CLEVELAND, March 11, 2015
/PRNewswire/ -- Dominion East Ohio
today presented $110,000 in grants to
12 winning community organizations in its 20th annual
Community Impact Awards competition, co-sponsored with Inside
Business Magazine.
A panel of community judges chose the winners from among more
than 50 entries submitted by organizations throughout the region.
The award recognizes cities or organizations that have made an
impact in the community. The Dominion Foundation, philanthropic arm
of Dominion Resources Inc., Dominion East Ohio's parent company,
funds the Community Impact grants. The Dominion Foundation is
dedicated to the economic, physical and social health of the
communities the company serves.
"This year's award-winning organizations developed and carried
out some very ambitious and creative projects that really impressed
our panel of judges," said Jeff
Murphy, Dominion East Ohio vice president. "These projects
demonstrate the major role that our region's non-profit and
economic development agencies play in improving their local
communities."
Since 1996, Dominion East Ohio has distributed more than
$1.3 million in Community Impact
Awards to organizations throughout its service area.
This year's Community Impact Award winners are:
- Brite Cleveland received $15,000
for its Brite Winter Festival, an outdoor winter arts and music
event that annually attracts tens of thousands of visitors to the
city. Brite Winter Festival visitors generated $650,000 in purchases with local businesses in
2014.
- Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., received $15,000 for its Cuyahoga EITC (Earned Income Tax
Credit) Coalition program, in which trained volunteers provide free
federal income tax preparation. During the past seven years, 2,000
volunteers helped more than 70,000 clients receive more than
$90 million in refunds.
- Youngstown Neighborhood
Development Corporation (YNDC) received $12,500 for its REVITALIZE program, which brought
together 600 residents with city officials to identify top
neighborhood improvement priorities in strategic neighborhoods. For
example, over the past five years, YNDC-city cooperation in the
South Side Idora neighborhood has helped increase building
occupancy rates, reduced reported crime rates by 40-percent and
helped increase home sales and prices.
- ArtsinStark in Canton received
$12,500 for its launch of The ELEVEN,
a $2.2 million tourism project
celebrating the 11 greatest moments in professional football
history. The project is designed to attract Pro Football Hall of
Fame visitors to make the two-mile trip to downtown Canton. After completion, the project goal is
to attract 50,000 new downtown visitors annually.
- Ohio City Incorporated of Cleveland received $10,000 for its Ohio City Home Safety Program,
administered in partnership with Cleveland Division of Police
Second District. The program, open to all residents of the near
West Side neighborhood, features a personal home safety audit
conducted by a uniformed Second District police officer.
Participating residents may apply for up to $250 in matching funds to make recommended safety
improvements.
- Canton Symphony Orchestra received $7,500 for its Zimmerman Symphony Center Project,
a renovation and expansion of Umstattd Performing Arts Hall within
McKinley High School. The project
included new ergonomic seating and digital projection system, lobby
upgrades and expanded restrooms. The project also included new
orchestra administrative offices, multi-purpose reception hall,
public meeting rooms and music library.
- Akron Marathon Charitable Corporation received $7,500. In 2014 alone, the organization's
signature event attracted a record 15,000 runners, generating more
than $6 million dollars in local
economic impact. The race also served as fundraiser for local
charities, who collectively raised more than $100,000.
- Cleveland's Historic Warehouse District Development Corporation
(HWDDC) received $5,000 for its Small
Box in the Warehouse District program. The project involves using
recycled shipping containers and converting them to small retail
stores. In 2014 HWDDC, in partnership with Cleveland Container
Structures Inc., announced its first three tenants – The Official
Team Shop of the Cleveland Browns, Banyan Box and The Wardrobe,
which opened in the fall.
- Trumbull Neighborhood
Partnership received $5,000 for its
"Garden District" revitalization of Warren's Central City
neighborhood. The project has involved demolition of 70 blighted
structures, conversion of many of those properties into community
gardens, construction of stone walls, using salvaged stone from
neighborhood demolitions. A recent addition to the program is an
"Adopt-a-House program," which provides private capital to fund
neighborhood housing renovations.
- LAND studio in Cleveland
received $5,000 for its AHA! Program,
a downtown summer festival of lights. LAND – Landscape, Art,
Neighborhood and Design – was formed by the 2011 merger of
ParkWorks and Cleveland Public Arts.
AHA! has attracted an estimated 8,000 visitors from northeast
Ohio and beyond.
- Youngstown's Advanced Methods
in Innovation received $5,000 for its
INVENTORcloud course for area K-12 and post secondary schools.
Students use INVENTORcloud's 3-D printer, solid modeling programs
and software applications, along with innovation, communication,
collaboration and critical thinking to solve real-world
challenges.
- Cleveland's Neighborhood Solutions Inc., received $10,000 as winner of the third annual Community
Impact special Environmental Award for its Vineyards and
BioCellar of Chateau Hough project. The BioCellar is an
experimental facility featuring a passive solar greenhouse envelope
built above an existing basement on vacated land. The BioCellar can
be used for year-round cultivation of vegetables, fruits herbs and
wine grapes, along with providing water purification, soil
detoxification, nutrients cycling and pollination, aquaponics and
cool storage.
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and
transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 24,600
megawatts of generation, 12,400 miles of natural gas transmission,
gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,455 miles of electric
transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's
largest natural gas storage systems with 949 billion cubic feet of
storage capacity and serves utility and retail energy customers in
12 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's
website at www.dom.com.
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SOURCE Dominion East Ohio