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Care Foundation Provides $1.6 Million to Northwest Arkansas Projects

By August 19, 2013February 3rd, 2021No Comments

The city of Bentonville will receive a $1 million grant for a community center project in the south part of the city, Care Foundation announced today.

 

 

The grant for the Bentonville Community Center was the largest among five grants announced on Monday, totaling $1,630,000 and supporting projects throughout Northwest Arkansas.

 

 

Care Foundation, a fund of the Endeavor Foundation, supports critical health, wellness and quality-of-life efforts that impact individuals and families across Northwest Arkansas. Combined with $1.8 million in grants earlier this year, this second round of 2013 grants brings Care Foundation to a total community investment of more than $55 million since 1999.

 

 

“Care Foundation has a 15-year history of supporting organizations and initiatives that meaningfully impact the region where we live, work and raise our families,” said Lisa Ray, president and CEO of Arvest Bank in Springdale and Chair of Care Foundation’s Grants Committee. “I am truly inspired by the determination and purpose our grantees continually bring to their work, and I look forward to seeing Care’s dollars being put to good use again this year.”

 

 

One highlight of the summer 2013 grant cycle is Care Foundation’s support of the Lake Springdale trailhead, which will include a small plaza area with an open shelter building, public parking with 50 spaces, restrooms, wayfinding signage, drinking water, an air station, and bicycle racks. Located northwest of Lake Springdale, the trailhead will increase public access to the Razorback Regional Greenway trail system that connects six cities across Northwest Arkansas.

 

 

The entire 36-mile trail and many of the related amentities are expected to be complete by April 2014, but major sections of the trail in Bella Vista, Bentonville, Rogers and Fayetteville already receive heavy use each week by thousands of cyclists, runners and walkers.

 

 

Another partnership includes a grant to support a new Bentonville Community Center, which is expected to open in 2015 near the intersection of SW Regional Airport Boulevard and Southwest I Street. The Bentonville Parks and Recreation Department expects about 55,000 unique visitors in the first year. The facility will increase the number of amenities available to city residents. The center will include two pools (a lap pool and a lazy river pool for recreation and fitness), two basketball courts, a 250-capacity banquet room for classes and meetings, workout and aerobics equipment, a commercial kitchen for healthy cooking classes, and a child-care facility.

 

 

In keeping with its history of improving access to health care for Northwest Arkansans, Care will support the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest’s new internal medicine residency training program. The seed funding will allow UAMS to develop the curriculum and achieve the accreditation necessary to support a new program in which 24 residents will rotate among five partner hospitals in Washington, Benton, and Sebastian counties. In addition to providing needed medical care, the program will serve as a recruitment tool to retain medical professionals in Northwest Arkansas and increase quality of life and economic development in the region.

“Endeavor Foundation is proud to have Care Foundation as our supporting organization, and commends Care for investing in a healthier and more vibrant Northwest Arkansas for generations to come,” said Anita Scism, president and CEO of Endeavor Foundation.

Endeavor Foundation has provided key support to the Greater Northwest Arkansas Development Strategy, a five-year strategic plan unveiled by the Northwest Arkansas Council in January 2011. The foundation pursues some of the healthy living and quality-of-life objectives in the strategy, and the grants provided by Care Foundation are supportive of some of the objectives.

 

 

The summer 2013 Care Foundation grantees and the amounts they’ll receive are the City of Bentonville – Bentonville Community Center ($1 million), the City of Springdale – Lake Springdale Trailhead ($350,000), NorthWest Arkansas Community College and the Northwest Arkansas Council – Diversity Resource Guide ($10,000), the Springdale Rotary Charitable Foundation Trust – Rotary Adventure Park ($30,000) and the University of Arkansas for Medical Science Northwest – Internal Medicine Residency Training Program ($240,200).

Special thanks to our major investors for their support of the Northwest Arkansas Council and our work in the region: