the sheriff get on the dispatch radio,” Federau said. “He told them it was an emergency, and they needed to leave their trucks. They had to get out of their trucks, and they saw the board and I standing there with a great big check. They were not too impressed, but when they saw the amount on the check, they were pretty excited.”

MCCF likewise surprised fire departments in Meade and Plains with big checks, and Federau said being able to give to the departments was amazing.

“The amount of people who rallied together to help was really neat,” she said. “We were excited to be able to do that. For us to be able to help in that way, it was really meaningful to me, and I’ll never forget it.”

Federau said area firefighters knew donations were being made through the foundation, but they had no idea how much had been donated.

“They were all pretty shocked,” she said. “All three of the departments were surprised to see the big check, but when they saw the amounts, they were even more surprised and thankful.”

Federau said this was a great example of how small towns come together in emergency situations.

“We had donations for the fire departments from literally all over the country,” she said. “I think a lot of them had Meade County ties, but I don’t know that all of them did. It was really awesome to see all of these people come together to be able to help out people who saved us.”

With state funds not being available immediately, Federau said the MCCF grants were a big help in the meantime, and fire departments have begun building back slowly following this year’s fires.

“With the Fowler one, they’re working on new trucks right now,” she said. “They’re utilizing the funds they have received. As for the donations, they got so many hydration drinks, and food wise everything was so stocked. That was all just from community volunteers. That had nothing to do with us. That was also amazing to see – people joining together and making meals and delivering them and getting them baby wipes to clean their faces.”

While the rebuilding is making progress, Federau said there is likely still things departments need.

“Our department in Fowler, they have a waiting list to join now because they don’t have enough equipment for everybody who wants to join the department,” she said.

While most of the work MCCF does is based in Meade County itself, the foundation also helps out in the Kismet community, as that town is tied to the USD 483 district. Federau said one of the grants from the recent cycle was given to Kismet Public Library, the first given in Kismet not associated with Kismet Elementary School.

“There’s still Meade County people who go to the Kismet library, and they have all kinds of awesome activities they do,” she said. “They’re still serving our people, and that would be a great way we could help Kismet out We have a great donor base that’s either in Kismet or is originally from Kismet. Our partnership is growing and doing well.”

While there were some new recipients with the recent grant cycle, Federau said some of the regulars received donations as well, such as Artesian Valley Health System in Meade.

“They have clinics in Meade, Plains and Montezuma,” she said. “They do community events. We have funded those, and we are proud to fund those since the beginning.”

Another grant helped with the Meade County Historical Society’s recent Wild West Fest.

“That was a new event in Meade this year, and we were excited to be able to help that out,” she said. “We also had a parade entry. We were there. We had a presence there, and we also donated to supporting the event.”

The Meade food bank is looking to build a new building, but they are still currently renting the building the food bank is in now. Federau said MCCF was able to help them pay utilities for the next six months.

“They served 720 people last month,” she said. “Their numbers are way up, but they’re donations have not gone up.”

A business class at Meade High School is looking to start a school store, and Federau said the foundation likewise was able to help with that project.

“They are going to make T-shirts, so they need a press for that,” she said. “Eventually, they want to add on a coffee shop. We gave them some money to help get that started.”