The objective of the Bulldog Batting Cages is to provide a recreational opportunity to the students at Kinston School that has never been available. Currently, students must travel via school bus or personal vehicle in order to utilize any type of structured baseball/softball equipment at the town’s baseball/softball complex. Accordingly, since traveling off school campus is the only avenue to access this type of equipment, this greatly restricts the number of participants and availability; additionally, it requires the repetitive use of gasoline/diesel fuel to transport students to the town-owned complex. Bulldog Batting Cages would allow all levels of students to improve hand-eye coordination, increase bat speed, improve pitch selection, form strong muscle memory, and perfect the basics of proper hitting mechanics. It would also provide an avenue for friendly sport and competition, exercise, and spending time outdoors.
Leadership Barbour is an ongoing project (16th year) with the goal to train and educate citizens so they can lead Barbour County into the future. Barbour County can only progress as far as its leaders can take it. The Leadership Barbour program resulted from an extensive study of assets and needs of the community. The study’s recommendations were reported to the Mayor and City Council and it was highly recommended by this report that a leadership program be started.
For more information about the program please visit our website- https://www.eufaulachamber.com/chamber/leadership-barbour?fbclid=IwAR37PyIK360nDKx0VghniCjXtrBv2omPROYaaGMXx1P8n4Rnf0sR3QYwnF4
As a passion project, SHORT the Squirrel literacy initiative, was founded in February 2020 and non-profit status soon followed. SHORT’s mission is to increase literacy in our youngest citizens, and the programming strategy identifies gaps of time where children must wait while their adults conduct various tasks. These periods of “gap” time could be at the courthouse, a waiting room, running community errands to the bank, town hall, grocery store, laundry mat, or hair salon, as well as places related to outdoor activities such as fishing, farming, and hunting. The list where children spend their time waiting in the community is vast and full of literacy opportunities. Unfortunately, comprehensive data on how these gaps of time could be translated into literacy growth moments alludes us. We want to impact the children where little to no data exists.
The efforts of SHORT the Squirrel provided topic-based literacy kits in the various areas where children are waiting. Through the grant, SHORT the Squirrel would develop, print and distribute a new booklet titled ‘SHORT and the Waterways’. The booklet featured various waterways in the area, regional wildlife, and special facts related to water management. Additionally, the new booklet promoted conservation, geography and protecting Alabama waterways.
The new booklet became one piece of a prepackaged literacy kit supplemented with a sticker, crayons, and environmental one-pager. Literacy kits have been distributed to the various spaces where children are waiting related to waterways and outdoor activities centered around the water. Examples of these locations include marinas, bait shops, regional parks, state agencies, campgrounds, and the like.
As the project comes to a close, the SHORT the Squirrel team is scheduling conversations with the various partner organizations/locations in an effort to obtain valuable feedback. Based on the insight and input from the partners, the booklet may be edited or modified for the end user as part of the next phase of distribution to other areas of the state.
Old Creek Town Boat Dock Replacement
The dock at Creek Town Park on beautiful Lake Eufaula has been in desperate need of repair. By repairing this boat dock, it will be a much safer and appealing place to launch from as it is a very active park. The boat dock at Old Creek Town Park, donated 17 years ago by a community sponsor, has served the community well and will continue to do so now that we have been able to renovate it.
The purpose of this grant was to equip two more officers with handheld radios, with a microphone device. This grant also helped to provide us with a portable pelican Remote Area Lighting system, that will help out Police department with training, wrecks and incident scenes. The remote area lighting system has also helped our Water Department with after hours water emergencies. We were also able to purchase a bounce imaging camera ball that has two way audible capabilities. We have trained with this device, luckily there has not came a real time scenario in which we have had to use this yet. This device will allow officers to throw this device into a dangerous scene and evaluate what is happening inside before placing officers at risk by entering without knowing what is inside. The River Falls Police Department thanks the Wiregrass RC & D Council for what they do for local entities, by purchasing and assisting in purchasing items that otherwise would not be attainable.
New Brockton Middle School purchased project based curriculum from Project Lead the Way. The two courses that we purchased are Design and Modeling and Medical Detectives. Both of these courses are approved by the ALSDE.
We believe that this curriculum has benefited the students of NBMS. It allowed them to experience elective(s) classes that are hands-on and engaging. It is our hope that these types of class offerings will equip students with problem solving skills that help them become outside the box thinkers.
Stryker Stair Chair Abbeville Rescue
We chose to use grant funds to purchase a Stryker stair chair for our rescue squad. This chair is beneficial to our service as well as our community. With this chair we are able to safely move patients to a area of safety to provide better care. The chair allows us to access areas our stretcher simply cannot, it could be due to uneven terrain, tight spaces, etc. In the past we had to use sheets or simply pick patients up and try to carry them. As you can probably guess the risk for injury was much greater operating this way. It’s beneficial to our service as it helps prevent injury to the provider as well as lowering the chance of dropping or injuring the patient. We are so excited and thankful to be able to purchase this chair.
The Elba Theatre – Catering Kitchen, Marquee, Ticketing Booth
The Elba Theatre is a historic building on the square in downtown Elba. The rehabilitation of the space has been a multi-year endeavor with the goals of increasing foot traffic downtown, saving a historic landmark, and creating a space that can enrich the community through arts-based programming.
The work associated with this request has allowed for the addition of a catering kitchen and a ticketing booth in the lobby, as well as the installation of a replica of the original marquee on the façade of the building. The catering kitchen addition will allow more uses of the space and help with sustainability of the theatre through food and beverage sales; the ticketing booth addition will allow for better management of the facility, and the marquee will significantly impact the historic downtown as it lights up the courthouse square.
We are excited about the continued work that is being completed on this project. Funds were used to purchase new playground equipment and equipment that will be used in the “Therapeutic Zone” of the back area. The grading of the property is underway and this leveling of the property will allow for a slab to be poured and a pole barn to be built. This area is our “Celebration Zone”. This area will be used for family celebrations for completion of counseling, trial process, etc. The playground equipment area will be the “Play Zone”. There is a walking trail that is being developed that will begin at the center’s sidewalk on the right side of the building and go around the perimeter of the land and back around to the sidewalk on the left side of the building. This will be used by families, team members, therapist with clients, etc. This will promote physical health and well as emotional health. The walking trail will be called “Trail of Hope”. A large sign will be in the middle of the area that will read “A Place of Hope”. We will be having a 25 year celebration in April of 2024. We will incorporate the grand opening of the Place of Hope at that time. This will allow for grass to grow, additional changes to the area to be made, etc.
Wi-Fi in the Park Directional/Promotional Signage
The project provided directional/promotional signage for Wi-Fi in the Park, a program through which the Dothan Houston County Library System provides free public Wi-Fi to all 200+ acres of Westgate Park in Dothan, AL. With this project launched, visitors to Westgate Park (which includes multiple baseball fields, soccer fields, playgrounds, and walking trails) will be able to access library resources (including downloadable ebooks and e-audiobooks) through their mobile devices.