The 4th Annual GREAT IDEA CHALLENGE deadline is quickly approaching. The Stillwater Area Foundation will be accepting applications through April 15, 2016. How can the Challenge’s $10,000 grant help you bring your innovative GREAT IDEA to life to enhance our community’s quality of life, strengthen local connections and enhance community pride?
The 2015 GREAT IDEA was awarded to the Pollinator Friendly Alliance to educate the community about the plight of our pollinators and to take action to increase healthy habitats and ultimately protect our food supply.
The 2014 GREAT IDEA was awarded to the Friends of Stillwater Area Dog Park and used to fence and gate the designated area adjacent to the Jaycee Fields in Stillwater. According to Allison McGinnis, the group’s leader, “The use of the dog park has been outstanding, and we are grateful for this resource. We have since partnered with a Boy and Girl Scout who have added their award projects of installing a shelter and agility equipment to further enhance the park; and we are also now educating the community on our website with “dog tips” and lost/found dogs in the area. We wouldn’t have gotten this far had it not been for receiving the Great Idea Award!”
This is a pivotal time for the Stillwater Area given the opportunities for change that the new St. Croix River Crossing Bridge will afford when it is complete in 2017. There have been many ideas discussed casually. The SAF is looking to put some muscle behind those ideas by encouraging applicants to apply. The winner will receive up to a $10,000 grant to help implement their GREAT IDEA.
New this year are opportunities for applicants to meet with SAF members in Coaching Sessions to further develop good ideas into GREAT IDEAS prior to the final application submission on April 15.
Applications for the 2016 Challenge and other information about past award winners is available on the SAF website, www.stillwaterareafoundation.org
The Stillwater Area Foundation is a community foundation affiliated with the St. Croix Valley Foundation.