The Henry County Community Foundation 2009-2010 TASC (Teens About Serving the County) Youth Grants Committee members met in the Foundation boardroom on Monday, December 7th to evaluate grant proposals and discuss various organizations doing good works around their specific areas of Henry County. After evaluating grant proposals, making recommendations and voting, they split into groups to discuss issues facing their schools and communities such as hunger, teen pregnancy, toy and clothing drives for children, mentoring youth to make right choices, and other youth programs.
In the time remaining at the end of their meeting, Henry County Community Foundation volunteer Bill Bergmann asked each TASC member to stand and tell about their most memorable Holiday. A Shenandoah student told about her experience helping buy, wrap and deliver gifts to children in need during the holidays and realizing the impact she was having on the families. She shared this with the TASC members because TASC grant have helped fund this effort, and she found giving very rewarding. Others shared stories of making s'mores by the fire, singing Christmas songs along to the radio, having grandparents return from the hospital after being ill, making an igloo in a drift, and remembering specific gifts like an overhead projector with transparencies to be an official teacher to spending the holidays in Florida. Other recollections varied from watching dad set up a trampoline in the snow, playing hockey on frozen water in a cattle pit, running into a fence while sledding to the gift of family gathering to spend time together. It seems the simple pleasures of the holidays are the most memorable for these Henry County youth.
Involvement in TASC allows students to not only evaluate community issues and address local needs, but also interact and share with youth from all over Henry County. The TASC Committee includes one 8th grader, one freshman, one sophomore, one junior, and one senior from each of the five Henry County school districts. TASC officers conduct the meetings. TASC officers for this school year are Chair Kate Hillman (Shenandoah), Vice Chair Sara Metroka (New Castle), Advisor Assistant Seth Hinshaw (Tri), Assistant Secretary Brittney Horth (Knightstown), and Secretary Samantha Bilbrey (Blue River Valley). TASC grant applications, guidelines and donor opportunities to support the TASC named fund are available at the Henry County Community Foundation office at 700 S. Memorial Drive in New Castle or online at www.henrycountycf.org.
The meeting began with the introduction of new eighth grade TASC members Molly McCord from Blue River Valley, Tiffany Hunsinger from Knightstown, Vivian Orbik from New Castle, Courtney Flatter from Shenandoah, and Jason Marshall from Tri. Along with the privilege of serving on the TASC Committee, these students accept the responsibility of critically evaluating each grant submission for purpose, scope, need and viability. They then determine whether each grant will be accepted as is, partially funded, denied, or accepted with conditions.
The Henry County Community Foundation, Inc. provides the TASC Committee with an annual budget from the Unrestricted Funds for Community Grants. TASC members also initiated the TASC named fund within Unrestricted in the spring 2008 in response to growing needs in our community. Through the help of generous donors, TASC reached the $5,000 mark in December 2008 thereby making it the first youth initiated named fund in Henry County Community Foundation history. Through fundraisers, the TASC named fund doubled in 2009 with the objective to continue to fund growth to enable TASC to address the increasing number of grant proposals and serve more youth in Henry County now and in the future.
TASC grant applications, guidelines and donor opportunities to support the TASC named fund are available at the Henry County Community Foundation office at 700 S. Memorial Drive in New Castle or online at www.henrycountycf.org.
