Elizabeth Barrord, of Middletown, who will be a senior at Fenwick High School in the fall, has been on the council for two years.
“Each year we travel to different organizations throughout Middletown to see what they’re like, and at the end of the year we have a luncheon where we donate funds to support them,” she said. The group meets monthly to go over the various organizations, then votes to determine who gets funded.
“It’s kind of a lot of pressure. We have to really think about each one, but it’s a really enjoyable experience to give back to the community,” Barrord said.
Elizabeth Bryant, who will be a senior at Middletown High School, found out things about her city she hadn’t known.
“I think it helped me be more familiar with my community and with what actually takes place. There are some good things going on,” she said.
Duane Gordon, the executive director of Middletown Community Foundation, said, “There’s always a significantly higher amount of requests than money available. We never know how they’re going to decide … from year to year, they always surprise us with the dynamics of the group, which projects they find the most valuable for the community.”
This year, the group gave just under $30,000 to 15 organizations. There were 36 requests totaling $107,000, Gordon said. That’s the split that happens not only every year, but its also the ratio of grants to requests for the entire foundation.
Hannah Brown, who just graduated from Edgewood High School, was with the youth council for three years. She said it helped develop her leadership skills.
“We helped with a clinic in Middletown. We gave them money and they got all new health facilities. We got to take a tour of that to see what the money was going towards. It was really a good experience for us,” she said, referring to the Primary Health Solutions Clinic in Middletown. That was one of last year’s grants, with the youth council giving $10,000 to support dental care programs.
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