Island Features

April 28, 2009

How Ocracoke benefits from the
Outer Banks Community Foundation

By SUNDAE HORN

Since 1992, the Outer Banks Community Foundation has awarded 15 grants to Ocracoke non-profits, putting over $50,000 into the community.

The first one paid for the playground at Ocracoke School. The most recent grant was to Ocracoke Youth Center for start-up costs for its fundraising shop, Village Thrift. Other grant recipients have been Ocracoke Child Care, Ocracoke Preservation Society, and Ocracoke Friends of the Library. OBCF recently provided start-up funds for the WOVV radio station project through donations to the Ocracoke Foundation.

Founded in 1982 by David Stick and Andy Griffith, the mission of OBCF is to give back to the community. The foundation has grown from an initial endowment of a few thousand dollars to nearly $10 million. OBCF manages several different funds and awards grants and scholarships at its quarterly board meetings. A handful of former board members are Ocracoke residents, and some current board members own property on the island. About 30 Ocracoke businesses and residents currently belong to OBCF. The organization’s reach has always included Ocracoke in its coverage area, but until recent years, Ocracoke hasn’t received many grants.

OBCF board member and part-time Ocracoke resident Greg Honeycutt would like to see Ocracokers get even more involved with the foundation.

“Most of the income and endowments for the foundation come from Dare County sources,” he said. “So the OBCF board was excited to see new memberships coming in from Ocracoke. There’s always a need for memberships and donations.”

Foundation Executive Director Barbara Bingham credits Honeycutt with getting Ocracoke more connected to the foundation.

“There were just a handful of individuals from Ocracoke who were members, and now there are many more, all because of Greg’s influence,” she said. “He did a wonderful job making contacts for us down there. He really believes in what OBCF is doing and he encourages people to join in.”

Honeycutt has been on the foundation board for four years. With his wife, Eden, he has established a college scholarship fund open to all Outer Banks students.

“The foundation gives a lot of scholarships,” Honeycutt said. “This year the board decided to designate up to $10,000 for the College of the Albemarle Manteo campus for students dedicated to the trades. The trades could be culinary, electric, construction, cosmetology… If these funds get used this year, next year there’ll be more money available, and we could even spread it out among other trade schools.”

Bingham explained the technical and trade school scholarship is available for kids graduating from high school, but it can also be used by adults who want to learn a new trade or skill.

“The scholarship is part of the Milton A. Jewell fund and can cover just about anything at COA – notary classes, boat building, marine technologies – anything,” she said. “We look at applications based on financial need and the reasons students want to take classes. COA doesn’t have any non-academic scholarships, and there’s no state or federal aid they can offer for trade programs, so the foundation designated this fund. In this economy, we think there’s going to be a need for it – if people lose their jobs, they can train for a new one.”

Bingham hopes the trade and technical scholarships funds will get used. The money’s available now and applications go through COA.

Honeycutt also hopes other donors will establish scholarship funds.

“That’s another area where somebody could step up and open a fund for Ocracoke students,” he said. “It’s a great way to manage a fund – the foundation will work with you to set it up.”

OBCF hosts one or two get-togethers each year for staff and board members of charitable organizations.

“These workshops are an opportunity for non-profits to meet each other and to do some networking,” Honeycutt said. “Ocracoke has some very organized non-profits that are making a huge difference in the community – at these meetings they can find out ways to work with other organizations.”

“This is the most fulfilling board I’ve ever sat on,” he added. “We’ve done so much good.”

To join OBCF, all you have to do it make a donation. The amount isn’t specified, and although the suggested individual donation is $75, everyone who gives anything receives all the benefits of membership – the newsletter and annual report.

“The Foundation was set up as a membership organization to give members ownership in the foundation,” said Bingham. “People feel a part of it. It’s not just donating to a charity and letting it decide how to spend the money.”

“If donors don’t specify which fund they want to support, then the money goes into the Community Fund and can be used for any of our grants to help the community,” she said. “Most of the Ocracoke grants came from the general Community Fund, but people can also donate to the Ocracoke Child Care Endowment and the Ocracoke Preservation Society Fund.”

Each year OBCF holds its annual meeting in March and invites all of the non-profits that they’ve given grants to in the previous year. Following a short business meeting and election of officers, the day’s program is devoted to recognizing grant recipients.

“This year we selected four representatives of grant recipients and asked them to give presentations,” Bingham said. “Robert Raborn from Ocracoke’s radio station project was one of our guest speakers.”

Ocracoke has its own fund, appropriately named the Ocracoke Fund, established in 2008 by Betty Shotten. Donations to OBCF can now be designated to the Ocracoke Fund, and all the money will be spent on the island.

“When we get grant applications for projects on Ocracoke, we’ll look to that fund first to see what’s available,” said Bingham.

Shotten was looking for a way to contribute to the island and inspire others to preserve Ocracoke’s environment. The money in the Ocracoke Fund will go to Ocracoke organizations that are working toward sustainability. Shotten hopes the available money will encourage local people to get involved and come up with some projects that protect the island’s ecology.

“Ocracoke is very precious in terms of the small community and the fragility of the environment,” Shotten said. “Trash, water, traffic, litter – we have finite resources and finite space, and we need to be resourceful about preserving it.”

Shotten decided to start a fund with OBCF after discussing her options with Greg Honeycutt.

“The Foundation is a good vehicle for this,” she said. “It’s organized and has structure, and I know it’s responsible. I know they’ll make that money available.”

Although she’s hoping someone will start a campaign to get rid of plastic bags on the island and/or to keep our beaches cleaner, Shotten was thrilled with Village Thrift.

“I wasn’t sure what ideas people would have, and when Paula Schramel told me she was thinking about a thrift store, I thought, ‘How perfect could it be?’ It’s recycling. It’s helping people get things they need right on the island,” she said.

For more information about joining the Outer Banks Community Foundation, please visit their website at http://www.obcf.org.