Legacy Foundation, other groups launch NWI Thrive with $20M grant
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A coalition of nonprofits in northwest Indiana led by Merrillville-based Legacy Foundation is using a $20 million grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. to improve greenways and trails in the region.
The grant is part of the latest round of the endowment’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow, or GIFT, initiative, which awarded a total of $171 million to more than two dozen recipients.
Legacy Foundation is collaborating with the Crown Point Community Foundation, United Foundation of La Porte County and the Porter County Community Foundation to launch NWI Thrive.
During a news conference Thursday, Legacy Foundation CEO Kelly Anoe said NWI Thrive aims to better connect communities in the region.
“Through projects like enhanced trails and new trail connections, we will bridge communities and connect residents and visitors to the natural wonders of northwest Indiana like the Indiana Dunes National Park and the Marquette Greenway Trail while also creating vibrant cultural spaces in communities like Gary, the town of Pines, and Michigan City,” Anoe said.
Among the projects proposed through NWI Thrive are improved signage to trailheads, improved trail maintenance, the development of new trails, and educational campaigns and programs in the Indiana Dunes National Park.
Additionally, the foundations are planning to add what they’re calling Discover Hubs at new and improved South Shore Line train stations to promote local businesses and events.
NWI Thrive will establish Gary and Michigan City as cultural anchors for the national park, including connecting the soon-to-be-redeveloped downtown Gary Station to the Marquette Greenway. In Michigan City, a new cultural trail will connect the city’s new downtown train station and two new mixed-use developments to the greenway as well.
The foundations did not provide a timeline for when the projects would begin.
Anoe said the initiative builds on decades of ongoing collaboration among the four foundations, which were originally established with the help of funding from Lilly Endowment’s first GIFT funding round in 1990.
“This grant is another example of how the four community foundations with regional partners have come together to accomplish more than any one of us could do alone,” Unity Foundation President Maggi Spartz said in written remarks. “We have a long history of regional success thanks to Lilly Endowment.”
Legacy Foundation was one of only two foundations to receive a $20 million grant from Lilly Endowment. The other was the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County.