Athletics 

Methow Valley Nordic Team Van
Winthrop, WA

The Team engages youth in Nordic skiing, a difficult and challenging sport, though not an "in" sport or officially part of the school curriculum.  Young people are taught skills for lifelong enjoyment of physical activity.  The values stressed include commitment, respect, best effort, sportsmanship, self-reliance, mutual support, and the belief that personal success lies not in the defeat of another, but in the accomplishment of your own goals.  The volunteer efforts of parents help maintain low fees to allow broad participation.  The team kids raise money at the annual auction with their own personal offerings of ski tours with homemade refreshments, piano concerts, mountain bike instruction, wood chopping, and house cleaning.  A grant of $15,000 secured the purchase of a used passenger van to transport team members to competitions and training locations.  Community support includes donations of a luggage rack and logo painting for the van, plus the prospect of defraying expenses by leasing the vehicle, off season, to organizations in the Methow Valley.

Wrestling Mat
North Beach High School
Ocean Shores, WA

A flagging wrestling program got an infusion of new energy. The team was growing and improving, with some members competing in Regional and State tournaments. Enthusiasm built among parents and the community. The new coach wanted to promote more home matches and tournaments, but the old wrestling mat was too hard and inflexible to be used for competition. A grant of $7000 bought a high quality mat, and made it possible for North Beach Hyaks Wrestling team to host five wrestling matches this year and hold its first annual wrestling tournament. Now the program also will be able to offer wrestling clinics, youth wrestling summer camps, and a freestyle wrestling program.

Culture 

Lost Journals of Lewis and Clark
The Myrna Loy Center - Helena Montana.

The Myrna Loy Center established an Echoes of Discovery Program to create performances to celebrate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. “The Lost Journals of Lewis and Clark" is an improvisational performance dealing with actual events from the travels of Lewis and Clark. The play uses set pieces, music, improvisation, dance, and acting. Based on research of the Journals and other Lewis and Clark information, the students portray facts and, using the audience’s imagination and creativity, explore what might have happened on the days that are missing from the Corps’ journals…”days when everything that befell the Corps of Discovery was too funny, or too absurd, to document for posterity...” The workshop culminates in an open performance of the play. A $15,000 grant allowed an artists-in-residence troupe to engage students in schools around the state. An additional $5000 grant let the troupe take the workshop to Idaho and Washington.

Youth Dance Group
Bosnian and Herzegovinian Community Club - Boise, Idaho

The Club was incorporated in 2000 to preserve Bosnian - Herzegovinian culture and heritage and to help former Yugoslavs in the region integrate into their new, American home. A major federal grant supports the Club's social work, but did not benefit the youth dance group which had attracted a surprising number of the resettled Bosnian refugee youth. With our $15000 grant, the dancers purchased hand-made traditional Bosnian costumes, and sound equipment. The troupe now performs their traditional music and dance in the Boise community, and also in Twin Falls. Invitations to perform came from Portland, Richland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Salt Lake City.

Education 

21st Century Elementary Science Program
North Central Education Service District - Washington

Fifteen school districts in north central Washington were involved in this project to integrate an inquiry science program with reading and writing. Workshops immersed K-6 teachers in learning nationally recognized "best practices" elementary science programs such as "Science and Technology for Children" and "Full Option Science System." High quality sciencing requires students to develop critical thinking skills to investigate a problem and reach conclusions based on reasonable, empirical evidence. Students must also be able to communicate their methods and understandings of an investigation.  A $35,000 grant funded participation by 140 teachers from four rural counties with significant Hispanic student populations. 

Westchester Environmental Monitoring Program
West Anchorage High School - Anchorage, Alaska

To increase student achievement of the Alaska State Science and Math Standards, 150 students participated in a year long multi-phased study of an urban water body. Students completed maps and aerial photograph surveys of the watershed to see how it has changed over time. They conducted analyses to determine water quality parameters, and taught each other the importance of these parameters. They mastered field techniques for measuring stream flow. The Municipality of Anchorage made an information kiosk available for public display and distribution of the project's educational material about the ecosystem. Two students won the Watershed Competition sponsored by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and participated in the Youth Watershed Summit in Washington DC, winning 4th place. Our $5000 grant helped purchase materials, including books and videos, maps, water quality testing kits, clipboards and waders. The teachers generated the excitement about science: "Kids who would not normally care about science or the environment are asking for more space in our classes".

Wildlife and Habitat Preservation

Sawmill Creek Acquistion
Cascades Conservation Partnership - Washington

The Cascade Conservation Partnership is a time-limited campaign (2004) to purchase and protect 75,000 acres of privately owned forests between Washington's North and South Cascades. Connected tracts of wildlife habitat, or wildlife corridors, are needed by many species to maintain their viability in a region. According to U.S. Forest Service Biologists, the area between Mt. Rainier and the Alpine Lakes is the "critical connective link in the north-south movement of organisms in the Cascade Range". The affected animals include gray wolf, grizzly bear, pine marten, fisher, northern goshawk, spotted owl and great gray owl. A $35,000 challenge grant will go toward purchase of Sawmill Creek which has some of the best remaining old-growth, riparian habitat in the Green River Watershed.

Sagesteppe Ecosystem Assessment
Oregon Natural Desert Association - Bend, Oregon

Sagebrush-dominated habitats cover significant portions of nine western states in the Intermountain West. These biologically rich but neglected ecosystems, support numerous unique species, and represent one of the most imperiled landscapes in North America. Over ninety percent of the region's flowing waters and riparian habitats have been seriously degraded by livestock grazing, agricultural development, alteration of natural fire regimes, and invasion by exotic plant species.  A broad, scientific assessment of this ecosystem has never been undertaken.  A $20,000 grant will help support a multi-species assessment of the sagesteppe ecosystem to provide a scientific underpinning for needed federal protection of at-risk species. Half the funding will be used as a challenge grant.