and only 40 grant winners, the conservancy will use the funds to work on trail construction, including adding accessibility features.


One of 4,000 applicants


The future Somerset County park will be the first of its kind in


the region, with plans for trails, recreation facilities and more.


step, so we hope this opens up doors for other grants as well.”


More to the Great Outdoors


Get families outside, get them moving, draw visitors to parks: Oſten those are corner- stone efforts to help strengthen communities and economies. Somerset County, Pennsylva- nia, has much to draw visitors, including the Flight 93 National Memorial and Quecreek Mine Rescue site. But residents say the area lacks developed outdoor recreation spaces. What Somerset County does have is a dam in


need of repair. So when the Pennsylvania legis- lature offered repair money to any community that could raise $100,000 on its own, Somerset County rallied, says Angi Howell-Tennant, a State Farm® agent. Residents raised $50,000, which the county commissioners matched. With dam funding in place, residents began


ABOUT THE STATE FARM® ASSIST®


PROGRAM NEIGHBORHOOD


At least one group or organization in every state took the challenge and applied for a State Farm Neighborhood Assist grant. Because of the ease of application, the Neighborhood Assist program is particularly accessible for a range of groups with a variety of goals. The result was nearly 4,000 applicants in total. After the State Farm Youth Advisory Board created criteria and narrowed the list to 200 finalists, communities rallied supporters to vote on Facebook for their grant. Visit apps.facebook.com/sf_neighbor_assist for more information.


12 goodneighbor®


planning the next stage of Somerset County’s transformation: a nature park with the restored facility as its focus. Plans for the area include picnicking spots, a


seven-mile trail that loops the dam and more. To help kick-start the project, the leading group—the Somerset County Conservancy— applied for and received a State Farm Neighbor- hood Assist grant, one of only 40 winners out of 4,000 applicants. Te conservancy plans to use the funds to


work on trail construction, including adding accessibility features. All sorts of visitors descend on the area, including birdwatchers and tourists. Future ideas include pavilions, improved parking areas, a playground, nature center, fishing areas and upgraded lake access. As with other grants, the State Farm assis-


tance has enabled the conservancy to apply for additional sources of funding. “We’re taking that money and leveraging it to


work on the larger project,” says Cassie Moon, a commercial lender with First Commonwealth Bank, who volunteered on the grant project. But the project did more than just raise mon-


ey; it brought community members together in unexpected ways. “We had items in the local paper and on TV


and the radio, so the awareness was really big,” Howell-Tennant says. “It will be our first coun- ty park, so it was the first time something like this had been done in the county. For people in such a small town to come together and garner enough votes was pretty amazing, and it got people excited. It was a positive impact for our community.”


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