Nonprofit Reflects, Looks Forward To New Year

Four Rivers Healthy Community Executive Director, Casey Clark Ney (right) presents Peggy Hawkins of St. Paul Lutheran Church a $5,000 check to benefit the Giggles and Grace Learning Center capital campaign fund.

*As seen in the Argus Observer, 12/19/2014

by Larry Meyer

ONTARIO—Four Rivers Healthy Community is wrapping up 2014 by looking back on its initiatives to help local nonprofits and communities meet the needs of the people they serve. The organization also is looking forward to completing its goal of organizing a community foundation in 2015.

During the group’s monthly meeting this week at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Ontario, Four Rivers Healthy Community Executive Director Casey Clark Ney presented a $5,000 check to Giggles and Grace Early Learning Center. The check was a match to other donations from the community to help fund the center.

In another recent initiative, Four Rivers Healthy Community provided $2,000 to the Jordan Valley School District to help restart the school meal program. With the closing of the Basque Inn in Jordan Valley, which was the U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified kitchen for the school’s hot lunch program, there were no more hot lunches, Ney said.

A volunteer meal program has been established, initially for breakfast, and the money provided was used to buy kitchen utensils and purchase some food, Ney said. Some microwave ovens have been donated for the program, and a cook stove has been obtained, she added.

“It will impact about 80 children,” Ney said.

One major initiative for 2015 will be completing an effort to form the Four Rivers Community Foundation.

“The foundation will provide opportunities to invest in the community,” Ney said.

Another initiative planned for 2015 will be stabilizing funding for Four Rivers Healthy Community. The group is a backbone nonprofit that supports a variety of local projects and programs undertaken by other organizations.

Find out more at www.4rhc.org.