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Friends of the Park group exceeds $100,000 endowment goal for 2022
With a month left in the year, Friends of the Park of Putnam County, the county’s parks foundation, has exceeded its 2022 endowment goal of $100,000 thanks to member contributions, two significant gifts and a matching grant.
“Our goal is to raise $100,000 annually for five years,” Board President Jessica Hartman said. “This was our first year, and we are very thankful to have been successful.”
As part of the community input process that resulted in the county’s five-year master plan for outdoor recreation, one of more than 40 goals residents included was creation of a Friends of the Park endowment to help fund the plan’s outdoor recreation initiatives. A second goal was for that endowment to reach $500,000 by the end of 2026, the final year of the five-year plan.
The Friends of the Park (FOTP) board then got to work, creating an investment committee and pursuing the fundraising goal.
“We had an enormous increase in membership this year,” Hartman said, “and member gifts to endowment helped us exceed our goal.”
Members gave more than $15,500 that was matched $1-for-$1 by the Putnam County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB), bringing the total to more than $30,000. A $25,000 grant from the Putnam County Community Foundation also was matched by the CVB, as was a portion of a $25,000 grant from the Ruby Cup Foundation, a charitable foundation of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity chapter that was on the DePauw University campus from 1866 to 1996.
The FOTP endowment will end the year with nearly $116,000 invested, and Hartman says the board anticipates additional gifts before year-end.
“The participants in the five-year plan process set a very high bar for us,” Hartman said. “Early on, there was concern about the attainability of a half-million-dollar endowment in five years. Over the course of the eight public input sessions, the people involved in that planning process got increasingly excited about what the county has and what can be developed. The five-year plan ended with 41 goals, and accomplishing them will require considerable funding.
“The board is challenged by the role FOTP can play in increasing local quality of life,” Hartmas added, “and it’s hard to find words that express how grateful we are to the community for supporting this outdoor recreation effort that will impact everyone and make Putnam County a better place to live and visit.”
Already setting goals for next year, the FOTP board hopes to grow to 250 members in 2023 as a way to engage more countywide residents interested in developing outdoor recreation venues, programs and events. Annual FOTP membership is $25 for individuals and $50 for families. More information is at PutnamParks.org/Friends.
The organization’s focus now is countywide. In 2023, it will help fund the Putnam County Mural Project, the Big Walnut Bird Club, the Pedal Putnam bike ride/race and other initiatives. Currently, it is taking applications from K-12 teachers in the county’s four school districts for nature-related projects outside their classroom windows.
In 2021, FOTP joined a partnership with Putnam Parks & Pathways and the CVB to establish the Putnam County Parks Board and collaborate on creating the county’s five-year master plan for outdoor recreation. The Putnam County Council established the County Parks Board last year and, in April, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources approved the county’s plan submitted by the Parks Board.
The four organizations now share a staff and headquarters inside the Putnam County Visitors Center to implement the plan’s goals as a collaborative effort with the Putnam County Board of Commissioners, the Putnam County Council and the Putnam County Community Foundation.
Since its founding in 1995, FOTP has funded dozens of projects through contributions from members, donors and grantors. Recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation, the organization became, and has remained, a major funder of People Pathways, the county’s nearly 18-mile trail system also founded in 1995.
For years, FOTP’s focus was primarily on Greencastle’s Robe-Ann Park. The foundation was instrumental in funding “The Castle” playground and, with the Greencastle Civic League, initiated and completed the “Emerald Palace” playground. With a group of parents and youth, it created the Greencastle Skatepark, one of the best concrete skateparks in the Midwest.
FOTP supported the addition of handicap-accessible picnic tables in Robe-Ann, new lifejackets for the “learn to swim” program and a new Aquatics Center audio system. In 2014, it helped finance the Bob York Splash Park, and FOTP was the recipient of more than $70,000 in grants in 2018, funding that contributed to the replacement of the park’s bandshell.
Projects outside Robe-Ann Park include partnering with People Pathways on a grant that successfully added $84,000 to complete Phase One of the Putnam Nature Trail. FOTP worked with the City of Greencastle to create Mary Rogers Field Park, an open space park next to City Hall with specially selected plantings to attract birds and butterflies.
In 2011, FOTP committed to the community’s Independence Day “Celebrate 4” event, and has overseen fundraising ever since. It also collaborated with Area 30 Career Center, the Community Foundation and the Wal-Mart Foundation on landscaping the 80-acre Big Walnut Sports Park, and it worked with a grassroots group on the Jaycee Park Multi-Use Trail Project, helping to fund the 1.5-mile pathway inside the 22-acre park on Greencastle’s east side.