The Community: Fall 2022

Established in 2022, The Eric Pardall Memorial Scholarship is a scholarship fund of North Lee Community Foundation and the Keokuk Area Community Foundation. It will be awarded each year to high school seniors, college students, continuing education students and students pursuing a new career in agriculture, automotive/diesel repair, construction, engineering, health care/medical/nursing or any trade. Each of these renewable scholarships is $2,500.00 a year for four years. Winners of the 2022 Eric Pardall Memorial Scholarship were recently announced. The winners are Adam Boeck, Chyane Davidson, Ava Peitz, and Quenten Tweedy.

Adam Boeck graduated from Central Lee High School and is majoring in Agriculture at Iowa State where he will be a junior this fall. His educational goals are to graduate with a major in Agricultural Systems Technology with a minor in Entrepreneurship. His career goal is to one day own and operate his own renewable energy company.

Chyane Davidson graduated from Central Lee and will be attending Des Moines Area Community College in the fall, majoring in agriculture. Her educational goal is centered on the Veterinarian Technology program, with plans to return to southeast Iowa and work at a local vet clinic after earning her Associate’s Degree.

Ava Peitz graduated from Holy Trinity and is attending the University of Iowa, majoring in nursing. Last year she worked 24 hours per week at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in the Emergency Room, while also being a first-year, full-time nursing student. She hopes to go abroad to India to study palliative care through a University of Iowa program during her junior year, eventually becoming a licensed Nurse Practitioner after obtaining her BSN-RN in 2025.

Quenten Tweedy graduated from Central Lee and plans to major in Auto Repair at Southeastern Community College. He plans to continue working for his dad as a service truck driver and mechanic, while improving his skills at SCC. His long term goal is to take over the family business, running the shop himself.

Adam, Chyane, Ava, and Quenten have each expressed their thanks and appreciation to the Pardall Family for the opportunity they have been given to reach their fullest potentials through continuing their educations and becoming contributors in their communities.

Quenten Tweedy

Adam Boeck

Chyane Davidson

Ava Peitz

The foundation of the Central Lee School District is to educate independent thinkers to value themselves and others. This mission has had its challenges during the last two years, because the number of students who face challenges with stress and anxiety is increasing.

Central Lee High School Freshman Aubrey Weber saw her fellow students struggling and through the International Future Problem Solving Competition, created an idea for a sensory space where students could go for relief.

Students can feel overwhelmed by the increased work and behavior expectations and the increased pressure to meet new learning standards. When learning and social demands on developing students are too high, this can lead to behavior outbursts and struggles with learning beyond what students would already face. Sensory breaks are a researched based intervention for students who feel overwhelmed during the course of the day.

The Central Lee Sensory Project involves removing walls in rooms that are currently used for storage and were originally built for individual band lessons. The project will increase the access students have to sensory break materials by creating a sensory room and check-out stations at the Central Lee Elementary School. One sensory room will be a calming and relaxing space for students, and the other will be more of a hands-on room with more tactile materials. Having two different rooms is beneficial because of various students' needs. In addition, there will also be more sensory stations in academic hallways so that students can have easier access to smaller sensory items to keep them focused in class. Around 20-30 kids with special needs will be using the sensory rooms, and nearly 500 kids utilizing the sensory stations.

2021 Recipient: Megan Cook

2022 Recipient: Jordan Sisk

2022 Recipient: Tory Weber

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION OPENS OCTOBER 1, 2022 The Peggy Dickey Memorial Scholarship was established for graduating seniors from any Keokuk, Iowa High School or home-schooled equivalent student. The student must be a resident of Keokuk, Iowa.

Students must also be in the Top 25% of their graduating class at their Keokuk High School or display high academic achievement in their home-schooled program to qualify for the Peggy Dickey Memorial Scholarship. Successful applicants should also demonstrate a financial need for this scholarship.

A Peggy Dickey Memorial Scholarship recipient (s) must attend or be enrolled in an Iowa college or university upon high school graduation or completion of home-schooled equivalent. Each scholarship could be worth up to $2,500.00. Multiple scholarships may also be awarded.

Deadline for scholarship applications is December 31, 2022.

KPLAY Playgrounds for All was founded with the purpose of bringing handicap-accessible play equipment to public playgrounds in the Keokuk, Iowa, community. Prior to the June 2015 opening of Bentley's Playground in Tolmie Park on Plank Road in Keokuk, there were no accessible playgrounds available in the Tri-State area surrounding Keokuk. Families with children needing adaptive equipment were required to drive 1-1/2 hours to Iowa City, or even 3 hours to St. Louis, MO, to use a playground.

After building successful playgrounds in Tolmie Park in 2015 and 2016, a new goal to build a Splash Pad Park was set. This splash pad will contain fun and colorful objects that will squirt water and allow children in wheelchairs to play with other children. After a successful $150,000.00 fundraising campaign, Bentley’s Splash Pad opened August 27, 2022.

Showing support for Bentley’s Playground, The Lee County Charitable Fund awarded KPLAY an IMPACT $25,000.00 grant to finish the Splash Pad landscaping and build a restroom for children and adults. The restroom project will be ongoing, but KPLAY is focused to complete their vision of bringing children with all kinds of disabilities the ability to play together with their peers and teach everyone that we are all different.

2021 LCYS Grant Recipient Great River Players

2021 LCYS Grant Recipient Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois

2021 LCYS Grant Recipient Hoerner YMCA

GRANT APPLICATION DEADLINE OCTOBER 3, 2022 Lee County Youth Services, Inc., is pleased to announce the twelfth year of its organizational service grants for Fall of 2022. Nonprofit organizations who serve the youth of Lee County Iowa are invited to submit applications for grants of up to $5,000.00. Requirements for funding approval include that the applicant be a tax exempt 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization; in which services are to be delivered to individuals under the age of 19 living in Lee County Iowa.

If the applicant is awarded a grant they will have to provide status reports on the use of the funds from the grant. Priority funding will be given to programs and/or services which help address social, economic, and educational issues of youth ages 6-19. Grants will be awarded in the Fall of 2022.

The deadline for 2022 LCYS Grant Applications is October 1, 2022.

2021 Keokuk Area Community Foundation Grant Recipient Montrose Riverfront, Inc.

GRANT APPLICATION DEADLINE SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 The Keokuk Area Community Foundation primary geographic focus for support encompasses Hancock County Illinois, Clark County Missouri, and Lee County Iowa.

Successful grant applications typically address problems to be solved or opportunities to be seized in Tri-State Area. Grant application requests are considered in the fields of arts and culture, community betterment, education, health, and human services.

Keokuk Area Community Foundation Grants are not awarded in the following areas: annual fund raising, organizational endowment funds, deficit financing, or for sectarian purposes. Grants are not made out to individuals.

Keokuk Area Community Foundation Grant Application opens on June 6, 2022. All 2022 Keokuk Area Community Foundation Grant Applications and accompanying materials are due on or before September 7, 2022. All 2022 Keokuk Area Community Foundation Grant Recipients will initially be notified this November.

2021 North Lee Community Foundation Grant Recipient Elliott Test Kitchen Foundation

GRANT APPLICATION DEADLINE NOVEMBER 11, 2022 North Lee Community Foundation makes grants to only North Lee County 501 (c) (3) organizations from Fort Madison, West Point, Houghton, St. Paul, Denmark or other North Lee County communities. Grant application requests are considered in the fields of arts and culture, community betterment, education, religion, health, and human services.

North Lee Community Foundation grants are not awarded in the following areas: annual fund raising, organizational endowment funds, deficit financing, or for sectarian purposes. Grants are not made out to individuals.

North Lee Community Foundation Grant Application opened on August 11, 2022. All 2022 North Lee Community Foundation Grant Applications and accompanying materials are due on or before November 11, 2022. All 2022 North Lee Community Foundation Grant Recipients will initially be notified this November.