From healthcare to historic preservation and recreation, Newport area non-profits were winners in the latest round of Champlin Foundation grants, aimed at helping organizations pursue “ambitious visions,” according to Champlin’s Executive Director Nina Stack.
Of the $9.1 million in grants statewide to 109 non-profits, some $1.6 million was awarded to 11 Newport area organizations. They range from $700,000 to help transform an existing area of Newport Hospital into an adolescent behavioral health unit to $29,000 to repair exterior leaks at Middletown’s Calvary United Methodist Church.
Many of the grants were awarded to organizations serving youth, and those “coping with the surge in need borne of the pandemic that never subsided.”
One such project is the Girl Scout Camp Rocky Farm in Newport, which received $400,000 to revitalize the camp that serves 4,000 girls into a year-round facility.
“By revisioning all that Camp Rocky Farm can be through improved outdoor spaces, lodge renovations, and expanding access to our grounds and other learning and gathering spaces, we hope to increase inclusion and engagement on Aquidneck Island and beyond,” says Dana Borrelli-Murray, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England. The seven-acre camp was founded in 1950.
The Newport Hospital project also addresses youth. Partnering with Bradley Hospital, they are transforming an existing area of the hospital into a new, eight-bed behavioral health unit for kids The $5 million project “will allow Newport Hospital to deliver Bradley Hospital’s world-class pediatric behavioral health care to more families, closer to home,” according to a statement by Lifespan, Newport Hospital’s parent.
The Champlin Foundation, founded in 1932, has awarded more than $705 million to fund capital projects for Rhode Island non-profits. It covers nine areas: Arts & Culture, Historic Preservation & Heritage, Libraries, Social Services, Welfare of Animals, and Youth Services.
The foundation’s next round of grants will be awarded in June, based on applications received between December 5 and January 15.
Other grants awarded to Aquidneck Island non-profits were:
- Calvary United Methodist Church in Middletown, $29,000 for repair of exterior leaks.
- Lucy’s Hearth of Middletown, $141,140 for safety and bathroom upgrades.
- Conexion Latina Newport, $20,428 for cubicle construction.
- Newport Art Museum & Art Association, $17,025 for parking lot repaving.
- Newport Historical Society, $65,655 for the Newport Center for Black History electrical, sewer, and water restoration.
- Preservation Society of Newport County, $74,768 for Hunter House restoration.
- Portsmouth Free Public Library, $68,500 for carpet replacement.
- Tiverton Library Foundation, $50,000 for accessibility improvements for outdoor programming.
- West Place Animal Sanctuary of Tiverton, $41,110 for its second phase barn restoration.
