Published: December 05, 2007 10:16 pm         

Local foundation reaches milestone

Enid Community Foundation will reach $10 million in assets this year and has given away more than $3 million since it was founded in 2000.

The organization accepted its first check from Sisters of Mercy, former owners of St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, in 2000. Since then, the foundation has distributed more than $1.1 million to non-profit organizations, with an additional $1.9 million donated from donor-advised funds, said Mary Stallings, executive director. Donor-advised funds are those in which the person making the donation to Enid Community Foun-dation earmarks what organizations will receive the money. ECF invests the money from those funds and distributes the proceeds.

Each year, Stallings said, 5 percent of the market value of each endowment is distributed to beneficiaries. All beneficiaries are qualified 501(c)3 tax-exempt organizations in Enid and northwest Oklahoma.

This year 14 grants, totaling $68,387, were made through the fund created by Sisters of Mercy. An additional $247,093.20 was distributed from donor-advised, field-of-interest and unrestricted endowment funds.

Grants approved this year by the board of trustees are:

• 4R Kids, $7,700 to purchase lawn mowers and lawn maintenance equipment to help provide vocational opportunities for special needs teenagers and adults.

• Cimarron Valley Chapter Red Cross, $2,500 to fund training supplies and a projector for disaster training in rural communities.

• Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, $5,000 to fund expansion of programs at the center, which is under construction.

• Denny Price Family YMCA, $10,000 to purchase state-of-the-art exercise gaming technologies to initiate and maintain physical activity for pre-adolescent and adolescent girls and boys who are considered insufficiently active.

• Denny Price Family YMCA, $2,687 to help fund a nutritional education component once a week during the Kid Fit program.

• Garfield County Local Emergency Planning Commission, $5,000 to purchase 50 emergency warning receiver/clock radios and the equipment needed at the tower to send messages through viaRadio.

• Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse, $3,000 to help fund classes for Title 1 schools in Enid so students can experience a weekly art or science class at the museum.

• Enid Public School Foundation, $10,000 to help fund the purchase of SMART Boards.

• Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits, $2,500 to help fund scholarships for training by Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits in Enid.

• Hedges Regional Speech and Hearing Center, $7,500 to help fund purchase of a wireless Auditory Steady State Responses System to assess children under age 3 while playing.

• Salvation Army, $3,500 to help fund furnishings for two family units and the women’s dorm.

• Sandbox Learning Center, $5,000 to fund expansion of the infant room.

• YWCA Enid, $2,000 to provide funding for materials needed for the accreditation process, including books, equipment, storage and developmental materials.

• PEGASYS, $2,000 to purchase production equipment specifically for a project for senior citizens. Money would buy a crane, wireless microphone, casters, a music library, awards and incentives to be given to seniors who are homebound and cannot travel to Senior Life Network and who participate in an exercise program.

One of the early members of the board is Todd Humphrey, who currently is president. Humphrey came onto the board about halfway through the first year as a replacement for Karl Bovee. Humphrey said the donation from Sisters of Mercy helped “jump start” the foundation.

Sisters of Mercy offered $1.8 million if the community could match it within about a year. The foundation did match the funds, he said, and that seed money provided the start of the foundation.

“It’s a lot of money, and it’s all staying right here in our community and going to very worthwhile causes. I hope it compounds and in six or seven years it’s $20 million,” Humphrey said.