March 19, 2024

Osceola awarded $10K grant for new bike share project

The Community Kickstarter grant was awarded by The Wellmark Foundation, and Clarke County Public Health is spearheading the project.

Recently, Osceola was awarded a $10,000 grant toward its new Clarke Community Bike Share project.

The Wellmark Foundation, a nonprofit organization, awarded 30 Community Kickstarter grants in Iowa totaling $277,654 for initiatives intended to make communities healthier.

The projects chosen, out of 79 submissions, were awarded for their emphasis on providing long-term opportunities to make community members more active and healthy.

“All of these communities and organizations are committed to improving the health and well-being of their citizens,” said Stephanie Perry, The Wellmark Foundation manager, in a press release. “These grants fund projects that will have a community-wide impact now and for future generations.”

As Osceola received $10,000, other projects in nearby communities were awarded, too. Afton received $5,000 to resurface its community basketball court, Creston was awarded $10,000 for a new playground at Taylor Park and Mount Ayr received $10,000 toward the Dragoon Trace Nature Center.

Osceola

Osceola’s up-and-coming bike share program, spearheaded by Clarke County Public Health (CCPH), will allow local residents to check out a bicycle for a small fee and return it after riding.

The goal is to start out with 10 new bikes plus bike racks.

“We submitted a grant proposal, and then we had to post it on social media and ask for the people of Clarke County to vote on it,” said Mackenzie Hickenbottom, RN and CCPH administrator. “That was a portion of what they considered community support to get the grant.”

The purpose of launching the project is to improve health and wellness in Clarke County, Hickenbottom said.

“We do a community health needs assessment every five years, and we did ours in the summer of 2015, and one of the things we found that we wanted to improve in Clarke County was the obesity rate. It’s pretty high,” she said. “And, we wanted to increase ways that people can do physical activity. So, we have come up with this idea of getting a bike share, so that way, it’s easy access to physical activity in the community and things for people to do. We’re excited to implement the project now that we have the funds to do it.”

Hickenbottom said the bikes will be “old-style with a basket on them,” to be used for leisurely riding. The bikes will be in sets of two on racks around Osceola. Right now, the plan is to have the bikes located on the town square.

“We’re going to start that in the spring when we get the bikes, and then, once summer comes, if it’s going OK, ... we can move them to different areas of town. So, we could put some at the pool, for example,” she said. “There might be a small fee that we can use for the maintenance of the bike. We haven’t come up with all the details, but it would be a very small fee to check out the bikes and bring them back to the stand that they’re from.”

The Community Kickstarter grant will cover the majority of the funds needed to purchase the new bikes and racks.

“There’s about $1,000 more needed to get 10 bikes. Right now, we have enough for nine, but hopefully, we can get the 10; I think that’s a good number to start with,” Hickenbottom said. “We’ve reached out to parks and rec, the city council and Clarke supervisors, and everyone’s very supportive of the project, so I think we’ll be able to get the full 10 bikes.”

The Community Kickstarter funds will be released early this month, and then CCPH staff will purchase the bikes, which will tentatively be delivered in early spring.

“I think having more access to bicycles and physical activity is really going to improve the health of Clarke County,” Hickenbottom said. “A lot of times, people complain there’s not anything to do, but we have some great walking trails now, so this is a way to use those trails and get out there and be active. And, you don’t have to go purchase your own bike; you can just borrow a bike. It’ll be something easy to do and the whole family can participate.”

Visit www.wellmark.com/foundation to learn more about the grant program or to view a list of previous grant recipients.