We're proud to present the accomplishments of just some of the Coquille Tribal Community Fund's grant recipients. Spanning educational, research and health-related projects, these worthwhile causes were able to go just a little further and do just a little more thanks to the funding they received. In Coos Bay, books for children in grades K-3 were purchased for the SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) program. This volunteer reading program allows adult volunteers to pass on a lifelong love of reading to a new generation by reading one-on-one with kids. Says SMART director Amy Prouty, "The $8,000 grant we received from the Coquille Tribal Community Fund allowed us to expand our book collection dramatically. The University of Oregon’s Center for Indigenous Cultural Survival received a $10,000 grant to expand “Tribe-specific” lesson material for grades K-12 in Lane and Coos Counties. Following close examination of relevant library collections, resources and curricula specifically highlighting the cultures and histories of the area’s Indian tribes are being collated and written, and will be distributed among the public schools. At Highland Elementary School in Reedsport, a $2,000 grant from the Fund benefited a variety of programs. Students, staff and parent volunteers joined together to resurrect a neglected garden area. “Breakfast Club” and “Afterschool Cool” participants designed and made their own T-shirts. Additional books for the Accelerated Reader program – which will “continue to be used for a long time to come,” comments Principal Linda Deardorff – rounded out Highland’s creative, diverse use of their funding. Pacific Center for Children and Families was able to break ground on their innovative horticultural therapy garden, thanks to the $20,000 grant they received. “Gardening, as therapy, is a non-confrontational way to interact with troubled kids,” explains the center’s Director, Dr. Charles Majuri. “It teaches a useful and popular skill, builds their self-esteem, and teaches them responsibility by making them care for living things. To me it’s an integral piece of treating our patients.” Believing that children who are active in sports are happier, healthier and more productive citizens, the Fund awarded a $10,000 grant to the Empire Sports Park Committee. The group has constructed a covered play structure which is in use every day by local schoolchildren, and will soon put the finishing touches on this $150,000+ project with the addition of basketball hoops. A grant of $5,500 to the Coos County Women’s Crisis Service has enabled free evening support groups to be offered. “These evening groups allow women who work to access this important information, network with other women, hear other stories and heal collectively from the abuse they have suffered,” says Executive Director Judy Moody. “Because of this grant we have been able to provide consistent, ongoing support groups for over 600 women in Coos County.” A grant of $20,000 jump-started the North Bend High School Stadium Committee’s efforts to improve their athletic facilities. Funds were used to complete the East Grandstand and related structures at their North Bend campus. New data on modern Indian culture and perspectives on the history of Tribes throughout Southern Oregon were published in Changing Landscapes: Volume 3. This publication by the Coquille Indian Tribe Cultural Resources Program – with printing supported by a $4,500 grant from the fund – is an authoritative resource on Native American culture, present and past. “These grantees are to be commended for their accomplishments,” said Michele Burnette, Chair of the Coquille Tribal Community Fund Board of Trustees. “We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to further their projects, and we applaud their efforts.”