GREENFIELD — The Hancock County Community Foundation recently awarded two grants — one to the Shirley Police Department and one to Dani’s Dreams.
The foundation awarded the Town of Shirley Police Department a grant from the Hancock County Enrichment Endowment Fund, a component fund of HCCF. Created by the foundation, the Enrichment Fund is an unrestricted fund that addresses a broad range of needs, including future needs that often cannot be anticipated. The $995 grant will fund a new Stalker ATR Hand-held Police Radar unit. Shirley Police Department leaders said the radar unit is a tool to reduce the number of speed-related crashes.
The mission of the Shirley Police Department is to ensure a safer community by reducing crime, establishing relationships with the residents of the town and county, enforcing the law while preserving the peace, and to adorn the quality of life for the residents of Shirley.
In addition, the foundation recently awarded Dani’s Dreams Innovation in Education Corporation a grant from the Clean and Green Endowment Fund, a foundation component fund. A member of HCCF’s Spirit of Community fund family, its grants provide support for conserving and protecting Hancock County’s natural environment through recycling, clean energy, and green initiatives.
The $1,000 grant will fund an outreach coordinator intern for the 2017-18 school year. They will seek an energetic, organized, patient and creative college student or young adult to take Dani’s Dreams lessons into preschools, daycares and libraries.
Dani’s Dreams mission is to connect students and teachers to the world around them using media and technology to explore and create innovative, student-led multimedia and STEM projects.
Dani’s Dreams is expanding in Hancock County with the Dani’s Dreams Outdoor Education Trail at Sugar Creek Township Park and the ECOFEST lessons created and taught by New Palestine High School teacher Brittany Bennett and her AP Environmental Science students. At John H. Boner Community Center facilities on the near eastside of Indianapolis, the Urban Media Project gives hands-on media experiences for elementary and middle school students led by high school and college mentors, who also work as media creators in their community. All of these programs are free to students.
The Hancock County Community Foundation provides philanthropic leadership by encouraging giving, learning, community pride and civic engagement. Working with caring individuals, families, and organizations to create or grow existing permanent endowment funds is critical to the organization’s mission. These funds generate income distributed through grants and scholarships to enrich and enhance life in Hancock County, as well as support the donor’s favorite charitable causes, both at home and afar forever. The foundation has granted more than $13 million since its inception in 1992.
