Rural Philanthropy Days Creates Success for Local Organizations

By: Susan Waring, 2018 SE RPD Steering Committee Member

As an administrative assistant at Las Animas Jr/Sr High School, I first got involved with Southeast Rural Philanthropy days when it was held in Trinidad in 2014. At that time my daughter was a junior high science teacher and was the sponsor of a community service group called “Pure Gold”.

We took a group of 15 of our members to [RPD] where they developed a plan for a Rec Area located west of the school. Their plan consisted of new basketball courts, an outdoor classroom, a walking path, and a grass “soccer” field. They presented their display board of the idea at the end of the day then went home and presented it to our school board.

About a year later we were contacted by one of the members of the Southeast RPD Steering Committee that said she found a grant that exactly lined up with our student’s ideas. We worked all year on writing the grant and were awarded a grant through the Colorado Health Foundation. We then wrote and received a grant through GOCO for the soccer field to complete the project. Construction on the project will begin this fall and will hopefully be done this spring. When I had the opportunity to serve on the steering committee this year I was very excited to see the other side of planning for the next Philanthropy Days that will be held in 2018 in Lamar.