RISON - Next Tuesday evening, Jan. 30, Kickstart Cleveland County will welcome Dr. Hunter Goodman of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service to present a conversation around grant writing.
The free program will begin at 6 p.m. at the Bethel No. 1 Family Life Center, located at 2230 Hwy. 35 North, which is about 1.5 miles west of the Hwy. 79 intersection at Rison.
Kickstart Cleveland County will also present its 2023 Volunteer of the Year awards to members of Rison Shine, Re-Newing Edinburg, Kickstart Kingsland, Pioneer Village, Cleveland County Fair Association and Cleveland County Community Theater at a reception following the program.
Dr. Goodman, an assistant professor for the Community Professional and Economic Development Department, will provide a brief overview of grant writing and how different organizations can identify grants pertaining to their organization.
Kickstart Cleveland County President Stacy Walz encourages anyone interested in learning about grant writing or possible grant opportunities to take advantage of this free service offered through extension.
Walz also welcomes the community to come celebrate and honor the 2023 volunteers of the year from the community development organization's multiple sub-groups.
Receiving awards at the reception are:
- Roy Phillips from Rison Shine
- Kathy Waldrop from Re-New-ing Edinburg
- P.J. Abeyta from Kickstart Kingsland
- Dana Edwards from Cleveland County Community Theater
- John Britton from Cleveland County Fair Association
- Billy Bowlin from Pioneer Village
Kickstart Cleveland County will also present two additional awards, a special appreciation award from all of the community groups, and for the first time, a citizen of the year award.
Malinda Berry will be honored with the special appreciation award on behalf of all of the groups under Kickstart Cleveland County.
"Malinda's knowledge of 501(c)3 status and legal expertise is invaluable," said Walz.
"She has kept us going as a whole, but also guided each group individually as it branches out to obtain their own 501(c)3 statuses. We could not have done it without her help or the dedicated time she has given to all of our groups volunteering." Travis Bell will receive the first Citizen of the Year award at the event.
"He just shows up out of nowhere. He doesn't have to be asked, he just takes care of things," said Celeste Beatty, President of Rison Shine, who nominated Bell for this honor.
Beatty said during, before and after the Rison in the Fall festival, Bell went around downtown doing lawn maintenance and making things look nice. He took care of the trash throughout the day.
"He took care of cleaning Main Street the day after so we didn't have to," she said. "There are things he does like a thief in the night and no one ever knows who did it." With this award, Kickstart Cleveland County hopes to start a new tradition and is introducing a new mission for the community, to keep their eyes open for people volunteering and dedicating their time behind the scenes.
"We have a lot of people that work to make our community a better place, they may not attend our community development meetings, but they spend countless hours doing things around the county," Walz said. "We want to hear about them!" Kickstart Cleveland County asks the community to email details of what they see over the course of 2024 to the Cleveland County Herald at contact@clevelandcountyherald.com The Kickstart Cleveland County Board meets quarterly and will review all nominations for the honor at an awards event next year.
Walz would like to issue a special thank you to the Rison High School EAST Lab students for the designing and creation of this year's awards, and FBT Bank for sponsoring the awards to be handed out.