Reconnecting to Our Waterways (ROW) announces two grants awarded this month for community efforts to increase awareness and activities along Indianapolis’ waterways. Funding for ROW’s granting program is made possible by three local foundations: Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, Central Indiana Community Foundation and Herbert Simon Family Foundation.
One ROW subgrant was awarded to non-profit advocacy organization, Friends of the White River (FOWR). After nearly 40 years serving as river advocates, the group began hosting an online resource for locating access points and other information from their website in 2015, called the White River Guide. The grant from ROW’s Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust White River Fund for $18,000 allows FOWR to undertake outreach and get input on how to create an even more interactive and robust tool for those seeking recreation, connection, water quality and fishing information, points of interest, and even entertainment opportunities, along the White River.
“This grant from ROW, supplemented by some additional funding from Friends and Hamilton County Tourism, allows us to expand our efforts to directly engage people with the White River,” said Kevin Hardie, Executive Director of FOWR. “It will provide for updated, mobile responsive technology that lets the community experience and learn about the waterway in a wide variety of ways, so that they will better understand and appreciate its value as a natural resource.”
Another grant was awarded from ROW’s Flex Fund to support five of ROW’s community-led committees for placemaking to identify, create and install educational and interpretive signage at locations along Indianapolis’ Central Canal, Fall Creek, Little Eagle Creek, Pogue’s Run and White River. Over the coming months, ROW’s waterway committees will work with its Education and Connectivity committees to bring expertise and support to the project. Together, they will determine messaging, whether celebrating the history of a space, information about a nearby asset, or ways the community can get involved to make our waterways cleaner.
“Today, most people drive over Little Eagle Creek without even knowing it,” said Jeb Bardon, Co-Chair of ROW’s Little Eagle Creek Waterway Committee. “ROW’s Little Eagle Creek committee is working to change that and is excited about creating signage that helps tell more of a story about our community and its waterway.”
ROW’s Steering Committee approved the funds on February 8. Both projects exemplify how the collective brings resources and expertise to the community-led efforts to increase awareness and access to our waterways, as well as creating more value and improved water quality.