Salina Organization Gets Seed Grant

A Salina organization is among a dozen from around the state receiving special Seed Grants.

This is the sixth year Volunteer Kansas has awarded organizations in the $500 Seed Grants. According to the organization, these mini grants are intended to support service projects that will engage volunteers and increase volunteerism.

This year’s winners include:

  1. RSVP of Northeast Kansas, Inc. (Marysville) – Grocery Delivery Service
  2. Martin Luther King, Jr. Child Development Center (Salina) – Center Spruce-up
  3. Medical Loan Closet of Wichita, Inc. (Wichita) – Medical Loan Closet Equipment Roundup
  4. Wichita Family Crisis Center (Wichita) – Raised Garden Beds
  5. KANSEL (Wichita) – Outdoor Chalkboard and Garden Boxes
  6. Newton Murals and Arts Project (Newton) – Farmers’ Market Mural
  7. Operation WildLife, Inc. (Linwood) – Hill Planting and Fence Repair for Honeybee Habitat
  8. Friends of JCDS (Lenexa) – Outdoor Music Project
  9. Reno County Communities That Care (Hutchinson) – Grandparents’ Night Project
  10. Dear Neighbor Ministries (Wichita) – Restoration of Handicap-Accessible Raised Garden Bed
  11. Inter-faith Ministries (Wichita) – Outdoor Cleanup
  12. Midland Care Connection (Topeka) – Youth Corps Recruiting

“The number of applications for our 10 seed grants keeps increasing every year. This year we had 37 organizations apply. There were so many great projects but not all fit our criteria. However, we found 12 projects we couldn’t say no to. These projects will all make a difference in their communities and help increase volunteerism in our state,” said Volunteer Kansas Executive Director Nola Brown. “We really hope these small grants will produce a large harvest of volunteers.”

In order to qualify for the grants, organizations had to submit proposals for projects that would incorporate at least 20 volunteers, agree to list their volunteer project on Volunteer Kansas’ website at www.volunteerkansas.org, and post before, during and after photos of their project on social media.

The vision of Volunteer Kansas is to move Kansas from the state ranking of number seven for volunteerism to number one.