Sustainable Tompkins completed its 26th granting cycle for the popular Neighborhood Mini-grants Program in early December. Our Mini-grant Council (Jamila Simon, Joel Gagnon, Larissa Comacho-Lillie, and Gay Nicholson) reviewed proposals submitted for the December deadline and allocated the $1,500 available in grant funds. Cornell graduate student, Mike Catsos, our Sustainability Intern last Spring, is an interim member filling in for Miranda Phillips who is away on sabbatical for the year.
The Council was delighted to see so many proposals with a big focus on civic engagement and citizen journalism in the December round:
- Eco-Defense Radio, a locally-based program airing on WRFI Community Radio, will purchase equipment for producing field documentaries on environmental protection and sustainability.
- Hot Potato Press will train three citizen journalists to write for a new website on food news and networking, to be launched in 2015.
- West Village Gone Green will purchase new fencing for the West Village Apartments community garden.
- The fourth mini-grant in the December round will fund supplies for the Black Locust Initiative to launch their new gardening program serving pre-Kindergarten students in Trumansburg.
Sasha Paris will be our new MiniGrants Program Coordinator. If you are interested in applying for our next round of grants in March, please get in touch with her at stminigrantssasha
