To the editor:

The Brown County Community Foundation (BCCF) is pleased to announce that they have been awarded a $16,352 grant from the governors of the Smithville Charitable Foundation. This grant will fund the purchase of new modular furniture for the Hughes Community Room and allow for more efficient and flexible use of the community space.

The Hughes Community Room hosted over 200 meetings or events in 2017. This community space was a gift from the estate of Howard F. Hughes, is managed and maintained by the BCCF, and nonprofit and charitable groups are welcome to schedule the use of the room at no charge. Contact the BCCF for more information at 812-988-4882.

The Smithville Charitable Foundation has been supporting charitable activities in 17 counties in central and southern Indiana since 2008. Brown County Community Foundation nonprofits have benefited from grants every one of those years.

The BCCF has been awarded grants totaling $392,349 that have supported the Brown County Career Resource Center, Prompt Care, the Brown County Playhouse, the Brown County Literacy Coalition, the Brown County YMCA, Brown County Schools and the BCCF.

Smithville Charitable Foundation’s 2017 grant will fund one full year of pre-K scholarships at Brown County Schools in the 2018-19 school year.

We believe our success is anchored in the permanent positive impact we will leave behind. Our success would not be possible without the generosity of local donors and partners like the Smithville Charitable Foundation.

We thank the governors of the Smithville Charitable Foundation and invite the public to attend one of the many community conversations hosted by a local nonprofit that happen almost every day in the Howard Hughes Community Room.

Larry Pejeau, CEO, Brown County Community Foundation

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