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Equine Dreams Receives $12.5K Grant From Community Foundation

Valley Free Press – Local News for DeKalb County, Illinois

Construction of Hay Storage Building

NEWARK — Equine Dreams recently announced it has received a grant from the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley. The grant of $12,500 will be applied toward the construction of a hay storage building.

“It will be immensely helpful to be able to accept and store donations of hay, as well as purchase hay when costs are lower and store for the year. This will decrease our overall hay bill, making the program more financially stable in our depressed economy,” said Windy Kopecky, board member and instructor for Equine Dreams.

“Our heartfelt thanks go out to the community foundation for their continued support of our mission. We appreciate their confidence in our ability to continue to provide a truly unique and beneficial service to this community,” Kopecky said.

The Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley is a non-profit philanthropic organization that administers individual charitable funds from which grants and scholarships are distributed to benefit the citizens of the Greater Aurora Area, the TriCities and Kendall County.

For more information on the Community Foundation, visit www.cffrv.org.

Equine Dreams is a not-for-profit therapeutic horseback riding program dedicated to providing free sessions to children and adults with disabilities.  The horse provides a unique multidimensional tool. The organization provides services to between 70 and 100 participants in Kendall County and several surrounding counties each week.  The program is unique in that services are provided at no charge. The qualified staff is all volunteers with six PATH International certified therapeutic riding instructors, including one physical therapist and one occupational therapist.

For more information on Equine Dreams, visit www.equinedreams.org.

Education is important to us. We support causes that touch our lives and align with our values. We believe in paying it forward. We are here for a short time,, and it is the next generation that will take on what we leave behind.

Michelle Emanuel

Donor and Past Scholarship Recipient

Being a part of the Community Foundation scholarship committee is the highlight of my year. For many, a scholarship from the CFFRV is the reason they are able to continue reaching for their dreams and changing the future of our world. I hope each recipients knows just how inspirational they are to those of us who are lucky enough to read their stories.

Jessica Breugelmans

Scholarship Committee Member and Board Member

YEP has made me realize the importance of being involved in my community, and how to make a difference. There are a lot of problems in the world but if we can do everything that we can to help the world will become a better place. YEP has helped me realize this and encouraged me to help more people in the future.

Madi Porter

YEP Member

Give your gift of time and see what it means to the people you impact. Helping others is what life is all about.

Neal Ormond

Donor & Fund Advisor

I am incredibly grateful for the generosity of the Zari Foundation Scholarship and the Community Foundation in supporting my education. I am majoring in mechanical engineering with a concentration in aerospace engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institue of Technology. In my spare time, I volunteer on campus, in the community and I’m also the principal violist in the symphony orchestra. I hope to make an impact on the next chapter of space exploration by eventually working at a groundbreaking aerospace company such as SpaceX or NASA.

Taytum Newell

Albert M. Zari Scholarship Recipient

Grant funds from the Community Foundation helped provide updated technology. These upgrades were transformative. By creating new time saving processes, it turned us into a more efficient organization.

Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry

Grantee

YEP was a great experience to have in high school. I became a more confident person, someone with a lot more perspective. Coming from a small school, YEP allowed me to branch out into my community, meet students from other schools, and learn about their backgrounds. I made some great friends and still keep in touch with them today.

Abby Vagnoni

YEP Alumni

Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley

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