Shelley Swift | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — Six local nonprofits have received grants totalling $59,000 from the Heart for Hancock Community Relief Fund, developed and distributed by the Hancock County Community Foundation.
The foundation’s board of directors created the fund shortly after the onset of the pandemic in 2020, taking up a collection within the community specifically to help nonprofits weather the effects of COVID-19.
More than $278,000 has been distributed so far.
The latest recipients include: Boys &Girls Clubs of Hancock County; Friends of Recovery (Talitha Koum Recovery House); FUSE, Inc.; Hancock County Historical Society; Hancock County Senior Services-Hancock Area Rural Transit; and Love INC of Greater Hancock County.
Foundation president Mary Gibble wouldn’t say how much funding remains in the Heart for Hancock fund, but said periodic grants would continue to be made as long as possible.
Natasha Frady, relations coordinator for the Talitha Koum House, said the recent $10,000 grant will go a long way in helping keep up with operating expenses at the Greenfield facility, where women on the road to recovery from addiction can get a fresh start.
The house is owned and operated by a separate nonprofit called Friends of Recovery, which received the grant.
“It helps us fill the gap and lack of funding we’ve gotten due to COVID restrictions,” Frady said.
Like many nonprofits, the Heart for Hancock fund has helped Friends of Recovery bridge the gap in instances where they’ve been unable to raise funds at their normal capacity since the start of the pandemic.
“We normally do an annual fundraiser called Cookies for a Cause, but have not been able to do so since 2019. It brings in about $40,000 a year, and we haven’t been able to have that,” Frady said.
As has been the case for many nonprofits, Frady said COVID-19 has increased the need for services while decreasing the ability to raise the funds to provide them.
“We’re fighting a drug epidemic during a pandemic, and this (Heart for Hancock) funding will help us to do that,” she said.
Frady said that just because fundraising has come to a temporary halt, the bills keep coming due.
The latest grant will be essential to keep the utilities and other expenses paid at the recovery house, she said.
The latest round of Heart for Hancock grants was also a welcome surprise for the Hancock County Historical Society, which will use the money to build a new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramp at the Chapel in the Park, one of the two mid-19th century buildings the society owns, at the southeast corner of Riley Park in Greenfield.
The Chapel in the Park Museum and the Old Log Jail Museum hold the society’s collection of artifacts.
Michael Kester, president of the Hancock County Historical Society, said the $9,000 the society recently received from Heart for Hancock fund will go toward completing renovation of the ADA ramp, decking and stairs that serve as the entrance to chapel.
“Time has not been kind to the aging structure,” said Kester, adding that there are always capital improvements to be done to both the chapel and log jail, some planned and some unplanned.
“Since we do not have a corporate sponsor or benefactor with deep pockets, each year we must search for financing that can help us keep these buildings in good repair,” he said.
Last year society members wondered if closing the chapel was inevitable when they were unable to secure funding for some necessary improvements. In the end they secured enough money to make temporary repairs to carry them into 2022, but a to-do list always remains.
Kester said the Heart for Hancock grant will not only help with important upgrades, but will make the facility more accessible for meetings and weddings, creating an ongoing revenue stream for the historical society.
“I cannot express how much it means to have foundations like HCCF that can assist us in continuing our missions to collect, preserve and interpret the history of Hancock County,” he said.
Gibble said Heart for Hancock applicants are identified through income loss resulting from COVID, she said, which often means a lack of income due to canceled fundraising events.
“As long as we have the resources to provide assistance, we will,” said Gibble.
By working in concert with other COVID relief opportunities, including those through the Lilly Endowment and government assistance programs, Gibble said the foundation has been able to guide nonprofits to as much assistance as possible.
“Working with other partners, making sure that we were being mindful of each other’s resources, has really enabled us to stretch our community dollars as much as possible,” she said. “We’ve been really fortunate to be able to stretch those dollars as long as we have.”
