Community Foundation of St. Clair County has significantly increased its focus and support for outdoor recreation projects over the last couple of years. Its most recent efforts will target the smaller communities within St. Clair County and will include free consulting help.

“Our smallest communities don’t have the luxury of having grant writers or full-time planning and development staff,” said Randy Maiers, President & CEO of the Community Foundation. “So they’re often left out of State and Federal funding when it’s available.”

In addition to the Foundation’s focus on supporting the completion of the Bridge to Bay Trail system, it has provided significant funding for outdoor recreation projects over the last couple of years. Highlights of recent grants include;

• $25,000 for a new pocket park in Capac which included help from the DTE Energy Foundation and Capac received another $15,000 from the Four County Community Foundation
• $47,000 for improvements to River Park in East China from its St. Clair Endowments
• $140,000 for improvements to Klecha Park in St. Clair, also from its St. Clair Endowments
• $465,000 for three projects in Marine City which included their Tot Lot, Belle River Fishing Pier and the new Marine City Marina. A large portion of this grant funding came from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, which has been a longtime partner of the Community Foundation.

This past March the Foundation convened a meeting of representatives from a variety of smaller communities to talk about supporting their capacity to seek out other grant funding sources. 

“We’re just a small community” said Cindy Paparelli, East China Township Manager. “We don’t have the internal capacity to put together strong grant proposals, so we are incredibly appreciative of the Community Foundation and what they’re doing for the smaller communities in St. Clair County. We are very excited to make these improvements at River Park, which will give the residents and general public even more prime access to waterfront recreation.”

“There’s just not enough attention paid to the public parks and outdoor recreation projects in our smaller communities,” added Maiers. “The Capac Pocket Park for example is a project that probably wouldn’t have happened if not for our Foundation and our friends at the Four County Community Foundation.”

Travis Youatt is the Village Manager for Capac, and he agrees. “Funding for art and new park projects is difficult for smaller communities like Capac; the budget just does not allow for it,” he said. “Smaller communities often get overlooked for these grants. This little Pocket Park may not seem significant to some people in bigger communities; however, it’s essential in our village and acts as a community hub for our residents and downtown. We’re blessed that both of our local community foundations saw the value and impact of our Pocket Park.”

The Foundation’s latest initiative is up and running currently, with eight smaller communities already either expressing interest or already working on a Memorandum of Understanding with the Community Foundation. 

The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation has been a funding partner with the Community Foundation for several years now on a wide range of outdoor recreation projects.  

“Thanks to their continued support, along with other local individual donors, we are able to pay 100% of the costs for consultants to work with each of the communities for up to 30 hours,” Maiers added. 

On a case-by-case basis the Foundation will also consider other upfront soft costs as these communities either finish their 5-year master recreation plan or fine tune engineering and feasibility plans. 

“These small towns are what make Michigan’s Thumb Coast so unique,” said Maiers. “Our goal is to draw more attention to their needs in the hopes that more funding from the State of Michigan and other funders will follow.”