Marshfield Senior Center receives $2,300 Coover Regional grant

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks and the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation presented a $2,300 grant to the Marshfield Senior Center. The grant will be used to improve the lower level of the center with new lighting and improved storage.

 “We built a new building and we just moved into it five years ago this month. It's two levels: The upper level we completely finished with our dining room and kitchen. We weren't sure what we were going to be doing with the lower level,” says Chris Parker with the Marshfield Senior Center. “We can use it now for a lot of classroom space and we have exercise equipment, but we needed to improve the lighting.” Parker also notes that the grant funding will be used to enhance storage as well as the center.

 The grant, one of 18 awarded for the Coover Regional Senior Center Support Grant Program that totaled $261,777, was presented during an April 19 ceremony at Commerce Trust Company in Springfield. The CFO administers grantmaking for the Coover Charitable Foundation, which is managed by Commerce Trust Company.

 This year, the annual Coover Regional grant program focused on proposals to improve senior centers after the COVID-19 pandemic led many to close for significant periods of time or drastically shift their services. That left the centers with deferred maintenance and ongoing changes to the way they provide services and respond to needs.

 “Grantmaking from the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation is intentionally flexible to meet the emerging needs of our region,” said Jill Reynolds, senior vice president at Commerce Trust Company. “By serving as a social hub and offering nutritious meals, senior centers play such an important role in rural communities. We’re so glad to help these centers better serve the people who depend on them.”

 Julia Dorothy Coover, a 30-year Commerce employee, founded the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in 1992 to honor her husband’s memory. Since then, the Coover Charitable Foundation has awarded more than $7 million in grants to nonprofit agencies and rural schools across the Ozarks.

 Founded in 1973, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks is the region’s largest public charitable foundation serving a network of donors, 53 regional affiliate foundations — including the Marshfield Area Community Foundation – and nonprofit partners across central and southern Missouri through with assets of $394 million as of June 30.