As students head back to the classroom for the school year, our Community Foundation is pleased to announce a total of $877,500 in scholarships have been awarded to 182 students from the high school graduating class of 2025.

We are fortunate to have almost 40 donors who have established scholarship funds to support opportunities for higher education for local students. Whether it’s enhancing classroom learning, supporting extracurricular activities, or providing financial aid for college or vocational training, we recognize and appreciate our donors who support education across the spectrum and the pathways to opportunity they provide to our young people.

Elizabeth Ballard, recipient of a 2021 Willson Education Scholarship, expresses her heartfelt thanks for the support that has made her education in physics feasible. As she nears graduation from CMU, she reflects on her transformative summer internship at NASA and her aspirations to pursue a master’s degree in medical physics. This scholarship has been instrumental in her journey toward achieving her dreams.

Our staff recently participated in an affordable housing tour sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Western Colorado (HBAWC).

Hosted by Emilee Powell, Executive Director of Housing Resources of Western Colorado, and Kevin Bray, President of the HBAWC, the tour showcased local housing solutions. It also sparked important discussions among community, municipal, and business leaders about innovative ways to meet the ongoing challenges of creating affordable and sustainable housing in our community.

Addressing homelessness and affordable housing has long been a priority of our Community Foundation. We manage many funds dedicated to these efforts, ranging from small-scale support for essentials like water, blankets, and other necessities for homeless individuals to significant capital investments in housing projects organized by western Colorado Habitat for Humanity affiliates and the Village on San Juan in Montrose.

Our Bray Cares Foundation is one such fund that provides resources for housing- related needs in Mesa County and opened for applications on September 15th. Established in 2018 by Bray & Co Real Estate, this fund has distributed nearly $200,000 in grants to date. For more information visit wc-cf.org/explore-funding.

Quarterly Board Meeting Highlights

Reflecting on Community Needs

Last month, our board members traveled to Carbondale and the Third Street Center for our quarterly board meeting. We are a regional foundation serving seven counties, and schedule board meetings across the region we serve. This gives us an opportunity to review and learn about the impact we are making in various counties we serve.

Over the years, our Community Foundation has contributed over $800,000 in grants to Carbondale-based nonprofits. These efforts have resulted in 170 grants awarded to 40 organizations committed to serving the community of Carbondale.

During the meeting, the WCCF board and staff heard about current challenges faced by two Roaring Fork Valley-based organizations: Valley Settlement and Alpine Legal Services. Both organizations are seeing increased needs in their constituents, including immigrant and mixed-status families. For over a decade, Valley Settlement has worked to break down barriers for the Spanish-speaking community through early childhood education and parenting engagement programs. Alpine Legal Services provides essential legal support, referrals, and court representation, with a strong focus on helping victims of domestic violence secure protective and custody orders.

WCCF Board members toured the Third Street Center, a renovated former

elementary school building that provides affordable office space and shared meeting facilities for 26 nonprofit organizations.

As a convener, connector, and collaborator, we take pride in providing technical assistance and resources to local nonprofits and partners working in areas related to our impact work: Outdoor Recreation and Environment, Hunger Relief, and Youth Well-being. These initiatives are supported by generous donor contributions that provide us with flexibility to address a variety of current needs.

Outdoor Recreation & Environment:

Confluence Center Tour

On August 13, our CORE Giving Circle had the opportunity to take a “hard-hat” tour of the new Confluence Center. CORE members, who helped celebrate the groundbreaking earlier this year, were excited to see how quickly the project has come together. The building, which will co-locate six local land and water conservation organizations, opens later this fall. Eureka’s STREAM (science, technology, RIVERS, engineering, art and math) pre-school is set to open in the middle of October with 40 students. 

Learn more about the Confluence Center here. 

Hunger Relief:

September is Hunger Action Month!

Hunger Action Month is a national movement to address food insecurity in our communities. Our Community Foundation is pleased to support the many food banks, churches, and organizations working to alleviate hunger on the Western Slope through our work with the Mesa County Blueprint to End Hunger and beyond. Western Slope Food Bank of the Rockies provides food to partners across the region and is matching all donations made this month by 3x. Food pantries are looking for volunteers to sort and host food drives; they also appreciate donations. During Hunger Action Month, please consider supporting your favorite hunger relief group through a donation of time, talent, or treasure.

Youth Well-being:

WCCF hosts Attorney General

Our Community Foundation was honored to host Attorney General Phil Wieser recently at our Center for Philanthropy.

During the visit, President Anne Wenzel, and staff had a chance to speak with the Attorney General about his commitment and interest in youth mental health and well-being. They also shared details about our leadership work in this area, showcasing initiatives like Heads Up Parenting and Hold the Phone which promote healthy technology use in our communities. This meeting followed WCCF’s attendance at the AG’s Teaming up for Youth Summit, which featured Superintendent Brian Hill’s presentation of District 51’s successful “More Social, Less Media” campaign. 

Tom Parrish, a seasoned educator with a remarkable 46-year career in the education field, joined the Western Colorado Community Foundation Board of Directors in 2024. Tom’s background includes roles as a classroom teacher, building principal, and central administrator, as well as eight years on the Mesa County District 51 Board of Education, serving as Board President four of those years.

Tom brings the same passion for learning and service to his role at WCCF. “I enjoy being a partner in supporting this outstanding philanthropic organization,” he remarked. “The foundation plays a vital role in strengthening our communities, and I am enjoying contributing to its mission.”

Now retired, Tom enjoys spending quality time with his wife, Polly, their children, and five grandchildren. “Retirement has given us the freedom to explore new opportunities together,” he shared. “Polly and I love traveling, hiking, and participating in educational workshops. We also enjoy local music, bridge, and photography.”

With his lifelong commitment to education and youth, Tom brings invaluable perspective to WCCF’s efforts to support young people and expand opportunities for learning. We’re grateful for his leadership and to have him on our Board of Directors. 

September is often thought of as back-to-school season—even though our D51 students have already been back in the classroom for more than a month. At our Community Foundation, the start of the school year is very present in our own lives: some of our staff have little ones preparing to join the inaugural STREAM preschool offered by Eureka at the Confluence Center next month, while others are watching children begin middle school, high school, or college classes. Some of us even have children who have recently finished college or advanced degrees and are now heading out into the “real world.”

Education—whether formal or informal, in classrooms or through extracurricular opportunities, in traditional or alternative settings—is at the mainstay of so many important local institutions.

Here in the Grand Valley, we are fortunate to have Colorado Mesa University (CMU). CMU offers everything from certificate and associate degree programs to advanced degrees, serving a growing student body on an expanding campus. Over the past 17 years, our Community Foundation has awarded more than $3.4 million in scholarships on behalf of 478 high school graduates who chose to continue their education at CMU.

This year, we are pleased to congratulate CMU on its 100th anniversary! The yearlong Century Project kicked off at the start of the semester and highlights all the ways CMU contributes to our region. CMU truly makes Grand Junction a university town—expanding local options for higher education and adult learning, being a major local employer, strengthening our economy, and fostering community pride. CMU students give us plenty of reasons to cheer - from rooting for the Maverick sports teams and athletics to celebrating student teams shining on the international stage—like Limelight Rainforest, the CMU team that earned first place in the prestigious $10 million XPRIZE Rainforest competition at the G20 Social Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

CMU publicizes core values that embrace its educational and leadership role in our community. This year, these values hang on banners across campus and downtown Main Street: Courage, Resilience, Curiosity, Power, Dignity, Humility and Love. A college town we are. These values resonate with many of us, and can shape not only our local university but indeed our whole community.

- Anne Wenzel

The Western Colorado Community Foundation (WCCF) is a nonprofit organization established in 1996 by community leaders. Covering seven counties in western Colorado, our Community foundation works to connect generous donors with causes that align with their philanthropic goals and interests.

With more than 330 charitable funds and over $187 million in assets under our stewardship, we distribute $8.3 million in grants and scholarships annually.