The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
CENTRE RECEIVES GRANT
Organization one of only 8 in state to secure maximum award amount of $20K Funds will go toward restoring windows at facility
“We work hard to make a difference in the community and are so honored that the review board chose Shore for this award.” — Laura Kidder, executive director of Shore Cultural Centre
Euclid’s Shore Cultural Centre will soon be getting a makeover.
The school was recently awarded a “History Fund” grant in the amount of $20,000 from the Columbus-based Ohio History Connection, formerly the Ohio Historical Society.
According to officials, the gift will assist with the “Shore Cultural Centre Window Restoration Project,” which was informed by a pilot program in 2018 that successfully repaired five windows. It extends that work to 16 windows and will advance long-term efforts to repair the former high school’s 384 windows. Shore was the only organization out of the eight 2020 grantees to receive the maximum award amount of $20,000,
representing 23 percent of the Ohio History Connection’s $85,900 in awards. This current grant cycle attracted 41 submissions with requests totaling over $568,000.
Since 2013, the Ohio History Fund has awarded 81 grants in 41 counties totaling $780,000. Over this same time period, 388 grant proposals from 66 counties were received, with requests totaling $4.7 million.
Specifically, the grant will enable Shore to restore two sets of five 4-foot-by8-foot double-hung, wood sash windows and five 4-foot-by-5-foot doublehung wood sash windows, in addition to a single fourover-four fixed sash window located above the original
building’s front entrance.
An anonymous gift of $10,000 has also been received to assist with this portion of the building’s window restoration work, Shore administrators said.
The board will soon be making an additional window restoration announcement and launching a public appeal campaign to tackle the building’s remaining window restoration and replacement needs.
The Ohio History Connection grant awards were announced as the grant program is funded through voluntary “tax check-offs” on personal state income tax forms. Grants from the Ohio History Fund are made possible from voluntary donations of state income tax refunds, sales of Ohio History “mastodon” license plates, and other donations.
Laura Kidder, executive director of Shore, which
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, noted this year was the second time the school has applied for the History Fund grant.
“Last year, we missed getting it by very little, like four points,” Kidder said. “They rate the need of all the applicants to how much funds they have. Being on a mission and being determined pays off. We work hard to make a difference in the community and are so honored that the review board chose Shore for this award.
“Due to the number of worthy projects which were not funded this year, as well as our intention to pursue additional support in the future, we respectfully ask that the community considers both donating to the Ohio History Fund through state income tax refunds and by purchasing an Ohio mastodon license plate.”