Impact Grants Awarded in 2024
Arts, Music, and Culture
Art Harvest Studio Tour (Arts Alliance of Yamhill County)
Art Harvest Mentorship Program
The Art Harvest Studio Tour of Yamhill County, now in its 30th year, offers a very special Studio Mentorship Program to recommended high school students who are interested in an art career. The students are matched with instructors from the tour who offer lessons and guide young learners through individual projects in sessions totaling approximately 24 hours. The students also achieve insights into what is involved in becoming a professional artist, including information about marketing, exhibitions, and sales. Our grant helped to fund the cost of art supplies for an anticipated number of 10 students.
Arts Alliance of Yamhill County
Paper Gardens Creative Writing Contest
Founded in 1993, Paper Gardens is an annual creative writing contest that results in a book publication. It has a wide outreach: in 2024, for example, the volunteers received about 500 entries of original poetry or prose submitted by children, teen, and adult writers, from which 77 were chosen for publication. Paper Gardens’ 2025 anthology, the printing of which our grant helped to fund, is available in libraries and sold in bookstores.
Art Conspiracy, Sheridan
Summer Arts Program Materials, Supplies, and Publicity
For 23 years, the Art Conspiracy has provided an in-depth, 8-day summer arts program for young people of the West Valley and beyond. Courses taught by working artists and educators include Dance (musical theater), Drama, Embroidery and Basic Sewing, Sculpture, Sketchbook Drawing, Ceramics, Smartphone Photography, and more. For many, if not most, young participants, this is a first exposure to hands-on art that has been known to deeply affect their lives. Our grant funded the materials and supplies purchased for the classes. It was also used for publicity needed to bring attendance to pre-Covid levels.
Asian Heritage Association
Lunar New Year Celebration
Our grant helped to fund popular, highly enjoyable performances (lion dancers and Koto musicians from Portland and martial arts practitioners from Clackamas) at the Association’s third annual Lunar New Year Celebration. This very well-attended event was intended to enrich, educate, and entertain the greater community as well as to build tolerance and inclusion by promoting Asian-American culture and sharing Asian traditions.
Chehalem Cultural Center, Newberg
Scholarships for Arts Access
Our grant supported the Center’s ongoing, strong commitment to approving all scholarship requests for its art classes. By eliminating financial obstacles, the Center fosters inclusivity, making available opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds to broaden their experiences with the arts. Notably, 80% of scholarship dollars are awarded to those under 18.
Fendall School
Publicity for Annual Mother’s Day Tea/Brunch and Fashion Show
This annual program/fundraiser is held in Willamina’s historic 1903 Fendall School and Community Center. Originally a one-room schoolhouse, Fendall has been a place for rural neighbors to gather, learn, and support each other since 1950. The event honored women, mothers, and grandmothers (the fashion show featured authentic period dress and costume!), introduced Fendall’s heritage to the wider community, and raised funds to preserve the building itself. Because advertising the event is the most prohibitive cost, our grant provided the necessary amount.
Friendsview Retirement Community, Newberg
Studio Arts Group: Let’s Project!
The Studio Arts Group at Friendsview offers two organized art classes to its residents each month. Our modest grant allowed for the purchase of a digital projector so that instructions and techniques can be displayed to all participants.
Gallery Players of Oregon
Playwright’s Progress
This innovative initiative will allow aspiring local playwrights who have completed, or nearly completed, a draft for a play or musical to receive professional guidance toward a final version and possible performance. Gallery has identified as many as nine Yamhill County writers who have been working on new plays and needed additional assistance. Our grant will support the final steps for one of those plays and provide professional mentoring and/or printing opportunities for others by invitation.
McMinnville Keynote Series
New York Voices, One Last Time
This relatively new nonprofit Concert Series is creating excitement as the sponsors aim to bring world class live music—from classical to jazz to pop—to McMinnville at affordable prices. A highlight was the performance in McMinnville of the internationally renowned, Grammy-award-winning jazz vocal ensemble New York Voices as one of their last stops before retirement. Our grant helped to fund the cost of the event. Discounted tickets were provided for seniors and students.
McMinnville Women’s Choir
Rebuild the Reserves
This choir, open to women of all ages, skill levels, and experience—and currently comprising a membership of 40+—offers two very popular concerts each year and provides a highly valued way for local women to sing and practice together regularly. Our grant enabled the Choir to fund three months of rental space as it worked to replenish funds depleted during the pandemic.
Performing Arts of Dayton
Portable Sound System
Currently, few opportunities exist for students in Dayton to participate in the performing arts. Our grant funded a portable sound system so this new, active group can sponsor events such as concerts, school productions, children’s theater in the park, and eventually adult theater. The organizers plan to work in close cooperation with Dayton schools.
West Valley Community Campus
Wet Season Music Series
This series offers free concerts the third Saturday of the month beginning in October and ending with the final concert in March. The concerts are open to everyone. Our grant funds will help offset the band fees and supplies for the concerts.
Art Harvest Mentorship Program
The Art Harvest Studio Tour of Yamhill County, now in its 30th year, offers a very special Studio Mentorship Program to recommended high school students who are interested in an art career. The students are matched with instructors from the tour who offer lessons and guide young learners through individual projects in sessions totaling approximately 24 hours. The students also achieve insights into what is involved in becoming a professional artist, including information about marketing, exhibitions, and sales. Our grant helped to fund the cost of art supplies for an anticipated number of 10 students.
Arts Alliance of Yamhill County
Paper Gardens Creative Writing Contest
Founded in 1993, Paper Gardens is an annual creative writing contest that results in a book publication. It has a wide outreach: in 2024, for example, the volunteers received about 500 entries of original poetry or prose submitted by children, teen, and adult writers, from which 77 were chosen for publication. Paper Gardens’ 2025 anthology, the printing of which our grant helped to fund, is available in libraries and sold in bookstores.
Art Conspiracy, Sheridan
Summer Arts Program Materials, Supplies, and Publicity
For 23 years, the Art Conspiracy has provided an in-depth, 8-day summer arts program for young people of the West Valley and beyond. Courses taught by working artists and educators include Dance (musical theater), Drama, Embroidery and Basic Sewing, Sculpture, Sketchbook Drawing, Ceramics, Smartphone Photography, and more. For many, if not most, young participants, this is a first exposure to hands-on art that has been known to deeply affect their lives. Our grant funded the materials and supplies purchased for the classes. It was also used for publicity needed to bring attendance to pre-Covid levels.
Asian Heritage Association
Lunar New Year Celebration
Our grant helped to fund popular, highly enjoyable performances (lion dancers and Koto musicians from Portland and martial arts practitioners from Clackamas) at the Association’s third annual Lunar New Year Celebration. This very well-attended event was intended to enrich, educate, and entertain the greater community as well as to build tolerance and inclusion by promoting Asian-American culture and sharing Asian traditions.
Chehalem Cultural Center, Newberg
Scholarships for Arts Access
Our grant supported the Center’s ongoing, strong commitment to approving all scholarship requests for its art classes. By eliminating financial obstacles, the Center fosters inclusivity, making available opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds to broaden their experiences with the arts. Notably, 80% of scholarship dollars are awarded to those under 18.
Fendall School
Publicity for Annual Mother’s Day Tea/Brunch and Fashion Show
This annual program/fundraiser is held in Willamina’s historic 1903 Fendall School and Community Center. Originally a one-room schoolhouse, Fendall has been a place for rural neighbors to gather, learn, and support each other since 1950. The event honored women, mothers, and grandmothers (the fashion show featured authentic period dress and costume!), introduced Fendall’s heritage to the wider community, and raised funds to preserve the building itself. Because advertising the event is the most prohibitive cost, our grant provided the necessary amount.
Friendsview Retirement Community, Newberg
Studio Arts Group: Let’s Project!
The Studio Arts Group at Friendsview offers two organized art classes to its residents each month. Our modest grant allowed for the purchase of a digital projector so that instructions and techniques can be displayed to all participants.
Gallery Players of Oregon
Playwright’s Progress
This innovative initiative will allow aspiring local playwrights who have completed, or nearly completed, a draft for a play or musical to receive professional guidance toward a final version and possible performance. Gallery has identified as many as nine Yamhill County writers who have been working on new plays and needed additional assistance. Our grant will support the final steps for one of those plays and provide professional mentoring and/or printing opportunities for others by invitation.
McMinnville Keynote Series
New York Voices, One Last Time
This relatively new nonprofit Concert Series is creating excitement as the sponsors aim to bring world class live music—from classical to jazz to pop—to McMinnville at affordable prices. A highlight was the performance in McMinnville of the internationally renowned, Grammy-award-winning jazz vocal ensemble New York Voices as one of their last stops before retirement. Our grant helped to fund the cost of the event. Discounted tickets were provided for seniors and students.
McMinnville Women’s Choir
Rebuild the Reserves
This choir, open to women of all ages, skill levels, and experience—and currently comprising a membership of 40+—offers two very popular concerts each year and provides a highly valued way for local women to sing and practice together regularly. Our grant enabled the Choir to fund three months of rental space as it worked to replenish funds depleted during the pandemic.
Performing Arts of Dayton
Portable Sound System
Currently, few opportunities exist for students in Dayton to participate in the performing arts. Our grant funded a portable sound system so this new, active group can sponsor events such as concerts, school productions, children’s theater in the park, and eventually adult theater. The organizers plan to work in close cooperation with Dayton schools.
West Valley Community Campus
Wet Season Music Series
This series offers free concerts the third Saturday of the month beginning in October and ending with the final concert in March. The concerts are open to everyone. Our grant funds will help offset the band fees and supplies for the concerts.
Children, Education, and Schools
Amity Public Library
Cultural Attraction Passes
Many in the Amity Community cannot afford admission to local cultural attractions. Our grant allowed the Library to provide patrons with passes to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, the Gilbert House Children’s Museum in Salem, and the Oregon Gardens in Silverton, as well as to various Oregon State parks. Lower-income families who otherwise have little or no opportunity to partake in such experiences derive significant benefits in terms of bonding, learning, and creating memories.
Chehalem Youth and Family Services
Technology Upgrades
This nonprofit has been working since 1970 to encourage and empower youth to reach their highest potential and also to strengthen families. Our grant allowed the Center to replace very outdated technology with three new laptop computers and a multi-function printer, thereby greatly enhancing staff productivity and efficiency and allowing for better service to the greater community.
Willamina Public Library
Native American Collection
With our grant, the Library took the very meaningful step of creating a Native American collection of books and materials based on recommendations from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. This new resource will not only serve important educational purposes, but it will foster appreciation, knowledge, and inclusion of the tribal community.
Cultural Attraction Passes
Many in the Amity Community cannot afford admission to local cultural attractions. Our grant allowed the Library to provide patrons with passes to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, the Gilbert House Children’s Museum in Salem, and the Oregon Gardens in Silverton, as well as to various Oregon State parks. Lower-income families who otherwise have little or no opportunity to partake in such experiences derive significant benefits in terms of bonding, learning, and creating memories.
Chehalem Youth and Family Services
Technology Upgrades
This nonprofit has been working since 1970 to encourage and empower youth to reach their highest potential and also to strengthen families. Our grant allowed the Center to replace very outdated technology with three new laptop computers and a multi-function printer, thereby greatly enhancing staff productivity and efficiency and allowing for better service to the greater community.
Willamina Public Library
Native American Collection
With our grant, the Library took the very meaningful step of creating a Native American collection of books and materials based on recommendations from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. This new resource will not only serve important educational purposes, but it will foster appreciation, knowledge, and inclusion of the tribal community.
Senior Welfare
Chehalem Senior Center, Newberg
Dishes and Tableware
With our grant the Senior Center, which serves up to 60 lunches daily to local seniors and their guests, was able to purchase badly needed new dishes and additional utensils. An important consideration was that the dishes be relatively light-weight to ease the work of the 3-4 senior volunteers who staff the dining room, serving the meals and washing the dishes.
Northwest Senior and Disability Services (NWSDS)
Meals on Wheels: Christmas Gift Bags
To brighten the holidays, our grant paid for specialty gift bags to be assembled for delivery to 260 Meals on Wheels recipients in McMinnville, Newberg, and Sheridan. For these clients, many of whom are shuts-ins or have no family close by, this is a much-appreciated form of acknowledgment and celebration. The bags contained a selection of healthy snacks and drinks, hand lotion and hygiene items, and other small treats. In addition, gifts of key chains and lapel pins were awarded to 100 outstanding volunteers in the three locations.
Northwest Senior and Disability Services (NWSDS)
Meals on Wheels: Summer Treats
Our second grant funded the cost of assembling gift bags with various treats as well as small dahlia bouquets with vases. The bags and flowers were distributed to 120 Meals on Wheels clients in McMinnville, Newberg, and Sheridan. This unexpected gift in addition to the regular meal delivery fosters a sense of inclusion and brings joy to the recipients.
Northwest Senior and Disability Services (NWSDS) & Housing Authority of Yamhill County
Tai Chi Classes for Arthritis and Fall Prevention
Our grant funded Tai Chi classes held for the first time at two different sites in McMinnville. Tai Chi is known to help relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life for people with arthritis. Also, given that falls are the #1 cause of injury for older adults, and that there are currently limited programs of this nature in Yamhill County, these classes were an important step toward preventing falls and injury that could lead to institutionalization.
Yamhill County Health and Human Services
Positive Intergenerational Pen Pal (PIPP) Program
This innovative, ambitious program connected approximately 250 second-grade students in Yamhill County with 250 older adults as pen pals. Our grant funded 500 colorful writing kits that contained 10+ blank cards and envelopes, pens and pencils, stickers, and mailboxes for the classrooms. As the participants established connections month by month over the period of the school year, the benefits were many and profound in terms of intergenerational learning as well as alleviating loneliness and social isolation among the elderly.
Dishes and Tableware
With our grant the Senior Center, which serves up to 60 lunches daily to local seniors and their guests, was able to purchase badly needed new dishes and additional utensils. An important consideration was that the dishes be relatively light-weight to ease the work of the 3-4 senior volunteers who staff the dining room, serving the meals and washing the dishes.
Northwest Senior and Disability Services (NWSDS)
Meals on Wheels: Christmas Gift Bags
To brighten the holidays, our grant paid for specialty gift bags to be assembled for delivery to 260 Meals on Wheels recipients in McMinnville, Newberg, and Sheridan. For these clients, many of whom are shuts-ins or have no family close by, this is a much-appreciated form of acknowledgment and celebration. The bags contained a selection of healthy snacks and drinks, hand lotion and hygiene items, and other small treats. In addition, gifts of key chains and lapel pins were awarded to 100 outstanding volunteers in the three locations.
Northwest Senior and Disability Services (NWSDS)
Meals on Wheels: Summer Treats
Our second grant funded the cost of assembling gift bags with various treats as well as small dahlia bouquets with vases. The bags and flowers were distributed to 120 Meals on Wheels clients in McMinnville, Newberg, and Sheridan. This unexpected gift in addition to the regular meal delivery fosters a sense of inclusion and brings joy to the recipients.
Northwest Senior and Disability Services (NWSDS) & Housing Authority of Yamhill County
Tai Chi Classes for Arthritis and Fall Prevention
Our grant funded Tai Chi classes held for the first time at two different sites in McMinnville. Tai Chi is known to help relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life for people with arthritis. Also, given that falls are the #1 cause of injury for older adults, and that there are currently limited programs of this nature in Yamhill County, these classes were an important step toward preventing falls and injury that could lead to institutionalization.
Yamhill County Health and Human Services
Positive Intergenerational Pen Pal (PIPP) Program
This innovative, ambitious program connected approximately 250 second-grade students in Yamhill County with 250 older adults as pen pals. Our grant funded 500 colorful writing kits that contained 10+ blank cards and envelopes, pens and pencils, stickers, and mailboxes for the classrooms. As the participants established connections month by month over the period of the school year, the benefits were many and profound in terms of intergenerational learning as well as alleviating loneliness and social isolation among the elderly.
Women's Health
Henderson House
Domestic/Sexual Violence Survivor ER Kits
When survivors of assault are taken to a hospital’s Emergency Room, advocates from Henderson House receive calls to accompany and support them. Since survivors’ clothes and other personal items are often taken by law enforcement as evidence, our grant paid for 30 welcome kits, each of which was specially assembled according to the child's age. Items may include pajamas, a blanket, a stuffed animal, books, toiletries, a night light, a water bottle, and more—all intended to provide necessities and comfort during a traumatic time.
Life Counseling and Therapy
Sand Tray Therapy
This small nonprofit counseling agency in McMinnville is inundated with referrals for children with mental health needs related to often traumatic life experiences such as grief and loss, divorce, and abuse. Our grant funded the purchase of materials and also provided training to three counselors for this unique, nonverbal method of therapy widely recognized as effective for children and their families. (See healthline.com/health/mental-health/sand-tray-therapy.)
Soroptimist International of McMinnville
SoroBoutique: Clothing Vouchers for Job-Ready Women
This highly successful initiative provides qualified women with vouchers to the McMinnville New to You consignment store to purchase appropriate attire for interviews and employment. Because requests have surged post-Covid, additional funding was needed. Our grant funded four $100 vouchers per month for a year, thus allowing for 48 women to obtain clothing.
Domestic/Sexual Violence Survivor ER Kits
When survivors of assault are taken to a hospital’s Emergency Room, advocates from Henderson House receive calls to accompany and support them. Since survivors’ clothes and other personal items are often taken by law enforcement as evidence, our grant paid for 30 welcome kits, each of which was specially assembled according to the child's age. Items may include pajamas, a blanket, a stuffed animal, books, toiletries, a night light, a water bottle, and more—all intended to provide necessities and comfort during a traumatic time.
Life Counseling and Therapy
Sand Tray Therapy
This small nonprofit counseling agency in McMinnville is inundated with referrals for children with mental health needs related to often traumatic life experiences such as grief and loss, divorce, and abuse. Our grant funded the purchase of materials and also provided training to three counselors for this unique, nonverbal method of therapy widely recognized as effective for children and their families. (See healthline.com/health/mental-health/sand-tray-therapy.)
Soroptimist International of McMinnville
SoroBoutique: Clothing Vouchers for Job-Ready Women
This highly successful initiative provides qualified women with vouchers to the McMinnville New to You consignment store to purchase appropriate attire for interviews and employment. Because requests have surged post-Covid, additional funding was needed. Our grant funded four $100 vouchers per month for a year, thus allowing for 48 women to obtain clothing.