Congratulations to Midland resident Dave Waite.

We believe there's a fundamental difference between being a resident and being a citizen. Citizens are engaged, active and strive to make their community a super cool place to live. Dave has done this through his work with the Friends of the Pere Marquette Rail Trail, helping establish a non-motorized transportation committee, and spearheading efforts to bring new pickleball courts to Central Park. Pickleball, by the way, is the fastest growing sport in America, thanks to being low-impact and easy to learn. Your Midland Area Community Foundation joined the Michigan Baseball Foundation in providing grant dollars to the project, so look for the new courts this summer in Central Park. If you see Dave there, be sure to tell him thanks for being a great citizen.

We needed 367 volunteers for our scholarship review committees. 367 of you responded.

Continuing on with the warm and fuzzies, we recently asked a whole bunch of folks to volunteer for a good cause. Each year, we receive hundreds of applications to the 200+ scholarship funds available at the community foundation. There's really no way our small staff can review each application - and that's where our volunteers come in. We needed 367 people, and you answered the call. Thanks to you, we'll have non-biased reviews and recommendations on scholarship award winners, helping us confidently award scholarship funds to the most deserving students. Thanks for being awesome. Speaking of awesome people, thanks also to everyone who has opened a scholarship fund with the community foundation. We look forward to sharing the winners with you all this summer.

Give Local Midland is back, and it's better than ever.

Midland's first and only 24-hour online giving day is Give Local Midland, and it's back for a sixth consecutive year this May 7th. Your Midland Area Community Foundation partners with over 50 local nonprofits to raise money for their endowment funds held at the community foundation. Endowment funds are invested, and as investment income is earned, agencies use those funds for whatever their future needs might be. It's the model your community foundation was built on, and the reason why, after 45 years of growing our endowments, we're able to grant millions of dollars each year. We hope you'll join us in giving where you live on May 7th at www.givelocalmidland.org. We're providing a matching donation pool of $65,000, so May 7th is a great day to give and take advantage of an automatic boost to your gift. Stay tuned for more details on this event.