Grant Catalog - 2024

WCUF is launching Dolly Parton's Imagination Library for children from 0 to 5 in Wabash County at no cost to the family. We can unite to create a path to academic success, encourage imagination and creativity, and cultivate a lifelong love of reading
Wabash County United Fund is seeking funding support Dolly Parton's Imagination Library! Wabash County United Fund (WCUF) has committed to launching Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL) for all children from birth to age 5 in Wabash County. At no cost to the family, each qualified, registered child within the household is mailed one free, high quality, age-appropriate book directly from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to expand literacy growth and encourage bonding between parent/guardian and child. Currently, Indiana State Library coordinates the state-wide expansion program of DPIL and provides the state's match of 50% of the local program cost. DPIL has never been offered in Wabash County but has been successful in all surrounding counties for years. With the support of the Wabash County community, we can unite to create a path to academic success, encourage imagination and creativity, and cultivate a lifelong love of reading. WCUF is the Local Program Partner committed to coordinating the national program to be offered to eligible children in all of Wabash County. We have selected the coverage area of all eleven zip codes affiliated with Wabash, Indiana, so no child is left without this opportunity to grow. Associates of DPIL are vested community partners who receive important announcements, newsletters and other updates involving the DPIL program. This may be the local champion, sponsor, community leaders, board members, and/or other individuals instrumental in the success of the program. With the help of these community partners, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library can be sponsored by zip code, month, or even year! Let's unite to spark a lifelong journey of discovery and wonder through reading!

Archives Digitization and Public Access Project

The Wabash County Museum is seeking contributions toward a one-time cost to digitize around 1,000 oversized documents in our archives. Digitizing and cataloging oversized items is impossible in house because the Museum does not own the equipment to do so. Digitizing the documents in the archives will make them searchable, which will expand the museum's ability to preserve and share history. The archives are particularly important because they are accessed frequently via research requests from people searching for genealogy information, researching the history of a property or event, writing a paper or even a book, by educators for classroom use, and more. Read the Full Request Here

The Manchester Recreation Association is a not-for-profit community organization that promotes an environment of healthy competition, character development, and a passion for the games of baseball and softball.
We are thrilled to share with you an exciting initiative that is currently underway at our facility—an effort to enhance our lighting infrastructure and parking facilities. As we continually strive to improve the overall experience for our community and visitors, we recognize the importance of modernizing these crucial aspects of our space. Why lighting and parking? Our commitment to creating a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable environment drives us to focus on upgrading our lighting infrastructure and parking facilities. This not only addresses practical concerns but also plays a vital role in elevating the overall atmosphere for everyone who utilizes our space. Field Lighting for the Squires Softball Team: As the proud home of the Squires Softball team, ensuring top-notch field lighting is a priority. This not only enhances the safety of our players but also contributes significantly to the quality and enjoyment of the game. Upgrading our lighting system is a key step in maintaining the excellence that our team and community deserve. How You Can Help? We are reaching out to our community for support in making this project a reality. Your contributions will directly impact the success of our fundraising efforts, allowing us to update and improve our lighting infrastructure and parking facilities. Every donation, big or small, brings us one step closer to achieving our goal. Whether you're a passionate supporter of the Squires Softball team, a dedicated community member, or someone who simply appreciates the value of well-maintained facilities, we invite you to join us on this journey. Your involvement can make a significant difference, helping us create a space that we can all take pride in. Thank you for your consideration and support. Together, we can illuminate the path to a brighter and better future for our community.

Town of Somerset is seeking the assistance to fund replacement of destroyed town sign
We are seeking assistance to supplement our efforts in raising funds for the new Somerset sign. The Somerset town sign was destroyed by a severe thunderstorm in 2022. The sign was a long-standing icon in the community and was recognized by travelers along State Road 13 for over 40 years. Previously, the Town of Somerset's funding relied heavily on the selling of vacant lots. With no more available lots remaining, Somerset relies on its volunteers, donations, and grants to maintain the town's facilities (fire station, community building, and parks). Currently, the quote is approximately $9,800.00 from a local business in Wabash County. Any funds remaining will go towards the landscaping around the sign. This will include mulch, rocks, and perennials from local businesses in Wabash County. The above sign estimate includes the following: --16 ft x 8 ft custom made wood sign (2 sided) --Letter board added below the sign (2 sided) --Labor --Installation with Permit

Outdoor Play Space for Toddler & Preschool Ages
St. Roberts Catholic Church in North Manchester is seeking to build community and provide a safe, active space for our town's children and parents. Our church serves a diverse English and Hispanic community and works to provide programs for all. One such program that has gained traction is our group, "Connecting Among the Chaos." This group is open to all parents with young children in the community. We share parenting advice, provide a moral lesson and creative activity for the kids. This has become a valuable resource and place of support; specifically for stay-at-home parents. The project we are raising funds for is a play space for this group and others to utilize that is safe for our toddler and preschool aged kids. Our design is a kid-sized track for bikes, scooters or walking. Inside the track we will have a "kid's village," with play homes, businesses and a church. Also, inside the track will be a hill with a tunnel underneath and slide alongside the mound. We will include a swing structure with baby and child swings. There is also a parent zone with benches and tables for safely watching children while being able to connect. The goal is to give our youngest, active children a safe space to play and imagine without fear of lofty falls or climbing accidents. This space is designed to be dual purpose, the first is a safe place for young kids to play, imagine and exercise. The second purpose is to bring parents together for community. We believe this will have a lasting benefit to parents and children in those formative, sometimes demanding, early years.

A new Library for MELC

MELC has never had a working library that the children could utilize. 61% of lower income families have no children's books in their homes. This can create a 30-million-word gap by age 3, which then leads to lower performance throughout their school years. We want to change that and make sure all children in our center have a variety of ways to use and access books. We have found a space to use and have brought in some of the books. However, we are in need of furniture for the children to utilize, more book shelves and art work. We will also want to add a computer for checking in and out books. The current selection of books will need to be updated as well. We think the children will really enjoy this space in our school. Thank you for considering donating to our library.

Kaleidoscope Kids Summer Camp. Encouraging a love of community and history in youth ages 6-10 in our area.

2024 will be the fifth year that we have offered an 8-week program for area youth. Each year we pick a different theme and explore all aspects of that topic. In 2023 our food theme included a trip to the Stockdale Mill to see how grain was processed. In our next year we would like to expand the age group (11-14) and include middle school kids. We will teach them how photography is important to recording history and how photos have provided information that was previously left unrecorded in the past. Participants will learn photographic skills from professional photographers as well as art teachers. We also hope this will highlight an opportunity for a future career that students might like to explore. Our younger campers will be focusing on Native Americans that lived in our area, namely the Potawatomie and Miami tribes. They will learn about clothing, food, art and music in addition to visiting the sites that they lived.

Looking to fund a new Microfilm Reader for our Library Indiana Room.

The Roann library is celebrating 109 years, serving the Community of Roann and all of Paw Paw Township. Part of our mission is to save and embrace our rich and colorful history. As part of our project to reorganize our Indiana Room, which is set aside for genealogical research and local history, we are in need of a new microfilm reader to enable researchers to read our collection of The Roann Clarion, our local historic newspaper. The library holds microfilm for our paper from 1902-1942. Currently this collection as we have it, is not available anywhere else. Online historic databases appear to only cover approximately 20 years. We are seeking funds for a microfilm reader / scanner the enables us to print via a computer. This will be an invaluable asset for researchers whose families played a part in the building of this 170 year old community.

Blessings provides food for our local food insecure students.

We currently serve Pre-K to 6th grade students in both MSD of Wabash County and Wabash City Schools. Students who qualify for free/reduced lunch qualify to receive Blessings bags. Currently, we serve approximately 473 students weekly. We provide weekly bags to each student containing between eight to nine items. We like to include two warm items (mac n' cheese cup, cup of noodles, or canned pasta), two breakfast items (oatmeal, cereal, or breakfast bars), fruit (either fresh apples or applesauce), and a variety of snacks (crackers, cookies, granola bars, popcorn, trail mix, gummy snacks, Slim Jims, pudding, or a juice pouch). We also provide allergy-safe bags with different food items for students with food allergies. Your support will help sustain Blessings in a Backpack Wabash.

Providing 750 bags of food to those in need for Thanksgiving and Easter.

Lighthouse Missions is a local not-for-profit in downtown Wabash that has been helping Wabash County residents with food, clothing, and other basic needs for 18 years. Lighthouse Missions is seeking contributions to help provide food and clothing to individuals and families in need during the holiday season. Each year, Lighthouse Missions gives away roughly $26,000 in food during the Thanksgiving/Christmas and Easter Holidays. Read the Full Request Here

Racing Wheelchair and Enclosed Trailer
Our goal is to purchase 1 racing wheelchair and an enclosed trailer to transport our My Team Triumph race chairs to local and regional events. My Team Triumph connects children, teens, adults, and veterans with disabilities/ special abilities with able-bodied people to have a chance to compete and finish endurance running, cycling, and triathlon events. By doing this we enrich the health and well-being of individuals with disabilities/ special abilities by fostering lasting and authentic relationships through the teamwork environment. Our teams consist of a Captain and Angel. The person riding in the race chair is called a "Captain", as they are the captain of the team. The able-bodied person is the "Angel", as they are there to ensure success but unseen in the eyes of the event as they do not wear a race number so all credit goes to the captain.

Support for housing counseling for individuals in or applying for the HOST program.

Advantage Housing (AHI) is providing HOST Homes in Wabash County. HOST stands for Housing Options Short Term. We acquire properties and renovate them into efficiency apartments and family living units. These units are for the individuals in a housing crisis. To qualify for this program individuals/families are considered homeless, being evicted, not in a safe living environment or are a domestic violence victim. The housing counseling focuses on reducing or removing all the barriers to establishing a long-term residence. By far, this is the greatest help we can provide clients. The housing counseling service helps individuals build positive habits and mindsets and provides financial education such as budgeting basics. Contributions will help provide counseling for individuals in or applying for the HOST program. Read the Full Request Here