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Community Foundation of the Ozarks announces $350,000 in new Musgrave Foundation grants

Community Foundation of the Ozarks is shown Aug. 9, 2022.
Gregory Holman/KSMU
Community Foundation of the Ozarks is shown Aug. 9, 2022.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks announced this week that it awarded $350,000 to 38 Ozarks nonprofit agencies on behalf of the Jeannette L. Musgrave Foundation. Most of the funding goes towards causes benefiting children.

Some of the biggest awards included $10,000 grants given to The Victim Center, Care to Learn and Harmony House to support causes affecting local children.

According to a news release, the Musgrave Foundation was set up in 1983 as a private charitable organization. CFO took over grant-making in 2020, following the death of longtime Musgrave Foundation manager Jerry Redfern.

CFO said Monday that recipients of the 2022 grants include the following organizations, listed in alphabetical order:

• American Red Cross: $7,500 to assist low-income families who have experienced home fires in Greene County

• Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield: $5,000 for the Healthy Lifestyles Project, providing a healthy snack every day after school

• Care to Learn: $10,000 to meet emergency health, hunger and hygiene needs in Greene County schools

• CASA of Southwest Missouri: $5,000 to support a Community Development Specialist, whose focus is recruitment of CASA volunteers

• Cents of Pride: $10,000 to purchase items for 14 Cents of Pride stores in Springfield Public Schools’ elementary schools

• Child Advocacy Center: $10,000 to support staff expansion and ultimately reduce wait times for children in need of services

• City of Springfield / Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights: $5,000 to provide funding support for 90 teachers who will complete a kindergarten-readiness survey

• Council of Churches of the Ozarks: $7,500 to purchase diapers at wholesale cost for individuals using the Diaper Bank of the Ozarks

• The Doula Foundation: $2,000 to support at-risk families that lack appropriate prenatal and postnatal care

• East Grand Community Services: $5,000 to support a qualified computer teacher at its after-school program

• Friends of the Garden: $4,000 to support the Roston Native Butterfly House

• The Gathering Tree Inc.: $3,500 to build and furnish a covered outdoor kitchen extension at the Revive 66 Campground

• The GLO Center: $2,000 to support the Rainbow Kids program and to support middle and high school Gay Straight Alliance programs

• Habitat for Humanity of Springfield, Missouri Inc.: $7,500 for materials for a Habitat family home build

• Harmony House: $10,000 to support the Family Advocacy Program for children surviving domestic violence

• Help Give Hope: $5,000 to serve at least five additional families during the holiday season

• Junior Achievement in Southwest Missouri: $10,000 to support programming for K–12 classrooms in Greene County

• The Kitchen Inc.: $7,500 to provide rental subsidies to residents living in the Franciscan Villa

• Drew Lewis Foundation: $7,500 to continue the RISE Financial and Mental Health project

• Lost & Found Grief Center: $2,500 to support individuals experiencing loss via a variety of methods

• Missouri State University / KSMU: $2,500 to fund the acquisition and broadcast of children’s educational programming for Ozarks Public Television. (Editor's note: The Board of Governors of Missouri State University is the Federal Communications Commission licensee for both KSMU Radio and KOZK/KOZJ Ozarks Public Television.)

• Newborns In Need: $3,000 to purchase warm fleece sleepers and fleece sleep sacks for newborns in low-income families

• Ozark Trails Council Inc. / Boy Scouts of America: $5,000 to support the Scoutreach program

• Ozarks Food Harvest: $7,500 to provide hunger relief in the Ozarks via a variety of partnerships

• Ozarks Literacy Council: $9,500 to support administrative costs and purchase educational tools for reading tutoring programs

• The Salvation Army: $5,500 to purchase a large three-door refrigerator for the facility

• Springfield Community Gardens: $3,000 to support a partnership with the American Indian Center community garden

• Springfield Regional Arts Council: $7,500 to contribute to the Growing Up in the Arts program, which provides high-quality arts experiences for at-risk kids

• Springfield Sister Cities: $4,000 to support the Samurai Sword Soul performance group at the Japanese Fall Festival at Nathanael Greene Park

• The Victim Center: $10,000 to provide trauma-focused counseling to children ages 2-20

• Vision Rehabilitation Center of the Ozarks: $6,000 to support eye exams and specialty care for low-income children with low vision

• Women’s Medical Respite: $10,000 to assist women without homes recovering from medical emergencies

Nursing scholarship grants awarded

CFO also announced that the Musgrave Foundation issued $24,000 grants to the following five organizations in order to support nursing scholarships. One of the foundation's grant-making priorities is health care education, CFO said in a news release.

• Cox College

• Drury University

• Mercy College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Southwest Baptist University

• Missouri State University

• Ozarks Technical Community College

O'Reilly Center for hope funded

CFO also said it received $30,000 for the O'Reilly Center for Hope as part of its grant-making priority to address poverty, hunger and homelessness in the community. That $30,000 is the second installment in a three-year grant. The total of $90,000 is intended to support operational expenses at O'Reilly Center for Hope, located in Springfield's former Pepperdine Elementary School at 1518 E. Dale Street.

The Musgrave Foundation grant-making committee includes chair Rob Baird and members Emily Bowen-Marler, Thomas J. Carlson, Ferba Lofton, Danny Perches, Peggy Riggs and Thomas Slaight.

Gregory Holman is a KSMU reporter and editor focusing on public affairs.