Photo by Rocky Wilson<br>Receiving grants last Thursday from Verizon Foundation's Marilyn Hoggarth were: L to R (front) Gail Hammack, WCBF; Maria Sands, EHIG; and Hoggarth. (middle) Lisa Lang, WCBF; Wendy Hansen, EHIG; Dawn Roe, Union County United Way. (back) Rich Graham, Joseph schools; Peter Donovan, WCBF; Marya Nowakowski, WCBF; and Linda Bauck, ESD.

The Verizon Foundation serving Washington and the extreme corner of northeast Oregon gave $20,600 in grant moneys to five different nonprofit Union and Wallowa County organizations during a short presentation Thursday morning. The presentation was made at the Fishtrap House in Enterprise by Verizon external affairs manager Marilyn Hoggarth.

All five applicants from the two counties were funded, at least in part of their request.

Hoggarth gave out a check for $2,600 to Dawn Roe of Union County United Way. The grant will be used to purchase a color printer for the one person nonprofit organization. Roe, while accepting the grant, encouraged persons from Wallowa County to start a United Way. She suggested contacting her as a good start.

Possibly the best represented nonprofit was the Wallowa County Business Facilitation (WCBF) group which received a $3,000 Verizon grant. Under the guidance of county facilitator Myron Kirkpatrick, the WCBF seeks to provide free and confidential entrepreneurial advice to persons in the county. The organization is in its third year of existence and is actively engaged in fundraising. Members present for the presentation included Gail Hammack, Lisa Lang, Peter Donovan and Marya Nowakowski.

Enterprise Hometown Improvement Group (EHIG) executive director Wendy Hansen accepted a check for $4,000 for her active nonprofit. The grant will be funneled into that organization’s 6- month-old e-commerce program headed by Maria Sands, who was also present. Working in conjunction with a training program partnered with Blue Mountain Community College, EHIG is selling items on commission or by donation over ebay. Hansen had nothing but praise for Verizon which, she said, “has really been the champion behind this program.”

Joseph school superintendent Rich Graham was present to receive a $5,000 check to establish a career pathways system for the school. The money will be used to help feed information into student portfolios with the intent of exploring career opportunities. Graham said the money would enhance the school’s senior project program and provide a basis for both the state mandated CIM and CAM directives.

The final grant awarded was to the Wallowa County Education Service District in the amount of $6,000, a percentage of the amount requested. Grant writer Linda Bauck was present to accept the check. She explained that the grant would be used to purchase two new pieces of equipment to be checked out by teachers in the Joseph, Enterprise, Wallowa and Troy school districts. They are a video projector and a portable interactive white board designed to connect students, computers and the Internet. She said the new equipment will provide local teachers with more tools to integrate technology into the classroom.

After the presentations were made Hoggarth spoke briefly about fiberoptics and Verizon. She said that fibreoptic connections are not as critical as many people think, that copper connections can often serve a business just as well. She said that bigger obstacles to economic growth are traffic congestion (not a problem in Wallowa County, she noted), high priced housing and the shortage of a trained workforce.

Hoggarth noted that Verizon grants are based primarily on literacy, technology development and workforce development.