Trolley Between Spencer, Salisbury Among Grant Winners

BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

A tutoring program for fourth- and fifth-graders, a second-chance program for male substance abusers and a proposed trolley between Salisbury and Spencer are among the big grant winners from the Robertson Foundation.

Baseball players at Salisbury High School also will benefit.

The Blanche & Julian Robertson Family Foundation has announced $889,356 in grants for 16 projects in its fall cycle of funding.

Groups receiving grants in the fall cycle include Rowan-Salisbury Schools, Soldiers Memorial Church Foundation, Downtown Salisbury Inc., Rowan County YMCA, Waterworks Visual Arts Center, United Arts Council, Rowan Partnership for Children, Rowan Helping Ministries, Rowan-Salisbury Educational Foundation, the Salisbury Fire Department and the City of Spencer.

The largest award goes to Rowan-Salisbury Schools - a $216,962 grant for ÔÔTutors to the Rescue.'' The program will provide tutors for Salisbury area fourth- and fifth-grade students who score below grade level in reading and math.

Designed as a three-year program, the foundation's commitment covers the first year.

The second largest award - $116,450 - goes to Soldiers Memorial Church Foundation, which plans to reopen The Second Chance Recovery House. The program will work with homeless, male substance abusers who are newly released from treatment centers. It aims to assist the participants in becoming drug- and alcohol-free citizens.

Downtown Salisbury Inc. will receive $100,000 for a wheeled trolley service between Salisbury and Spencer. It will try to reestablish the historic link between the two towns, connecting the N.C. Transportation History Museum at Spencer Shops with the Salisbury depot, downtown Salisbury and the Waterworks Visual Arts Center.

The foundation awarded $88,750 to Salisbury High School to build a regulation-size baseball field behind the school's gymnasium. It represents the first phase of a project to create a recreational/athletic complex to serve the school and West End community.

For all of 1998, the foundation has made 49 grants totaling $2,420,160.

The total grants represent 13.45 percent of the $18 million in assets the foundation started with a year ago. Executive Director David Setzer says the foundation has easily exceeded the minimum range of grants required of private foundations.

By law, a private foundation must distribute at least 5 percent of its assets on an annual basis.

Here's a rundown of the other grants from the fall cycle:

* Rowan County YMCA's Salisbury branch - $67,524 to support the YMCA drill team, a synchronized stepping group of boys and girls, ages 3-19. The grant application says 93 percent of the participants come from low-income families.

* Rowan Partnership for Children - $59,600 for a preschool program providing care for children with special needs. Funds will support their parents and teachers.

* Rowan Helping Ministries - $50,000 to sustain its Crisis Assistance Network, which helps the poor with utilities, rent, water, medicine and job-related expenses through a voucher system.

* Waterworks Visual Arts Center - $45,000 for the purchase and outfitting of an art van. The van will take materials and staff to various sites for art programming and classes.

* Overton Elementary School - $44,515 for a school remediation program that will use technology and Catawba College student volunteers to help students performing below grade level.

* N.C. Cooperative Extension Service - $33,883 to begin three new 4-H clubs at the Dunbar Center in East Spencer. The clubs will provide after-school activities for youth, ages 5 to 19.

* Rowan-Salisbury Educational Foundation - $25,000 for classroom projects in the public schools.

* Salisbury Fire Department - $24,645.20 to purchase a pickup for department's fire safety programs. It will be used primarily to transport the department's new Fire Safety House to schools and local events.

* United Arts Council - $8,400 for a cultural and heritage inventory of Rowan County along with the N.C. Arts Council, the N.C. Department of Commerce and the Rowan Convention and Tourism Bureau.

* City of Spencer - $5,000 to complete Library Park, which is under construction next to the town library.

* North Rowan Elementary School - $2,051 for student field trips.

* United Arts Council - $1,575 to create a partnership with Isenberg Elementary for an after-school arts project.

The foundation received 80 grant applications during this second cycle of funding. Grant application deadlines for 1999 will be March 8 and Oct. 25. Application forms will be available Dec. 7 in the foundation office at 315 N. Main St.; in the offices of Kluttz, Reamer, Blankenship, Hayes & Randolph at 131 N. Main St.; and in the lobby of Wachovia Bank's main office at 130 S. Main St.