Two small towns in Michigan’s Thumb have received matching grants of $250,000 each from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation to support the continued development of their community hubs.
Marine City’s project is the new Guy Center in the South Park area of the city, while in Memphis, the Lions Club serves as the community’s central hub for community engagement, events, and recreation. The grants are an example of the Wilson Foundation’s continued support of rural initiatives in St. Clair County in collaboration with the Community Foundation of St. Clair County.
“This incredibly generous funding will help the Guy Center become an economic driver for this part of Marine City, and a key asset along the Bridge to Bay Trail,” said Mike Reaves, City Manager of Marine City. The Guy Center had previously received grant funding from the Community Foundation of St. Clair County and the Revitalization and Placemaking (RAP) Program of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). Planned upgrades to the Guy Center include a new pavilion, splash pad, farmer’s market, along with interior and exterior upgrades to the building to create a more user-friendly flex-space for all types of community events.
In the small town of Memphis, the Lions Club and its surrounding recreation areas have long been the focal hub of the community. Steve Weaver is a Memphis Lions Club Member, a City of Memphis Council Member, and a strong advocate for engaging the town’s residents and stakeholders in much-needed enhancements to the town’s assets. “I can’t tell you how thankful we are for the support and collaboration of our local Community Foundation and the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation,” he said. “They truly listened to what our community wanted and needed and let us decide for ourselves what community development means in this part of rural Michigan.”
The Lions Club will use the $250,000 in funding, along with other grant support from the Community Foundation, for significant upgrades both inside and outside of their Club. Weaver said projects are already underway, including kitchen, doors, and window upgrades, concession stand improvements, parking lot pavement, new outdoor recreation amenities, and a better flex space inside the club to host events and activities throughout the year.
Jackie Hanton is the vice president of the Community Foundation of St. Clair County and leads the Foundation’s rural and small-town work. “Our collaboration and partnership with the Wilson Foundation continues to grow and evolve every year,” she said. “These significant hub grants recognize that our local small towns need to decide for themselves what community and economic development means, and then philanthropy needs to come alongside and layer and leverage our investments for the greatest impact.”
The Community Foundation has ten other small towns in its overall Rural Portfolio and provides a wide range of capacity-building support to them. “Our board has been very deliberate to ramp up our direct involvement and support to help our smaller communities achieve their goals,” Hanton added. Among the help the Foundation offers is paying for part-time consultants to help these communities develop or improve master and recreation planning, project-specific development, and grant-seeking assistance.
The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation has a growing focus on rural communities in both Western New York and Southeast Michigan, including St. Clair County. Their focus on small town “hubs” is rooted in the definition of the Aspen Institute’s Community Strategies Group, which defines a hub as “a place-rooted organization that works…to increase local capacity and create opportunities for better livelihoods, health and well-being.”
Mike Reaves added, “I have had a long career in public service,” he said, “and what really impresses me here in this part of Michigan is how our local Community Foundation and the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation collaborate, cooperate, and really try to understand the local goals of our small towns. This is the model for growing prosperity in rural Michigan.”
Want to learn more or explore how you can support the Community Foundation’s rural work? Contact Program Officer Natacha Hayden at (810) 984–4761 or natacha@stclairfoundation.org.