Messenger Inquirer
Impact100 Owensboro celebrated 20 years of making a difference in the community and presented area nonprofits with four grants totaling a record $332,500 during its annual membership meeting Tuesday night at the RiverPark Center.
The Cliff Hagan Boys & Girls Club, the Green River Community Food Warehouse and Fresh Start for Women each received a $100,000 transformational grant, while the Salvation Army of Owensboro received a $32,500 impactful grant.
Impact100 has now donated more than $4.7 million since its inception.
“It’s so meaningful, and I just wish we could get more women involved so we could fund everyone,” Impact100 President Beth Clements said. “We had so many good nonprofits and so many great programs, and it’s just a really hard decision. But we’re so happy to help who we can.”
The Cliff Hagan Boys & Girls Club will use its funds to expand its Ohio County location to meet the growing need for after-school and summer child care for youth ages 6 to 18 across the county. The funding will supplement the cost of a new multipurpose room — named the Impact100 Room — designed to host academic support programs, STEM activities, arts and crafts, life and workforce readiness programs, family engagement nights and community events.
“That project in Ohio County means a whole lot for that county, because when we build Boys & Girls Clubs, it’s not just a Boys & Girls Club — it becomes a community center for the whole area,” said Steve Winkler, chief executive officer of the club. “That’s what we’ve done in Henderson and Daviess County, and it’s going to be the same way in Ohio County.
“Ohio County is the (fifth-largest) landmass in the state, and there are no after-school programs except for Boys & Girls Clubs. The demand is growing. We were turning kids away. The school system has been very good to us — the transportation of getting kids there — and our board has been very successful. We’ve got some great plans drawn up for a great facility, and not only is it going to be for kids, it’s going to be for that whole county.”
The Green River Community Food Warehouse will use its grant to build a temperature-controlled warehouse.
Executive Director Steve Innes said having a refrigerated facility will be a “game-changer” for food banks, as it will allow them to store food that would otherwise be turned away.
“Most of the donated food that’s available — the most important aspects, the protein, the fruit and vegetables — require some sort of refrigeration, or otherwise it goes wasted,” Innes said. “So our western Kentucky farmers, for example — a lot of the fruits and vegetables that are available, that can’t be sold for whatever reason — they can donate it to us. But it perishes so quickly. If we don’t have the ability to refrigerate it, then we lose it.
“It’s really important to us to be able to have that option to salvage that food for people who need it the most.”
Innes said getting Impact100’s backing means more than funding.
“It’s huge credibility for us, because it’s not only the money that’s important — and it certainly is — but it’s the visibility that will help us complete the fundraising,” he said. “It’s credibility for us, that they understand what we’re trying to do in the community.”
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