Friends of Stringers Ridge June 2014

Recipient: Jim Johnson

Stringer’s Ridge is a new 92 acre urban park located in Hill City on the Northshore.  If you haven’t been, check it out!  Friends of Stringer’s Ridge is a grassroots organization formed to promote this fantastic opportunity for Chattanoogans to enjoy the outdoors in an urban setting.  Please view their fundraising campaign on Causeway.  Their lastest cool idea was to host a symphony event on the peak of Stringer’s Ridge.  WE FUND COOL IDEAS, and obviously had to jump on this one!  On a crisp fall day, we sponsored a brass quintet to perform on that hilltop and had a great experience.  Can’t say we’ve ever been to a symphony on a hilltop before.  But we did, and it was awesome.  Look for this event next year, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Camp Horizon Zip Line Adventure May 2014

Recipient: Steven Sharpe

Fun stuff should be for all kids, right? We think so. That’s why we granted to Camp Horizon. The purpose of Camp Horizon is to allow kids with physical disabilities the opportunity to broaden their horizons by spending time with other kids in similar situations in the outdoor environment. Broaden horizons wanted to be expanded upon by Steven Sharpe, husband of camp founder Lindsey, to include a zip line. Camp Horizon is held every August at Camp Lookout and through Peyton Manning's Peyback Foundation built the zip line and wheelchair accessible platforms. We funded the necessary hardware and safety equipment so kids in wheelchairs could use it too. And this is the only wheelchair accessible zip line east of the rockies, folks. Wow!

McCallie Murals April 2014

Recipient: Kevin Bate

Kevin Bate is no stranger to the UNFoundation - his MLK on MLK is one of the coolest and most visible UNFoundation grants to date.  We were super excited to participate in his most recent project - the McCallie Murals. Kevin has engaged Orchard Knob Elementary School, the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy, the Highland Park Neighborhood Association, Barger Academy of Fine Arts and the community at large to create a ‘drive-through’ mural experience for the community. Kevin is depicting 4 strong female characters that serve to inspire the community and anyone passing through.

Power Lunch March 2014

Recipient:  Emma Williams

Emma Williams defines the catchy phrase “Just Do It.”  Power Lunch was launched by Emma with a simple vision: to help girls who may not otherwise be exposed to a diversity of career choices plan for bright, ambitious futures by connecting them with successful professional women in our local community.  We love to see an individual go into the community and start making things happen, so when Emma submitted her appy for Power Lunch, we saw a great program making a real difference in the lives of young Chattanoogans and wanted to get involved.  If you’d like to volunteer to speak at a lunch and explain your chosen career path to an enthusiastic group of young women, let us know and we’ll connect you with Emma.

Picnooga February 2014

Recipient: David Moon

Chattanooga just turned 175 years old. Sometimes the future must rely on the past to ebb and flow into its best city self. Enter Picnooga. Picnooga is a digital historic image resource for Chattanooga. Think of it like a digital image library or Wikipedia for Chattanooga, by Chattanoogans. Digital crowdsourcing, if you will. Our grant helped David Moon fund a bunch of needs to propel the digital past movement. We funded research materials like vintage city directories, data storage, website programming, and video/photography project contrasting old and new images of #CHA. Check it out!

Chattanooga Film Festival January 2014

Recipient: Chris Dortch | Chattanooga Film Festival 

Chris Dortch is another example of a repeat grantee who continues to do amazing work in the community.  His most ambitious project to date, CFF, has huge potential to be a flagship event for the Chattanooga community.  For its inaugural year, UNFoundation sponsored the awards ceremony to the tune of $1500.  The grand prize winning feature film took home $1000, while the best short took home $500.  UNF’er Bijan Dhanani was on hand to present the (giant) checks and the festival as a whole was a huge success.

PowerIT Up: Graphic Design Accelerator for CGLA

Anjali Chandra is a junior at Girls Preparatory School and had an idea. She wanted to teach girls graphic design/computer software skills in order to facilitate entrepreneurship and help them better make their initial step into the business world. PowerIt Up aims to target the scarcity of females in STEM fields and the disparity between school system education and applicability in the real world. The program integrates STEM skills into the girls’ education and also allows the girls to utilize their skills to earn a wage.

How she did it? Graphic Design Professionals and College students majoring in Design taught 9th, 10th and 11th graders at Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy basic skills on Adobe In Design (we funded this software to be clear). After instructional sessions, the girls were connected with local companies as independent contractors, and received a publication project which they will work on for the company. After they complete their design, they will submit it to the corporation and every time it is used, the girl will receive a stipend. Education and exposure creating a wow factor. Wow.

Physical Activity Module October 2013

Recipient: Orange Grove

PAM (Physical Activity Module) is a project developed by The Orange Grove Center, a Chattanooga based non-profit serving children and adults with developmental disabilities, to help increase physical activity amongst their constituents. PAM is a portable media center equipped to bring fun and educational content directly to participants while they are in the gymnasium or aquatic center.  Delivering content in an environment where physical activity can take place, versus a classroom, is the best way to inspire fun and fitness amongst both children and adults.