Iowa Dollars for Scholars News

Iowa Dollars for Scholars Receives $10,000 Community Betterment Grant from Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino

Iowa Dollars for Scholars is delighted to announce that we've received a $10,000 grant from Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino through its 2009 Community Betterment Grant Program.

These grant funds will help us to provide valuable services to our central Iowa chapters so they can build capacity and organizational effectiveness. Funds also will help us to create new chapters and work with our Collegiate Partners in helping students to access higher education.

"We are extremely pleased to have received this funding from Prairie Meadows this year," said Judi Pierick, Executive Director. "The impact of this donation from Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino will be significant and will go a long way toward helping carry out the mission of our organization. We especially appreciate Prairie Meadows' supporting our organization during these difficult financial times when students are faced with rising costs of higher education and decreased governmental funding."

The Prairie Meadows Grants Advisory Committee, comprised of community, business and education leaders from the greater Des Moines area, review all grant requests and recommend funding levels. Recommendations are then presented to the Prairie Meadows Board of Directors for review and approval. Prairie Meadows Community Betterment Grants are given to projects in one of four categories: Arts & Culture, Economic Development, Education, and Human Services.

Members of the Prairie Meadows Grants Advisory Committee include: Dr. Mary Chapman, Dr. Jerry Deegan, Dr. Thomas Glenn, Linda Grandquist, Chaunci Hall, Mike Mathews, Dr. Andy McGuire, Ron Morden, Sunnie Richer, Loretta Sieman, Brad Skinner, John P. Smith, Ginny Strong, Don Timmins, Jodi Urich, Karrie Weinhardt, Martha Willits, and Tom Whitney.

Prairie Meadows recently achieved a milestone in giving more than $1 billion through taxes, grants and charitable donations to the State of Iowa. More than $435 million of that figure has remained right here in our community to promote education, economic development, agriculture, jobs and tourism. Prairie Meadows stands alone in its charitable giving by returning 43% of its revenues back to the community, and continues to work towards improving the quality of life for every Iowan, every day.

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