Community Foundation awards more than $100,000 in grants

The Calhoun County Community Foundation grants will buy LEGOs in Rockwell City, iPads in Pomeroy and pool equipment in Lake City this year.
The grants, announced March 12, are awarded annually through the foundation, with funding coming from gambling proceeds at Iowa casinos. This year, the foundation selected 32 projects from across the county, awarding about $107,000. With the matching funds – a requirement of any nonprofit or government entity that applies for the funding – that will result in nearly $275,000 leveraged for projects here, officials said.
Denise Pohl, librarian at the Rockwell City Public Library, is combining the $1,300 from the Community Foundation with another grant to buy educational toys for the library’s toddler story time, as well as LEGOs for older children.
“We found a lot of libraries are using them,” Pohl said, adding she found studies that show children’s spatial and problem-solving skills improve when they do open-ended and directed play with the toys. The library will create a craft space, and during set times, children will be given tasks to complete with the bricks. For example, Pohl said one scenario involves telling the children a cat is stuck in a tree, then asking the children to build something with LEGOs to rescue the animal. Other scenarios include giving each child 100 bricks and asking them to build something with just those bricks, or asking children to construct something out of just one color brick. 
Read more in the March 25 edition.