Past Grantees: 2018, Cycle 2
Central Valley Vintage Baseball, based in Sacramento, has recreated the game as it was played over 100 years ago. Four teams play against each other and vintage teams from other parts of the country, wearing historic uniforms and incorporating the rules of the 1869s. Baseball was an important cultural event, used by early farmers of California’s Central Valley to bring towns together between the spring planting season and fall harvesting. The Schwemm Family Foundation supported the establishment of these vintage teams as a way to bring living history to the community. Play Ball!
This project aimed to build a community garden for low-income and disabled seniors in Santa Paula, California. With help from the SFF, raised beds were installed and supplies purchased so seniors could participate in planting seeds and tending plants. Volunteers then assisted the residents with planting and helping the new gardeners learn how to tend their young plants.
The 29-mile long San Lorenzo River runs from the Santa Cruz Mountains through downtown Santa Cruz and ultimately to Monterey Bay. As it goes through the city the river is channelized by flood control levees. But above and below the channels the river provides critical habitat for native plants, birds, and fish such as coho salmon, steelhead trout and tidewater goby. The Coastal Watershed Council works to protect and enhance the natural portions of the river. The Schwemm Family Foundation assisted this organization by supporting River Health Days, a volunteer effort to remove invasive plants, replant impacted sites and improve shoreline habitat.
The Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph Oregon, in partnership with the Wallowa History Center, made an appeal to the community to go through their attics and photo albums to uncover lost treasures to help document the county’s history. Local newspapers and the public submitted about 100 historical photos which enabled the Center to host a local art exhibit and accompanying exhibit catalogue, as well as an online catalogue. This initiative insured that many priceless photos were digitized for the future, that would have otherwise been lost or tossed because the portraits or local scenes would have been unidentified and meaningless to future generations. Approximately 2000 people visited the exhibit, including many school groups. The Schwemm Family Foundation funds were used primarily to scan, print and mount approximately 50 photos, each with a corresponding short essay explaining the content and source. Highlights of the exhibit included photos of the Nez Perce tribe, Chief Joseph, Maxville loggers, and early settlers and ranchers.
