Grants ranging from $250 to $1,500 were given to deserving applicants for their positive impact on the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood this past Thursday, May 10, 2007, at the Meridian-Kessler all neighborhood meeting. St. Richards School, Girls, Inc. of Indianapolis, and the Dirty Dozen Hunting and Fishing Foundation were among twenty recipients.

Grant monies will be used to buy equipment, help with program and participant costs, and will help start new projects for the area. For example, The Neighborhood Youth Brigade received a grant that will be used to implement a "Roving Listener" project in the Meridian-Kessler area much like the one use during the development of Fall Creek Place. The Catholic Charities' Adult Day Services will use their grant money to help provide transportation for attendees.

Parkview Co-op Preschool, School 84 and School 70 and Phillips Temple were among the educational institutions that, together, received several thousand dollars in grants. Phillips Temple, for it's ISTEP preparatory academy, received a grant to help with materials and funding for the practice tests. Retired teachers help tutor high school students for five Saturdays prior to the ISTEP testing. The Lily Center Day Nursery will use their grant for a new security system. And, the Inner City Music School will now be able to purchase new instruments and help pay their instructors, who teach music to area kids as an after-school program. A couple of the students from ICMS were present to accept the grant, and to give testimony to how their hard work has paid off, and to just how many instruments they've learned: from saxophone, to flute, to piano, to trumpet, and everything in between!

The complete listing of grant recipients you ask? St. Richards School - Growing Life-long Leaders, the Dirty Dozen Hunting & Fishing Foundation, Coburn Place Safe Haven summer camp, Girls, Inc. of Indianapolis, Womack Outreach Community Program, St. Paul's Episcopal Choir, Northwood Christian Church food pantry, Parkview Co-op Preschool, Catholic Charities - "A Caring Place" adult day services, National Junior Tennis League, Neighborhood Youth Brigade - Roving Listener project, Lily Center Day Nursery, School 84 & School 70, Phillips Temple, St. Joan of Arc youth outreach, Inner City Music School, Immaculate Heart, Kaleidoscope, MidNorth Public Safety Committee.

To comment or get more information on the grant recipients or the Meridian-Kessler Neighborhood Association and its meetings, visit their website at www.mkna.org, or phone at 317.283.1021.