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OAGC Foundation For 20 years, the OAGC Foundation has awarded scholarships (Educational Grants), to deserving students. The OAGC Foundation is now expanding this grant program to include other types of hortic lture education such as statewide beautification and conservation projects, and to underwrite the special projects of OAGC, such as Wahkeena Nature Preserve and Mohican School in the Out-of-Doors. To facilitate our grant giving, we need to establish request guidelines and we will need someone to oversee the process, a “Development Director”. The Trustees will prepare a job description, detailing the duties of the Development Director and we then will select someone to fill this position. Some questions have been raised about our funding agreement with Wahkeena. I did some digging (along with Tom Shisler) to find the original agreement, dated 1965, between OAGC and the Ohio Historical Society for the support of the Nature Preserve. Our initial monetary commitment of $20,000.00 has grown to approximately $130,000.00 in this OAGC Restricted Fund. This money can neverbe spent, but its earnings support the various projects that we have requested over the years. From now on, OAGC Foundation grants will go directly to Wahkeena Nature Preserve, not to the Ohio Historical Society OAGC Fund. This will increase the amount of money that Tom will have for projects at Wahkeena. He will continue to receive the profits from the OHS OAGC Fund and he will receive ‘spendable’ money from our OAGC Foundation. Some of Wahkeena’s immediate needs are for additional staffing and funding to help offset transportation costs for elementary school trips to the Nature Preserve. Memorial contributions for Sarah Budnick will be used for these transportation costs. What about Mohican School in the Out-of-Doors? George Christ is their new liaison on the OAGC Board. At the Fall State Board meeting George gave a wonderful talk about the school. He described their 3, 4 and 5 day school programs requiring students to live at Mohican and experience outdoor education as directed by a teacher-supplied training plan. As some children have never been away from home or attended a camp before, some everyday life skills are included in the package as well. The Foundation Trustees have asked both Tom and George to present their “wish lists” of projects and associated costs. We will then determine how best to meet their requests. One of the jobs of the Development Director will be to seek out grants from other 501(c)3 public charities and provide matching funds for other grants. Your continued support of the OAGC Foundation is greatly appreciated and will be a legacy for years to come. Please consider the Foundation when making charitable donations. Donations are tax deductible as allowed by the IRS code for 501(c)3 public charities. |