T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS Several green shirt-clad members of Students Teaching and Empowering Philanthropy (STEP) spoke at Tuesday evening’s Community Foundation of Marshall County 2018 Grant Award Ceremony. The group was spotlighted during the event in the Fisher Community Center auditorium, and students gave a presentation about how they decided to award grant money from the organization.

“This is our annual award ceremony to celebrate the work of all of the non-profits here do.”

The Fisher Community Center auditorium played host to the Community Foundation of Marshall County 2018 Grand Award Ceremony Tuesday evening, and foundation Board Chairman Steve Troskey said the board members considered several factors when awarding grants.

“Does it meet a critical need? Does it provide a measurable impact? Can you partner with other groups to provide synergy? … Do we represent the wide diversity of programming in Marshall County?” he said. “The answer is yes, and that’s why all of you are here tonight.”

About two dozen non-profit programs were awarded Community Foundation grants at Tuesday’s ceremony. The foundation gives out about $100,000 annually to local non-profit agencies.

Two of grants, the Capacity Building Grant and Major Impact Grant, were new this year. They were awarded along with the community grants handed out each year.

The first ever Major Impact Grant Award, in the amount of $20,000, went to Marshalltown Parks and Recreation for the Marshalltown Skate Park upgrade project.

“The Marshalltown Skate Park upgrade, along with the addition of numerous, higher-level difficulty elements, a graffiti street art wall and the installation of a pump track, will significantly increase enthusiasm and the use of this facility for the youth in Marshalltown and Marshall County,” said foundation Board Vice Chairman Dave Barajas.

Foundation Director Dylan Does presented this year’s other new grant award.

“We just want to do this as a way of saying ‘We believe in you guys, we believe in what you’re doing, we’re really proud to be a partner with you,'” he said as he announced the Marshalltown Youth Foundation as the recipient of the first annual Capacity Building Grant.

That grant, Does said, is funded not from the grant dollars used for the community grants and Major Impact Grant, but from the foundation’s personal director fund, the John Cahill Endowment Fund.

Marshalltown High School students were also featured at this year’s ceremony.

“Each year, the Community Foundation Board likes to share a success story from one of our grantees,” said foundation board member Heidi Dalal, who introduced teens from Students Teaching and Empowering Philanthropy. “The STEP program began eight years ago, and over those eight years, approximately 75 Marshalltown High School students have participated in the program; sophomores, juniors and seniors are eligible for STEP.”

Several STEP students presented what the group worked on in the past year. The students meet twice a month and participate in the grant-making process, from writing applications to creating selection criteria.

This year, the Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation and the Community Foundation combined to donate $10,000 to STEP. The students then decided where that grant money should be awarded, and this year’s recipients included the Marshalltown YMCA-YWCA, Heart of Iowa Big Brothers-Big Sisters, Lenihan Intermediate School and others.

Students in STEP also work to develop leadership skills, do on-site visits to non-profit agencies and work on team-building.

Does said the Community Foundation has grown significantly in recent years, and that he wants to continue to engage the entire county.

“We truly believe, in Marshall County, to get anything done in the long-term and also in the short-term, we have this sense that we need to do it together,” he said. “If it be State Center, if it be Le Grand, if it be Melbourne or if it be Marshalltown, we are in this together, all 40,000-plus of us are in this together.”

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Contact Adam Sodders at (641) 753-6611 or asodders@timesrepublican.com