Polson wins $100,000 planning grant
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Polson is one of five communities selected by The Orton Family Foundation for the second phase of its $10-million, five-year Heart and Soul Community Planning initiative to change the way small cities and towns engage their citizens and plan for the future.
“This is a marvelous Christmas gift for our community. We night not be able to change the world, but this is an opportunity for us to bring change to our community,” Penny Jarecki said.
Jarecki organized the Greater Polson Community Foundation and has been instrumental in Envision Polson.
Along with each of the following towns, Polson has been awarded $100,000 over two years along with Foundation staff support, tools, trainings and other resources to attain their goals:
• Cortez, Colorado (pop. 8,482)
• Essex Town & Essex Junction, Vermont (combined pop. 19,587)
• Gardiner, Maine (pop. 6,100)
• North Fork Valley (towns of Paonia, Hotchkiss, and Crawford), Colorado (combined pop. 7,000)
• Polson, Mont. (pop. 5,000)
“We were so impressed by the energy in these towns for broad and deep civic engagement and a strong commitment to steering change based on each town’s heart and soul values,” said Bill Roper, President and CEO of the Orton Family Foundation. “Through the challenges each will overcome and the local wisdom each will contribute, these towns will help us build a model for communities all across America.”
Before work gets underway on the ground in the towns, community leaders and Foundation staff will craft and sign a Partnership Agreement to guide goals and expectations over the two years. Agreements will be complete by early February.
An Orton Family Representative will be visiting Polson in January, Jarecki said.
The Orton Family Foundation commended Polson for its very strong application, both the written and video portions. The site visit also impressed the foundation team because of the sincerity, excitement and the feeling they had that Polson was a caring community, “a genuine small town where we all care about each other,” Jarecki added.
The selection of these towns is the second phase of the Foundation’s Heart and Soul Community Planning initiative to unlock citizens’ potential to meaningfully participate in planning, bridge their differences and affect change. The Orton Family Foundation, based in Middlebury, Vt., and Denver, Colo., seeks to help small cities and towns discover and describe their heart and soul—the collective attributes that make communities unique—and build on those attributes in planning toward a vibrant, enduring future.
“This grant gives us a change to bring the community together so we can all express what we think makes Polson special, the values we want to keep and build on,” Jarecki said, adding that Envision Polson! hopes to see the community grow into a four-season destination while building the economy by bringing new business into town.
