Community Foundation Of Ozarks Awards $12,000 Grant To Museum Learning Center

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks, in partnership with Commerce Trust Company, awarded a $12,000 grant to Ste. Genevieve Museum Learning Center to support the installation of an ADA-compliant lift near the main entrance, connecting the gift shop with the elevator.

The grant was presented as part of the 2019 Coover Regional Grant program on April 18 at Commerce Trust in Springfield.

The project is part of a comprehensive overall capital renovation for the historic Koetting Building on Market Street and will ensure all visitors — including the elderly and persons with disabilities — have access to all the exhibits and programs within the museum.

“Apparently in 1906, when our building was originally built, they didn’t have squares or a level,” said Robert Wolk, representative of the Museum Learning Center, of the museum’s new location. “The building has had connections and additions, and some of those differ by 30 inches. We didn’t have space for a ramp, so this grant will help us add a wheelchair lift so everyone can access our center.”

A total of $320,000 was awarded to three place-based education projects and 16 other organizations serving rural areas across central and southern Missouri as part of the Coover Place-Based Education and Regional Grant programs.

The grants are made possible through the generosity of the late Julia Dorothy Coover, who worked for Commerce Bank for 30 years. She established the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in 1992 to honor her husband’s memory. Since then, the Coover Charitable Foundation has awarded about $5.7 million in grants to nonprofit agencies and rural schools across the Ozarks.

“We are honored to continue Mrs. Coover’s legacy through these grant programs,” said Commerce Trust vice president Jill Reynolds. “Thanks to the foresight of her endowment nearly 30 years ago, more than 19 communities across central and southern Missouri will be positively impacted by these grants today.”

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is a regional public charitable foundation established in 1973 that provides asset and resource development, grant-making and public leadership through a network of donors, 49 affiliate foundations and some 600 nonprofit partners across central and southern Missouri.

(Information in a release from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.)

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