The City of Grinnell Parks & Recreation Department was awarded a $2,500 grant from the Iowa Foundation for Parks and Recreation (IFPR) on Monday, May 10th to aid with recovery from the August 2020 Derecho. Grinnell was one of four communities across the state with a population of less than 10,000 to be awarded funding. IFPR board members Cris Christenson of ACCO Unlimited and Doug Bylund, City of Indianola Parks & Recreation Director and foundation treasurer, presented the grant on Monday to Jordan Allsup, City of Grinnell Parks & Recreation Director, and Parks and Recreation board members, Russ Crawford and Whitney Jensen.
The Iowa Foundation for Parks and Recreation was founded in 1987 with a mission to provide resources to deliver the benefits of parks and recreation to all. Over the course of last winter, the foundation put together a matching campaign to help aid communities affected by the Derecho that wreaked havoc over Iowa last summer. Additionally, in late winter the campaign developed a grant program for communities with populations under 10,000.
The City of Grinnell will use these funds to help purchase trees to begin replacing those lost during the Derecho. It is estimated that over half of the trees in city parks were affected from the high winds, and it will take time to replenish this great loss. With the help of this grant, the City of Grinnell will be able to start replanting trees. We plan to plant 50 trees in our parks yet this spring with hopes of completing another round of plantings in early fall or again in the spring of 2022.
