FOUNDATION AWARDS $59K IN GRANTS TO 7 PROJECTS

   BOISE — The Ifft Foundation Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation will provide $59,000 in grants to seven projects in Southeast Idaho.
   Recipients are:

   Pocatello Arts Council — $9,000 to complete Phase V (the final phase) of the Pocatello Airport Kizuna Garden by developing a miniature garden, water element, and interpretative kiosk inside the terminal, and install a moon garden.

   National Oregon Trail Center (Montpelier) — $5,000 to finish landscaping the center’s exterior with trees that would be native to the Oregon Trail.

   Oneida County Library (Malad) — $10,000 to beautify and make a safe area in front of the building by replacing cracked sidewalks, planting shrubs and plants and improving the outside lighting.

   Portneuf Greenway Foundation Inc. (Pocatello) — $10,000 to build a bridge on the Roger’s Trail, to purchase accessories for a tractor, and to pave the Simplot Swanson Reach.

   Sagebrush Steppe Regional Land Trust Inc. (Pocatello) — $5,000 to buy interpretive signage and benches for a new recreational access preserve along the Portneuf River.

   Blackfoot Community Center, Inc. — $10,000 to meet the matching requirement for Blackfoot Urban Renewal Agency facade improvement grant funds for beautification improvements to the facilities.

   City of Pocatello — $10,000 to help pay for the concrete work for the new public restrooms at the Grizzly Bear Exhibit.

   Nick Ifft was the publisher of the Idaho State Journal newspaper in Pocatello from 1966 until 1984. He and his wife, Sara Ifft, established a family foundation in 1984 to provide grants to benefit projects in Southeastern Idaho and the greater Pocatello area. The Ifft Foundation was moved to the Idaho Community Foundation in 2001. Nick Ifft died in 2003.
   The Idaho Community Foundation is a statewide public nonprofit organization whose goal is to have a permanent endowment of charitable dollars that will serve Idaho forever. ICF has more than 425 funds and provides grants to every county in Idaho. Nearly $4.5 million was distributed in 2011.