By Heather Bailey

A broad range of grant requests submitted for the Tipp City Foundation’s second quarter stood out because of the variety. One smaller yet lingering COVID response need was requested. The remainder have their focus squarely on the future.

Rescue helmets, rides to work for the needy and trauma support for the young are visions to boost the quality of life in our region. Each of these is addressed through the grants awarded.

Ultimately, 11 organizations were chosen to receive 14 awards.  Grants totaled $27,113.00.

The following is a list of recipients, award levels and the impact grants will make. The additional support that donor advisors gave through their grantmaking is included.

COVID RESPONSE

Child Care Choices, $750.00, supports the Early Childhood Education Collaborative of Miami Valley conference on “Trauma Informed Child Care”. Childcare providers play a key role in helping young children develop the social and emotional skills to deal with stress and anxiety. Now on the other side of the pandemic, children still need help in processing the traumas of disrupted routines, the grief of lost family members and the upended security of family financial stress.

ARTS & CULTURE

Downtown Tipp City, $1,600.00 and $225.00, spruces up the exteriors of downtown properties identified by the Façade Improvement Program. This is an Urban Stewardship Fund grant.

Tipp City Parks Department, $1,297.00, purchases new park benches for Veterans Park. This is a Veteran’s Tribute Fund grant.

Tipp City Public Library, $2,000.00, develops compassion for humanity’s diversity through the months-long, city-wide, multigenerational group reading of “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi. This grant underwrites the author’s high school lecture portion of the multi-faceted project. Creating a more worldly generation is the goal of this 3-year partnership between the Library, Schools, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Additional support was given from the Robinson-Walters Family Fund and the Tippecanoe Educational Endowment Fund.

EDUCATION

Bethel Local Schools, $1,500.00, recognizes the changing demographics of the school population by purchasing welcoming multicultural supplies such as construction paper, Crayons, and colored pencils. This is a Bethel Community Fund grant.

Miami County ESC, award, funds field trips in the 2021 – 2022 school year for the five multiple disability classrooms within the Tipp City Schools. Students in these classrooms range from ages 5 – 22. The Dave Drake Family Fund advisors awarded the entire grant request of $1,500.00.

Troy-Miami County Public Library, $2,500.00, supports Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, serving over 700 children under the age of five in Tipp City and Bethel Township.

Upper Miami Valley STEM Education, Inc., $2,000.00, provides enhanced STEM education and research opportunities to Miami County pre-college students.

ENVIRONMENT

Brukner Nature Center, $1,697.00, updates office equipment for this leader in environmental education and rehabilitation. Their efforts are focused on native Ohio wildlife.

Tipp City Parks Department, $2,005.00, plants sweetgum trees at the entrance of Kyle Park and red maple trees at the railroad depot park. Look for their beautiful color each fall. This is a Lucille L. Milner Trees for Tipp Fund grant. 

RECREATION

Bethel Local Schools, $5,000.00, represents the first of five annual payments supporting the building of a new stadium.  The stadium will be used for sports and marching band activities. This award comes, in part, from the Bethel Community Fund and the Bethel Arts Fund.

HEALTH & SAFETY

Tipp City Fire and Emergency Services, $3,045.00, purchases 25 KASK rescue helmets. Worn by rescuer and rescued alike, these are worn during rescues from water, ice, confined spaces, trenches, and structural collapse. This is a Safety First Fund grant.

SOCIAL SERVICES

Big Brothers Big Sisters, award, matches a “Big” with a “Little” in a youth mentoring relationship for one year. The Robinson-Walters Family Fund advisors awarded the entire grant request of $1,500.00.

Miami County Continuum of Care, $2,500.00, supports the Rides to Work program, which gave 1,149 rides to Tipp City residents in 2020. This program endeavors to help individuals achieve self-sufficiency.

Seeds of Hope OH, $994.00, bridges a gap felt by foster and kinship families by supplying Basic Needs Bags to help get them off on the right foot. Some foster placements come on very short notice and these bags contain essentials for success from the onset such as car seats, diapers, and other basics. Since opening its doors in 2019, 68 Tipp City families have had needs filled through this organization.

The deadline for 3Q grant submissions is September 1. Jim Ranft is available for your grant-related questions at 937-528-2482. Applications are available online at www.tippfoundation.org.

Since 1943, the Tipp City Foundation has awarded $2,428,638.44, through December 31, 2020. Members of the Foundation are Heather Bailey, Mary Bowman, Diana Featherstone, treasurer, Dee Gillis, president, Melissa Keller, Bruce McKenzie, Jim Ranft, vice president and distribution chair, Nathan Rentz, Claire Timmer, Jackie Wahl, secretary, Bill Wendel and Sarah Worley.

The Tipp City Foundation is a component fund of The Troy Foundation. If you would like information about how to make a tax-deductible contribution, please contact Heather Bailey at (937) 528-2482.

For more information visit www.tippfoundation.org or Tipp Foundation on Facebook and Instagram.

By Nancy Bowman

Damon Smith is more than a little excited about the possibilities for the community of the Bethel Local Schools school construction and stadium project.

The $28.5 million project - $3.5 million for a stadium, the rest for a new kindergarten through grade five building – was announced last year.

Smith joined the district last summer as its athletic director.

While the main driver behind the project was the need for more classroom space, Smith said the inclusion in the project of the stadium would meet another need identified by the community in a district survey.

“When (the public was) asked what other facilities we needed to look at, it was an overwhelming ‘We need a new athletic stadium,’” he said.

The new stadium will include an all-weather track, field house with home and visitor locker rooms, restrooms, a ticket booth, storage for equipment and seating for up to 1,500. That seating is “a significant increase from the current 850 capacity in fixed seating,” Smith said.

These pieces of the stadium are included in the $3.5 million identified for the stadium project.

The all-weather track would replace a cinder track and clear the way for Bethel to host track and field meets, Smith said.

In addition to project planning, there is an effort underway to raise another $1 million in partnership support for other pieces of the stadium project.

To raise funding, a stadium committee is looking at community donations/fundraising, corporate advertising sponsorships and naming rights.

Among these pieces of the project would be additional seating for 500, bringing the total to 2,000 seats; a walkway/pavilion; track and field equipment; and a turf field versus grass field.

One local organization – the Tipp City Foundation – has made public its support with a $25,000 grant to pay for the pavilion/walkway. In exchange for the funding, the pavilion/walkway will be named for the foundation’s Bethel Community Fund.

The foundation wanted to be among supporting sponsors, said Heather Bailey of the Tipp City Foundation.

"To help Bethel Local Schools build a gathering space is another way to help build a sense of community in Bethel Township,” Bailey said. “The theme of the Bethel Community Fund is 'For Bethel, By Bethel.’ What better way to demonstrate that mission than to support its new gathering hub!"

Smith said other commitments to the effort to raise $1 million have been received but are not yet being announced publicly.

The commitments so far include field naming rights, $100,000; track naming rights, $100,000; and stadium naming rights $250,000.

A couple of scoreboard advertising sponsorships also have been secured, Smith said.

As the public drive for the added stadium funding begins, organizers can say they have half of the needed dollars committed, he said.

School supporters are emphasizing that the $28.5 million is being funded by the district without asking residents to pay an additional tax, Smith said.

They also want people to know the stadium is for the schools – athletics, marching band, etcetera – as well as the community, he said.

“We want to create an atmosphere here on our campus that this is the place where people go for entertainment with our musicals, our athletics,” Smith said.

More information on the project and how people can contribute, if desired, is available on a new website www.bethellegacy.com.

By Nancy Bowman 

The Gillis Fund for Self Sufficiency is ready to help adults through programs to assist them in improving themselves through education.

These programs could include those that help to prepare people for high school equivalency certificates, or GED, or adult literacy training.

This will be the first year for grants through the Tipp City Foundation from the Gillis Fund for Self Sufficiency.

The couple said the program is supported by the proverb, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” 

Kelly and Dee Gillis began setting money aside for this fund in 2012 and it now has reached $25,000. That is the amount necessary for the fund to begin awarding grants.

Applicants for grants must be 501(c)(3) organizations.

“Our fund is not for scholarships. It is for people who are already trying to be in the workforce that need something a little better for their family. It is more for adults than someone just getting out of high school,” Dee Gillis said. “Once you are underwater, you need to get a good job. Without a GED, you cannot get a good job.”

Kelly Gillis said the couple started the fund because neither of them finished high school, although Dee Gillis later obtained her GED. “We want to help people who got behind for some reason or other,” he said.

Dee Gillis left high school to attend beauty college in Dayton and then joined her mother in the business. Kelly Gillis worked after leaving school eventually being employed for several years at Dayton Power and Light.

“In that day when we were starting to make our life, you could still get a good factory job or job at DP&L without having a high school diploma. You can’t do that now,” Dee Gillis said.

Kelly Gillis said the fund was started thanks to Dee.

“She came home and talked to me about it. It was her idea. I am glad we did it now,” he said with a smile. “I want people to take advantage of it however they can.”

The Gillis Fund diversifies the Tipp City Foundation’s grant offerings “by encouraging adults to improve their lives by completing or furthering their education or vocational training” said Jim Ranft, OD, of the Tipp City Foundation board.

“We strive to serve all age groups and needs within the community,” Ranft added. 
The Gillis Fund is one of 20 new funds to join the foundation portfolio in the last five years. “Our fund development chair, Heather Bailey, has done a great job of guiding donors through the process of creating funds that will support their unique special interests for years to come” Dr. Ranft said.

For more information on this fund and the Tipp City Foundation, visit tippfoundation.org.

By Nancy Bowman

The Tipp City Foundation’s annual report is brought to life this year with the Hidden Picture Puzzles artwork of area artist Liz Ball.

The Hidden Picture Puzzles have been flowing off Ball’s drawing board for 30 years and now are featured in a variety of publications including magazines, books and on an interactive website.

The special puzzles created for the annual report feature the Balls’ dog, Tico, who is known as “Tipper” in the puzzles as he makes his way around town exploring everything from Tippecanoe Family Aquatic Center to the Mum Festival Car Show and the railroad depot. 

The places visited are among the always growing list of beneficiaries of grants made through the foundation.

Ball said she has known Heather Bailey of the Tipp City Foundation for many years and was pleased when she asked her to work on the art to illustrate the annual report.

“It was really fun, I enjoyed it. I got to learn more about Tipp City, too,” Ball said.

A native of northeast Ohio, Ball came to the Dayton area to study at ITT. She worked in tool and die engineering including at Process Equipment Co. in Bethel Township, where she met her husband, Bob.

They have made their home in the Tipp City area since the early 1970s.

Ball said she has always done free hand art and was interested in writing for magazines and books as well as illustrating books. When she had her children, she was looking for something she could do from home and started working on the Hidden Picture Puzzles. She sent several to a magazine seeking submissions. “One day I walked out to the mailbox, and there was a check,” she said.

She has been creating for magazines since 1991. The first newspaper to publish the puzzles was the Dayton Daily News in 1996. The feature continues to run in the DDN along with many other newspapers in the United States and beyond. She also has done 14 Hidden Picture Puzzle books.

Ball also is doing interactive puzzles with ActiveLiteraure.com. The picture is pulled up and as the viewer finds the hidden items shown in the key, the picture fills in that item in color.

Ball said she still enjoys coming up with the Hidden Picture Puzzles and creating them. She does personalized drawings for individuals, say for a birthday, and for companies.

Ball also knows of doctors who prescribe the puzzles for patients for memory retention and has heard from teachers who said he puzzles help students with spatial skills and communication.

The foundation annual report project was “fun,” Ball said, adding she was glad to be involved in the effort because of the foundation’s support of so many organizations and activities.

She worked on the foundation artwork project off and on for a year. The project had a sad twist when the Balls lost Tico unexpectedly in September.

The foundation’s annual report will be mailed this month to all residences in the 45371 Zip code.

More about Liz Ball and her work is available on her website at www.hiddenpuzzlepictures.com

More information on the Tipp City Foundation can be seen at www.tippfoundation.org.