The Golden LEAF Foundation stopped funding equestrian parks this year, at least temporarily, but instead it found several other tourism-related projects in North Carolina worthy of support in its annual round of grants.
The nonprofit Long-term Economic Advancement Foundation, established by the General Assembly and Gov. Mike Easley to manage and distribute half of the state’s share of the national tobacco settlement, has distributed more than $105 million in grants since 2001. This year, for its annual grant cycle in which it awards funds every November to applicants from nonprofit agencies and government institutions, Golden LEAF gave $8.5 million for 64 projects. The organization was formed for the purpose of assisting economic development in “tobacco-dependent” communities.
The foundation’s board determined that more than $1.5 million of this year’s grants should assist community plans to develop local tourist attractions throughout the state. Many are identified as heritage-, agriculture-, or environmental-related tourism projects. Among them are a $25,000 grant for the Black Heritage Society in Kinston “to conduct research and participate in heritage tourism planning” in Lenoir County; $100,000 to the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe for pre-development of “Turtle Island Native America U.S.A.,” a native American theme park to be located off Interstate 95 in Halifax County; $125,000 for HandMade in America in Asheville to help “expand their agri-tourism program and to build on the development of specialty farms as tourism sites;” and $145,000 to the state Department of Cultural Resources to explore and salvage artifacts from the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck.
Golden LEAF also funded several off-the-beaten-path tourism projects, including $135,000 to aid Jackson County in “the transformation of the closed…landfill into a regional center for the growth of the arts and crafts community, the local agriculture and native botanical industry, and heritage tourism based on the region’s long history of craft excellence.” The board also awarded $380,000 to an Alleghany County nonprofit for the Sparta (NC) Museum, which would “house the ‘world-class’ Kamm Collection of more than 10,000 antique, artist-made and production teapots.”
The Town of Scotland Neck benefits from two grants: $50,000 for the North Carolina Zoo to “create an educational and recreational conservation program” at the Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Center, and $25,000 directly to the town “to develop and market agri/eco-based tourism…in southern Halifax County.” Golden LEAF gave Scotland Neck $50,000 in each of the previous two years for the same purpose.
The CSS Neuse II project, a rebuilding of the full-scale replica of a Civil War Ironclad ship in Kinston, received a second consecutive year of funding as well ($65,000).
Previous equestrian-related tourism projects failed to receive funding this year. The Carolina Horse Park in Hoke County received $300,000 from Golden LEAF over the last three years, and last year the foundation awarded $150,000 to the Town of Waco for the Piedmont Equestrian Park and Conference Center, in Gaston County.
Other non-tourism items included repeat grants for educational projects and scholarships. Greene County schools will receive $200,000 for the second year in a row to purchase “state-of-the-art” laptop computers for every middle and high school student and teacher in the system. Also, Golden LEAF continued its annual practice of providing scholarships to the North Carolina Community College System ($300,000) and the UNC system ($825,000) for students with minimal financial resources. Many grants were awarded also for job retraining projects throughout the state.
Thousands of dollars were also given for the development of new agricultural goods and to study alternative uses for traditional farm products. A list of this year’s awards are on Golden LEAF’s website.
Paul Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal. Contact him at [email protected]>/I>.