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Spring is a time of growth, a time when the whole world is planting and planning, blossoming and building to propagate or pay-it-forward. Just as nature reproduces itself, organizations — associations, foundations and councils — do the same by raising and distributing funds to help seedling initiatives go from dreams to community-serving realities.

Grant cycles often operate like the seasons of nature and a few organizations, having just finished spring grant cycles, announced awards which will have great impact on local communities.

One, the Alabama Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils (RC&D), recently awarded a grant to Greenville High School for its Pathways to Success program. The funding enables the program to enhance freshmen’s soft skills and ultimately their success after high school.

Another organization, the Black Belt Community Foundation, granted awards to six organizations helping residents of Lowndes County. One grant, awarded to the Hayneville/Lowndes County Public Library, will serve to undergird efforts which are already improving literacy rates for area children by ensuring the implementation of the facilities summer reading program.

In April, the town of Rutledge announced $350,000 in improvements made possible by the award of a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). The much-anticipated demolition of dilapidated houses the grant is funding embodies CDVG values of community development and help the small-town just north of Luverne maintain the vibrance residents enjoy and expect.

Community leaders do well to seek out grant funding to make the impossible more than possible, but in fact a reality. And, local people helping to raise the dollars needed to supply the grants are giving back to the community, reproducing their success in the lives of others.

Theirs are the kind of efforts which lead to real and lasting progress.