2007 Grant Awards

A Message from the Executive Director

There is a time for some things,
And a time for all things;
A time for great things,
And a time for small things.
-- Don Quixote

As Executive Director of the Stewart W. and Willma C. Hoyt Foundation, I am honored to play an integral role in Hoyt’s stewardship. I believe that the Hoyt Foundation’s responsible management and thoughtful grant making practices are intimately linked to the preservation and successful revitalization of Broome County.

Throughout its funding history, Hoyt’s grants have had an exponential impact on the City of Binghamton and Broome County and they continue to do so today. In most instances, where Hoyt provides support, change occurs. In each of the fields where it concentrates—arts, humanities, education, health, and human services—Hoyt can point to myriad examples of success and transformation. The Foundation has funded large and small organizations—neighborhood-based and countywide, urban and rural—and all these grants have made a difference. The programs described in this report illustrate the kind of growth and achievement that Hoyt funding stimulates. I am privileged to be a part of these efforts.

In 2007, the Hoyt Foundation awarded $800,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations. As changes and challenges inevitably arise, the Hoyt Foundation will continue to address critical needs and support community enrichment. Often, a project needs only a few thousand well-placed dollars to succeed. In other cases, an organization may require significant donations from many sources to launch a new program or construct a building. The Hoyt Foundation provides grants to organizations that show potential for making a real difference in the community.

As the following pages illustrate, Hoyt’s grants, large and small, continue to sustain Willma Hoyt’s vision. Guided by our mission, the Hoyt Foundation is committed to “use its resources to enhance the quality of life of the people of Broome County…” The $800,000 in grants the Foundation made to the community in 2007 represents a significant contribution toward that end. This report highlights those grants and demonstrates that our mission statement guides our grant making decisions.

I am grateful to our highly committed Hoyt staff: Jane Fett, Roxanne Kermidas, and Janet Scarinzi. I salute the community organizations that labor tirelessly to help make our community a better place. Most importantly, I appreciate the support of the Hoyt Foundation Board of Directors, who give so freely of their time and thoughtful deliberation. I look forward to continuing my work as part of the Stewart W. and Willma C. Hoyt Foundation’s grant making history, and in turn, the continuing revitalization of this community.

Catherine Schwoeffermann
Executive Director
 

2007 Grant Awards

Binghamton Housing Authority/Community Potential, Inc.: $10,000 grant

Young people who find constructive ways to spend their time are less likely to get into trouble and more likely to attend school. Community Potential, Inc., a subsidiary of the Binghamton Housing Authority, is working with the Broome County Gang Prevention Program to deliver the Phoenix Gang Intervention Curriculum to youth who live in Binghamton’s public housing developments. This educational and recreational program focuses on character education, physical and emotional health and citizenship. A $10,000 grant from the Hoyt Foundation will help Community Potential to offer this program to 90 young men and women in their own communities.
 

Broome Community College Foundation, Inc.: $35,000 grant

Among students attending Broome Community College, about 85 percent require financial aid, including older career changers, working parents and low-income young adults. The BCC Foundation’s Grant-in-Aid program helps deserving students who don’t fit the federal and state guidelines for financial aid to pursue their education. The Foundation’s Faculty Development Grants help faculty implement innovative projects to achieve effective teaching and learning. The Hoyt Foundation awarded $25,000 to the Grants-in-Aid program and $10,000 for Faculty Development Grants in 2007.
 

Broome County Arts Council: $107,000 grant

The Broome County Arts Council’s United Cultural Fund provides a transparent, equitable mechanism that allows the entire community to assist local arts and cultural organizations. The Fund provides vital support to larger not-for-profit organizations that anchor the community’s cultural life. It also helps many individual artists and smaller community groups that add variety and flavor to the local arts scene. In 2007, the Hoyt Foundation provided $107,000 to the United Cultural Fund Campaign.
 

Broome County Council of Churches:
$11,500 grant

In these hard economic times, record numbers of local residents are turning to the Broome County Council of Churches’ CHOW program for help feeding themselves and their families. A grant of $11,500 from the Hoyt Foundation has allowed BCCC to insulate the CHOW warehouse and install metal siding. Besides eliminating the need to repaint the building in the future, this new exterior will save BCCC about $2,300 a year in heating costs, making this money available for use in community service programs.
 

Cornell Cooperative Extension-Broome County: $250,000 grant

For 50 years, Broome County residents have come to the Cornell Cooperative Extension Education Center on Upper Front Street for programs that help them in numerous areas, including agriculture, horticulture, environment, family and youth development, nutrition and food safety and workforce preparation. The 16,000 square foot facility needs new roof and windows and HVAC, technology upgrades, modifications to serve people with disabilities and more space for programs and offices. The Hoyt Foundation’s $250,000 contribution toward CCE-BC’s Capital Campaign helps to ensure that CCE-BC can continue in its current location, along with several partner agencies that rent space there.
 

Council of Community Services of New York State: $5,000 grant

A nonprofit organization that follows sound management practices and forges a solid partnership between its board and staff can become a powerful force for good in the community. With a $5,000 grant from the Hoyt Foundation, the Council of Community Services of New York State will offer help to nonprofits in Broome County through two pilot programs. One is a workshop on best practices in board governance. The other, a mini grant program, will allow workshop participants to bring in a professional consultant to work with them on their particular governance and management issues.
 

The Danielle House: $5,500 grant

For families of patients who come to Binghamton from out of town for treatment, and for outpatients who come to the area for medical procedures, The Danielle House provides a warm, welcoming refuge. More comforting than a hotel room, it’s also the only place in Broome or surrounding counties where families can stay during a medical emergency for $10 a night or less. A $5,500 capital grant from the Hoyt Foundation allowed The Danielle House to replace the deteriorating front parch and the front door, creating a safer, more secure entryway and making the building more energy efficient.
 

Goodwill Theatre, Inc.: $150,000 grant

Johnson City’s Goodwill Theatre once was a centerpiece of community life. Goodwill Theatre, Inc. is working to revive the classic 1920s Vaudeville house as the centerpiece of a vibrant arts complex. In the Goodwill Theatre and several adjacent buildings, the organization will present productions by national, regional and local companies and offer classes in performance and stagecraft. With a lead campaign gift of $150,000, the Hoyt Foundation is helping Goodwill Theatre, Inc. to move its project toward completion in 2010.
 

Planned Parenthood of South Central New York: $100,000 grant

To accommodate a growing number of patients and an expanding roster of services, in 2006 Planned Parenthood of South Central New York purchased a building on Hawley Street in Binghamton and made plans to move from the space it had been renting for the past 20 years. The Hoyt Foundation provided $100,000 toward the cost of remodeling the new building. Settled in its new home, PPSCNY now has more examination rooms, an education suite and better-designed administrative offices. The new facility allows the agency to accept more patients than before, better ensure patient privacy and expand its hours of operation.
 

New Animal Display Marks Start of New Era for Binghamton Zoo: $75,000 grant

They call it “re-zoovination”—an initiative to return the Binghamton Zoo at Ross Park to its place as a major attraction and community resource. As the first step in that effort, staff have laid plans to replace six aging exhibits in the lower section of the Zoo. The renovation will give the animals healthier homes, give visitors a better experience and help the Zoo to become accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
With the help of a $75,000 project grant from the Hoyt Foundation, the Zoo is completing one phase of its re-zoovination in the spring of 2008. The 20-year old building that houses its binturong—also called a bear cat—is making way for a modern, spacious, dual-species exhibit.
The new facility provides the binturong with a sanitary, comfortable year-round home. The outdoor display is connected to a building with a concrete floor and its own heating and plumbing systems, amenities the old exhibit lacked. “There will also be large glass windows in the front of the exhibit, so we can allow people to see the binturong if we do decide to open in the wintertime, which is our ultimate plan. And it will be able to get sun,” said Michael Janis, the Zoo’s director.
Binturongs are elusive creatures, native to Southeast Asia and known for an unusual trait: they smell like corn chips. The Binghamton Zoo is looking for a young male to share the new home with Abby, the female binturong in residence.
Eventually, zoo officials hope to give Abby and her future mate a next door neighbor—a red panda, which will occupy separate quarters in the same building. Related to the giant panda, the red panda is similarly attractive. “They are just about as cute as you can get,” Janis said. They’re also highly endangered.
To get ready for the new guest when one becomes available, a member of the Zoo staff will attend a special panda management school. The course teaches the right way to exhibit the animal, how to prepare its diet, how to keep records and perform necessary tests and other essential skills.
In the past few years, staff and supporters have worked successfully to promote the Zoo to the public and raise money for new exhibits. Now, Janis said, the Zoo is ready to build on that strong start. “This year is the year of construction.”
 

School/University Partnership Aims to Help the Whole Child: $52,000 grant

Many children and adolescents in Broome County who need mental health services don’t get them. Many in this same group don’t get the attention they need to stay physically healthy.

A new partnership between Binghamton University and the Binghamton City School District aims to correct that situation. Supported by a two-year, $52,000 grant from the Hoyt Foundation to the Binghamton University Foundation, this interdisciplinary program will address the needs of the whole child with services delivered in school and at home.

“There are some really good services in this county,” said Laura Bronstein, director and chair of Binghamton University’s Master in Social Work program. Unfortunately, families can’t always access them. Sometimes they’re not available to children over a certain age, or there’s a long waiting list, or the family lacks transportation. Also, local services tend to be fragmented; children see different professionals, in different places, for help with illnesses, physical disabilities, mental health issues and social problems.

Bronstein is collaborating on the new program with Susan Terwilliger, clinical lecturer in the primary care nurse practitioner program in BU’s Decker School of Nursing, and Elizabeth Anderson, a lecturer in BU’s School of Education.

The program, called Building Accessible Interdisciplinary Services for Binghamton Families and Children, will take a holistic approach to children’s needs. If a student is exhibiting problems—having trouble sitting still, for example, or falling asleep in class—professionals will work together to consider all possible causes. Is there a learning disability? Is the child malnourished? In pain? Worried?

Masters-level nurse practitioner students will visit with students in Binghamton’s MacArthur and Woodrow Wilson elementary schools and in their homes to assess their physical health. Students in the MSW program will do the same to assess students’ mental health and social situations.

Consulting with classroom teachers, parents and masters-level students from the School of Education, these professionals will refer children to medical, social services or mental health facilities. In some cases, if no appropriate services are available in the community, the social work students will provide them in school.

The partnership is “a win-win,” said David Garabino, the district’s director of health, physical education and athletics. Delivering services right in school makes it easier for families to benefit, and it promotes good attendance and learning. “We’re looking to have the kids in school as much as we can possibly keep them in school,” he said. “Having these services helps us dramatically.”
 

New Journal Enriches Local Arts Mix: $4,794 grant

Binghamton’s First Friday art walks have introduced local residents to talented neighbors who make paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and many other kinds visual art. This year, the community’s cultural scene gained a new component with the debut of The Broome Review, a literary journal.

Founding editor Andrei Guruianu said he and his staff created The Broome Review in part to keep the written word in the public eye, especially among young people. “I see how little students read, how much we’re focused on the media, especially YouTube and the Internet, e-mail, text messaging, etc.,” said Guruianu, a writer and Binghamton University PhD candidate who teaches at BU and Ithaca college. “I wanted to see literature showcased a little bit more.”

Greater Binghamton is rich in writers, including some very accomplished ones, said Judy Baker Goldschmidt, one of the Review’s three poetry editors. But that wealth isn’t always evident. “We don’t all go around wearing pins that say: ‘I’m a writer,” she said. The Review is an opportunity to draw that community together. “For other writers in the area, and there are a lot of them, I think it’s exciting to have something like this going on. And they’re certainly welcome to submit.”

The Broome Review publishes poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction from throughout the country, but it’s also a distinctly local enterprise: all of its staff members live in the community. Another contribution to the Greater Binghamton arts scene is the series of free workshops the Review sponsors to encourage local writers. “The support I’ve been getting from the community, people coming out to these workshops, has been truly fantastic,” Guruianu said.

In connection with its second annual issue next year, the Review will offer The Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry, a $1,000 award for the best poem submitted. \

Now that The Broome Review has made a strong start, a $4,794 grant from the Hoyt Foundation will help it to continue publishing and conducting workshops. Staff hope to establish the journal as a respected member of the national literary publishing scene, making it eligible for ongoing support on the state and national level.

In a busy and often isolating world, a literary journal offers a place where readers and writers can reach out to one another, Goldschmidt said. “We need more outlets for the creative writing process. There are so many people out there trying to be heard.”

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