Community grant creates lasting impact

BONNERS FERRY — Three years have passed since Bonners Ferry began a collaborative effort with city administration, local stakeholders and Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health, with Bonners Ferry receiving a grant to help with projects and programs to enable children to eat healthy foods and remain active.

This effort was the result of a High Five Community Transformation Grant that the city of Bonners Ferry received from the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health.

In 2013, the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health launched its High Five Initiative, a community collaborative grant program.

According to the Community Transformation Grant press release, “It’s a community collaborative that combines the knowledge and resources of city leaders, schools, businesses, and other partners all to achieve one goal: increase access to healthy foods and physical activity.”

The city of Bonners Ferry received $250,000 in grant funding from the High Five initiative and leveraged nearly $210,000 in outside funding that contributed to the completion of projects large and small.

The team of community leaders collaborated to choose how the funding would be used.

“We watched dynamic partnerships form in Bonners Ferry with the goal of creating sustainable change,” said Kendra Witt-Doyle, executive director, Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health. “These partnerships and relationships created will live on long after the grant ended. This grant is about so much more than the physical projects.”

According to research conducted by Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health, one in three Idaho children is overweight or obese; the problem stems from many factors but some are due to a lack of infrastructure and funding for walkable streets, playground equipment or exercise programs.

Just a few of the projects funded by the collaborative grant include the refurbishment of the municipal pool, skating rink on the fairgrounds, walking paths behind the Bonners Ferry High School and free gardens throughout the city, allowing residents to pick fresh fruits and vegetables.

“The city was so excited to see how much we could leverage community with this project,” said Lisa Ailport, city administrator. “From labor to money we saw a community come together for the betterment of our children and our community. The fact that we were able to do as many projects across the county shows our commitment as a city to the community as a whole.”