ECDC Celebrates Grant Receipt for Playground Project

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Published on November 5 2018 2:09 pm
Last Updated on November 5 2018 2:13 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

(THE GROUP ON HAND FOR THE GRANT PRESENTATION MONDAY AT EFFINGHAM CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER)

Effingham Child Development Center Director Shelli French went from shattered to ecstatic in the course of a week recently. French was first shattered because the Center did not receive a $100,000 grant for an all-inclusive playground, then was ecstatic when the Center received the grant after all.

A ceremony was held over the noon hour Monday to mark the receipt of the grant from the Creative Mnistries Offering Committee of the Presbyterian Women. The grant monies pushed the fund drive past the one-third mark. $115,375.55 has been raised toward a goal of just over $300,000.

(EFFINGHAM CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER DIRECTOR SHELLI FRENCH AND FIRST PREBYTERIAN CHURCH MEMBER LANA HENDERSON)

French explains that although the grant application submitted by the Center met all of the criteria, other projects were chosen. Then, she said she was out in the playground area of the Center, again seeing the need. As she went back inside the Center, the phone was ringing. She recognized the caller ID as PCUSA. She realized that stood for Presbyterian Church USA. When she answered, a Presbyterian Women representative from Kentucky said she was sorry that the Center had not received a grant. French was thinking, "we have to discuss this all over again", when the caller told her that another agency chosen for a grant could not meet all of the criteria, and did the Center still want the grant?

French reassured the caller that they still wanted the grant and said after hanging up, she took a trip through the Center to announce to whoever was there that they had received the funds.

(DRAWINGS OF THE ALL-INCLUSIVE PLAYGROUND AT EFFINGHAM CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER)

The funds will help finance a playground surface that will be accessible to all, will eliminate drainage problems that keep kids from using the playground for days after a rain, and will mean ADA-compliant playground equipment. The work will also include shaded areas on the playground not now available.

French said the next step will be to identify other fundraising efforts, with those to be undertaken after the first of the year. A series of POST IT notes are on the window near the entrance to the Center with ideas for raising funds, along with several drawings of the layout of the future playground.

A group of women from First Presbyterian Church in Effingham were on hand for the check presentation, some of whom have worked for many years in support of the Center. Lana Henderson spoke on behalf of the women regarding receipt of the grant funds.

Henderson explained the Birthday Offering that awards grants to up to five programs. Primarily making possible capital improvement projects, the Birthday Offering supports domestic and international ministries, focusing on areas such as agricultural improvement, child care, community organization, criminal justice, drug counseling, economic justice, elderly care, employment training, homelessness, literacy violence or women's concerns.

There was some concern that the project might not stand up against other initiatives such as helping villages in other nations, or drinking water needs, but it was later realized that the local project "checked all of the boxes" as far as qualifying for the grant funds.

Effingham Child Development Center was begun by Pauline Bass 45 years ago in the basement of First Baptist Church. The Center later relocated to the current home of Crisis Nursery on North Merchant Street before a former single-family residence on Holly Drive was donated as the current home.

Here's Greg Sapp's conversation with Shelli French about the grant for the playground and the Center's plans for the future...