Each of the four organizations submitted a video explaining its proposed initiative and how the grant would help further their efforts to improve green spaces.
The public will have until November 21 to vote on Facebook.
The organization earning the most votes will receive a $7,000 first-place grant; the second-place organization will be awarded a $4,000 grant; and the remaining two organizations will each be given $2,000 grants.
Winners will be announced November 26.
The goal of Toro’s grant program is to help support green initiatives that improve the quality of communities across the country by:
- Restoring healthy green spaces (replacing asphalt or other hardscaping with grass, plants, and other natural materials).
- Revitalizing and maintaining parks, school grounds, or other green spaces.
- Enhancing neighborhoods (planting trees, grass, shrubs, and plants).
- Educating children about the value and benefits of green spaces.
The four finalists are:
- Wonder Workshop: The Wonder Workshop Children’s Museum in Manhattan, Kansas is working to create a new outdoor garden space that is healthy and green. The program’s goal is to teach kids how to grow healthy foods, and give them a safe and fun place to play outdoors.
- Unity Charter School: The school, located in Morristown, New Jersey, recently relocated to a larger building that happens to sit in a semi-industrial area with a lack of green space. With funds raised by the parents in the community, they created a playground and small turf field. They would like to transform an additional area to serve as an outdoor classroom for students.
- Growing Solutions: The Julie+Michael Tracy Foundation and Growing Solutions Farm, located in Chicago, Illinois, took a barren 1.5-acre city plot and are converting it into a vocational therapeutic garden to help young adults with autism learn life and career skills.
- Irmo Arbor Day Commission: The IADC is raising funds to complete major beautification projects at local schools and in other areas around the town of Irmo, South Carolina. In addition to creating green areas for kids, funds raised by the organization have helped beautify a new veteran’s park and facilitated the planting of crepe myrtles along the railroad tracks that run through the town.
