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The Other March—and April—Madness


Jocelyn Moya
ENF Programs Assistant 

Around this time last year, I was just moving up to the CIP office and everything was a chaotic blur. The phones were ringing non-stop, emails were coming in quicker than we could respond to them, and everyone was trying to get back in compliance before the Beacon Grant deadline. And, this was from my second hand perspective as I was not handling the Beacon Grants yet and was taking care of Gratitude Grants. I thought surely I was in for quite an interesting March—and it was but, I drastically overestimated that amount of mayhem that occurred in the CIP office this year.

This year we were able to top the Beacon Grant record—and hopefully by the end of it we’ll be closer to 1,000 Beacon Grants approved than ever before. There was definitely a lot of work to be done but there seemed to be less of a rush and everything was much more calm, cool and collected. I guess it all comes down to perspective—last year I had only been at the ENF for a few months before it started getting busy. Now I’ve been here for over a year, I have experienced three grant deadlines, the start of a new grant year, the awarding of all 500 Promise Grants, and the Final Report Form deadline. It’s exciting to see how much I’ve grown in my role with the help of my fellow CIPsters, but it’s even more exciting to see how much the Beacon Grants have grown through the years with help from a great group of volunteers! So, how about next year we shoot for 1,000? If we continue to work together, I think it’ll be a slam dunk!

 Take a look at the infographic below to see how far Beacon Grants have come and how your Lodge can help them grow even greater.

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