WE BELIEVE that "rules imposed from above or from the outside" rarely offer an optimum solution to economic matters. Indeed, such good intentions often result in alternative and undesirable outcomes that were not intended. In that line, we believe that personal exposure of urban citizens to a rural environment is often the best way for urbanites to learn about rural areas and the rural ethos...and learn to make responsible decisions about it.
WE SUPPORT rural life and a respect for the outdoors. We respect the many private citizens who actually own these rural properties.
WE SUPPORT creative means to appreciate, conserve, and maintain working farmland and professionally-managed timber land.
WE SUPPORT educational endeavors designed to encourage greater understanding of rural living, the ethos of commercial farming and timbering, and the responsible use of natural resources, including hunting and fishing.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In line with that philosophy, the Ballyshannon Fund has made grants to:
Virginia Tech Foundation - $35,000 for a "Welcome To The Country" project. 2007. After surveys, interviews, and research ...we asked our neighbor Frank Levering to write a book for newcomers to our countryside. Frank's new book introduces urbanites to "country culture"... sharing the unwritten rules by which we rural people live. (Take a peek at Chapter One, here.)
Virginia Division of Forestry - $10,800 for the State Forestry Camp, 2007
Virginia Division of Forestry - $7,200 to purchase teaching resource kits, used by our State Foresters' as "Grab and Go" educational tool boxes. 2007
Montpelier Foundation -  $20,000 for a new Forestry/Outdoor Education program and improvements to Montpelier's walking trails (the lovely wildlife meadow seen in full bloom, here) all efforts targeted to urbanites, principally. 2007. The trail was formally opened in April 2010 by Senator John Warmer.
The Wildlife Foundation of Virginia - $5,000 to implement educational infrastructure and programs which will greatly enhance WFV’s ability to welcome school groups, land managers, resource professionals, other area landowners, and the general public in a landscape-based outdoor education setting. 2007
Foundation for Virginia’s Natural Resources - $5,000 to help send more than 40 Central Virginia educators to the National Environmental Education Conference in Virginia Beach. 2007.
Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center, Inc. - $12,000 for scholarship funds for 1200 school children in Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Nelson counties to attend the Natural Resource Education Program at Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center in 2008
Virginia Division of Forestry - $16,850 broken down as: $6,000 for the State Forestry Camp, $1,000 for a Forestry Field Day to give parents of the State Forestry Campers a similar experience; $4,000 for C.A.M.P. (Charlottesville/Albemarle is My Place) - a day camp for youth with field trips focused on working farms, forest, and other local natural resources; $850 for a Forestry and Wildlife Bus Tour; and $5,000 for a Forest Landowners' Retreat; this is a “forestry camp” for adults, focusing on forest resource management. 2008
Virginia Urban Forest Council - $15,000 for the stunningly beautiful “Remarkable Trees of Virginia" book. 2008
Virginia Tech Foundation - $15,000 to finish up the "Welcome To The Country" book project. 2008
Piedmont Virginia Community College - $25,000 for the Ballyshannon Fund Forums. 2008-2009
Virginia Division of Forestry - $12,000 for the State Forestry Camp. 2009
Montpelier Foundation - $5,000 for a forest use and archaeological study of the Landmark Forest. 2009
Virginia Urban Forest Council - $15,000 to print a second edition of “Remarkable Trees of Virginia" book. 2009
Thomas Jefferson Foundation - $2,000 to support the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello in September 2010
Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute. $6,900 for two $2,300 tuitions for VA Dept of Forestry employees and one tuition for a Farm Bureau staffer. VNRLI is a joint educational program of the Virginia Department of Forestry, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Virginia Tech's Cooperative Extension and the University of Virginia's Institute for Environmental Negotiation. 2010.
Virginia Forestry Educational Foundation: $6,000 in support of “Project Learning Tree” 2010
Virginia Division of Forestry: $6,800 for the State Forestry Camp at Holiday Lake State Park 2010
VA COOP Extension Service: $2,000 (for 2010, repeated in 2011): for C-A-M-P “Charlottesville Albemarle is My Place” summer campers locally in Charlottesville & Albemarle area 2010
PVCC Educational Foundation: $2,500 to begin a student vegetable garden and gardening program at PVCC. 2010
World Foundation for Children: $5,000 for Volunteer Farm in Culpeper. Volunteer Farms partners with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank to distribute all the food that is grown on the farm 2010
Local Food Hub: $5,000 to further develop and expand the LFH farmer education programs. 2010
VaDOForestry, VaCOOP Extension, and PEC: $500 for a Landowner Workshop on Forest Management and Conservation at the Baldwin Center for Preservation Development. 2010 |
