The Greenbelt Community Foundation (GCF) announces that three local organizations have been awarded grants in its latest funding cycle. The Greenbelt Archive Project, the Friends of the New Deal Café (FONDCA) and the Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival have all received grants ranging from $1,500 to $5,000 in support of projects that contribute in some way to the community at large.
The Greenbelt Archive Project will use its $5,000 to continue its efforts to digitize 60 years of the Greenbelt News Review and its predecessor, the Greenbelt Cooperator. There are currently an estimated 25,000 pages of Greenbelt history generated between 1943 and 2002 that are starting to crumble away. The papers will be scanned and digitally managed in order to preserve these weekly stories of Greenbelt history. Papers published prior to 1943 were recently digitized by University of Maryland Libraries and are available on the Chronicling America website (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89061521/).
The Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival will receive $2,350 to expand this year’s festival to two additional locations in the city. The original Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival was centered in Old Greenbelt, with pumpkin carving in Roosevelt Center and a walk to explore the Greenbelt Forest Preserve, but this often limited the reach of the festival. Because organizers want to include more of the community in 2018, the festival’s 30th year, pumpkin carving activities and a woods walk will also be held in both Schrom Hills Park and Greenbelt West. These two new locations will expand the festival for those unable to get to Roosevelt Center and “… guarantee that every
Greenbelt resident can enjoy and understand the importance of the woods that make up Greenbelt.”
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