Grant RecipientsValley CAN is pleased to announce recipients of grants aimed at real solutions to air quality issues over the last couple years. Valley CAN was struck by the responsiveness and creativity in working together to solve the Valley's air quality problem. As our recipients have demonstrated, there are many ways to help clean the air NOW - and Valley CAN hopes that these grants will assist in the further education and awareness about what can be done NOW to clean our air.
Valley CAN based its decision on the following standards:
- Proposals were representative of the San Joaquin Valley as a whole
- Proposals sought to improve Valley air quality
- Proposals generated or supported real-world solutions
- Proposals gave opportunity for real leadership, and/or provided an educational component
For more information about Valley CAN's grant program, email Cristina Guccione at cristina.guccione@porternovelli.com.
The following is a summary of recipients of Valley CAN grants.
2007 Grant Recipients
Application 1
Applicant: California’s Agriculture Resources for Organic Transitions (CAROT)
Amount Granted: $13,000
Summary of Project: Workbook for Growers.
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Application 2
Applicant: Advanced Transportation Technology and Energy Initiative (ATTEi)
Amount Granted: $16,000
Summary of Project: ATTEi will students at Fresno City College used the Valley CAN-funded scan tool and computer equipment to perform diagnostic tests on vehicles during 2007’s Tune In & Tune Up Program.
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Application 3
Applicant: Bike Bakersfield
Amount Granted: $10,000
Summary of Project: Bike Bakersfield is dedicated to working with Bakersfield and the Kern County communities to improve individual health and overall community health aspects by focusing on the benefits of bicycling. Their mission is to promote bicycling as everyday transportation, and plan to install ten bicycle racks in prominent downtown Bakersfield locations
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Application 4
Applicant: Advanced Transportation Technology and Energy Initiative (ATTEi)
Amount Granted: $11,000
Summary of Project: The Advanced Transportation Technology & Energy Initiative will be partnering with the College of the Sequoias Quickstart program to administer the Fuel Cell Car Demonstrations. This partnership focuses on educational projects that will increase the efficient use of energy through alternative fuels and learning activities that will be used to reduce air pollution in the Central San Joaquin Valley. Their goal is to target 45 educators, and 45 high school/middle school students.
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Application 5
Applicant: Fresno Council of Governments
Amount Granted: $10,000
Summary of Project: San Joaquin Valley COG Teleconferencing Project
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Application 6
Applicant: Stockton Chamber of Commerce
Amount Granted: $25,000
Summary of Project: The Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce (chamber), through the Green Team San Joaquin program, proposes to accomplish this by establishing a multi-marketing advertising campaign and energy & air quality conservation workshops. In addition, the chamber will develop outreach activities and capitalize on an established chamber network of 1,600 businesses with over 35,000 (employees) residents in San Joaquin County.
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Application 7
Applicant: Advanced Transportation Technology and Energy Initiative (ATTEi)
Amount Granted: $24,000
Summary of Project: ATTEi will set up voluntary and free roadside exhaust emission test lanes at three Tune In Tune Ups in three San Joaquin Valley Cities identified by the Partnership for the San Jaoquin Valley grant,
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Application 8
Applicant: Stockton Chamber of Commerce
Amount Granted: $20,000
Summary of Project: The Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce (chamber), through the Green Team San Joaquin program, proposes to accomplish this by establishing a multi-marketing advertising campaign and energy & air quality conservation workshops. In addition, the chamber will develop outreach activities and capitalize on an established chamber network of 1,600 businesses with over 35,000 (employees) residents in San Joaquin County.
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Application 9
Applicant: Advanced Transportation Technology and Energy Initiative (ATTEi)
Amount Granted: $8,000
Summary of Project: ATTEi students at Fresno City College used the Valley CAN-funded scan tool and computer equipment to perform diagnostic tests on vehicles during 2007’s Tune In & Tune Up Program.
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Application 10
Applicant: San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization
Amount Granted: $10,000
Summary of Project: The San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization (SJVCEO) will develop a comprehensive Clean Energy Program in Arvin, CA to help the city address its air quality challenges and serve as a model for the rest of Kern County. Arvin Clean Energy Program
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2006 Grant Recipients
Application 1
Applicant: Amador County Transportation Commission
Amount Granted: $38,000
Summary of Project: The Amador County Transportation Commission requested funding to help implement the tri-county Foothill-Valley Commuter Services (FVCS) Program. This program offers ridesharing, public transportation, and other commuter options from Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties to the San Joaquin Valley. This program is a joint effort between the San Joaquin Council of Governments, the ACTC, the Calaveras Council of Governments and the Tuolumne County Transportation Council.
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Application 2
Applicant: California Association of Resource Conservation Districts
Amount Granted: $17,620
Summary of Project: The CARCD requested funding to implement the first phase of a program that will apply and adapt electrostatic attraction and precipitation principles to control particulate matter emitted from farm implements. The program will determine the effectiveness of electrostatically charging the fine soil particles that are generated during tilling and depositing them back on toe soil before they disperse into the atmosphere. The overall goal is to develop a cost-effective and practical in-field application.
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Application 3
Applicant: American Lung Association of Central California
Amount Granted: $1,000
Summary of Project: The ALACC requested funding from Valley CAN to be a gold sponsor of their annual 2006 Blow the Whistle on Asthma Walk. The goal of the walk is to raise public awareness about asthma and its connection with air quality as well as raise funds for further research and programs.
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Application 4
Applicant: Green Team San Joaquin
Amount Granted: $20,000
Summary of Project: The Green Team San Joaquin requested funding to implement a one-year project to significantly elevate energy and air quality education outreach activities to businesses and schools in Stockton and San Joaquin County. San Joaquin County includes the cities of Ripon, Lathrop, Manteca, Stockton, Lodi, Tracy, Escalon and the unincorporated areas of the County.
The Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce, through the Green Team San Joaquin program, will develop a multi-marketing advertising campaign and energy & air quality conservation workshops. In addition, the chamber will develop outreach activities and capitalize on an established chamber network of 1,600 businesses with over 35,000 (employees) residents in San Joaquin County.
2005 Grant Recipients
Application 1
Applicant: Institute for Community Relations Research
Amount Granted: $24,700
Summary of Project: The Institute for Community Relations Research requested funding for a special project on improving air quality in the San Joaquin Valley. ICRR will develop and distribute a video program that will inform, encourage and increase individual participation in the clean air efforts by rural Hispanics and Anglos.
Dr. Tomas Martinez, Director of ICRR will assemble a team of colleagues and production service organizations to compile the video. The video will be filmed on location in the Central Valley and it will be in both in English and Spanish to inform the community that the issues it addresses are important. It will include interviews with community leaders who can say a few words of encouragement as well as show that concern for the well being of the rural community exists at the top. Communities that will be reached will be small towns throughout the Valley that have a large Hispanic population. Rural Hispanics were found to be the least knowledgeable about the need for energy conservation and what can be done about it. The outreach will take place through PTA organizations, environmental science teachers, local Chambers of Commerce, VFW groups and Church groups.
As a private non-profit corporation, ICRR has no full-time staff. The work it does is voluntary and part-time.
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Application 2
Applicant: San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District
Amount Granted: $32,000
Summary of Project: The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District will be getting funded for their next Clean Green Yard Machines lawn mower incentive program. The program helps reduce smog-forming emissions from the Valley’s air by taking gasoline-burning lawn mowers out of the hands of Valley residents and providing those same residents with a significant discount on a non-polluting, cordless electric lawn mower.
Funding will directly go toward the purchase of electric lawn mowers. Additional assistance in the form of brooms and rakes for program participants and written information promoting their use instead of turning leaf blowers for yard clean-up provides a completeness to our efforts of “air-friendly” yard maintenance.
The Clean Green Yard Machine program has taken place in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005. So far this program has reduced nitrogen oxide (Nox) by nearly nine tons per year by the elimination of 3,182 gasoline mowers.
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Application 3
Applicant: Enterprise for Education, Clean Air Challenge Program
Amount Granted: $25,237
Summary of Project: Enterprise for Education is seeking supplemental funding for the second year of its Clean Air Challenge Program. The funding will go towards workshops for science teachers from schools throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Teachers will be able to teach a three-week Clean Air Challenge unit in their classrooms.
The trainings will help seventh through twelfth grade science teachers meet state science standards while enabling students to conduct research on an environmental program that impacts their health. Teachers who attend these workshops will be provided with a 200 page Teacher’s Companion; a 32-page full color student booklet (the Case Study); a 24-page lab book (the Data Log); a 30-minute DVD or video and a box of supplies. The workshops will be conducted on Saturday and will be 6 hours.
Teachers will receive training on structured labs, how to help students conduct an unstructured investigation in response to certain questions, and on concluding activities.
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Application 4
Applicant: Relational Culture Institute
Amount Granted: $5,000
Summary of Project: The Relational Cultural Institute requests funding to conduct six initial air quality dinner events in Bakersfield, Fresno, Hanford, Madera, Merced and Visalia. The dinners will promote voluntary, community-level actions individuals can take to improve air quality.
The grassroots outreach will begin with RCI’s congregational networks throughout the Valley and ultimately will include community organizations, educational institutions, businesses, and government. Presentations will take place at the dinners providing compelling evidence of the Valley’s relative vulnerability to air pollution and the threat it poses to both jobs and health. In addition, these events will illustrate the risks to the Valley business community of sole dependence on the regulatory structure of the Clean Air, and corresponding need for voluntary, community-level action on the part of businesses, schools, families, and governments.
RCI is a member of the Irvine –funded Central Valley Partnership, a network of nonprofit organizations working to address the extreme poverty, barriers to resources, and lack of voice immigrant and underserved residents in the Central Valley.
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Application 5
Applicant: Conservation Tillage
Amount Granted: $35,000
Summary of Project: The Conservation Tillage Program requested funding to study the benefits of conservation tillage practices. The study will help determine the positive impacts on the profits and reduction of energy use in the Valley.
Conservation Tillage practices may be able to reduce dust, NOx, energy use, and CO2 in the San Joaquin Valley’s crop production systems. This program also aims at reducing plowing, ripping, disking, and chiseling.
The Conservation Tillage program is administered by the University of California Cooperative Extension. It was developed in 1998 by researchers, farmers, and representatives of public agencies, private industries, and environmental groups to educate the public on conservation tillage production systems in the California.
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Application 6
Applicant: Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT), CSU, Fresno
Amount Granted: $35,000
Summary of Project: CIT is seeking funding for it’s Diesel Pumping Efficiency Program (DPEP), which will improve pump efficiency on diesel irrigation pumps by providing farmers with financial incentives for testing and repair of diesel irrigation pumping plants.
CIT is an independent research and testing facility, and an educational resource center located at California State University, Fresno. It was founded in 1982 and has assisted designers, manufacturers and those who use irrigation equipment to help make technological progress.
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Application 7
Applicant: Advanced Transportation Technology (ATT) Center, Fresno City College
Amount Granted: $9,500
Summary of Project: Advanced Transportation Technology Center at Fresno City College will be receiving funds to conduct the Hydrogen Outreach Education Program (HOPE) to educate high school students, college students, and community leaders on the benefits of hydrogen fuel.
ATT is an initiative of the Economic and Workforce Development Program of California Community Colleges. It provides the necessary support for well-trained technicians to
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Application 8
Applicant: Tree Fresno – Ornamental Horticulture Nursery
Amount Granted: $10,000
Summary of Project: Tree Fresno requested funding to provide 1,000 trees and equipment to establish an ornamental horticulture nursery at Elkhorn Youth Facility. The residents at the facility will plant trees throughout Fresno. Tree Fresno asks that Valley CAN fund the purchase of 1,000 trees, stakes and ties, potting soil, and pre-emersion weed control and fertilizer for the nursery.
Tree Fresno hopes the establishment of the nursery will educate and become a permanent part of the Elkhorn curriculum for the at-risk kids at the facility. This program would result in an education with career potential in an agricultural field for years.
For six years, Tree Fresno was a volunteer organization. Its mission is to “promote environmental stewardship through community involvement in the planting and maintenance of trees and the creation of trails and greenbelts.”
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Application 9
Applicant: Tree Fresno – San Joaquin Gardens Expo
Amount Granted: $2,000
Summary of Project: Tree Fresno and Valley CAN will be sponsoring the second Garden Expo at San Joaquin Gardens. The event focused on helpful tips to keep Fresno beautiful by learning how to plant, prune, care for and keep garden areas in Fresno looking their best. Promotional materials for the Expo will include information about the positive impact trees have on improving air quality.
Valley CAN was asked to provide funds for purchase 100, five-gallon shade trees that were given out attendees. The trees contained a brochure from Valley CAN, and a guide with helpful tips on planting trees, and how trees help reduce air pollution.
San Joaquin Gardens is a continuing care retirement center that was established in 1965.
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Application 10
Applicant: California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom–What’s Growin On?
Amount Granted: $1,000
Summary of Project: California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom will be getting funded to develop and distribute an educational 16-page student activity newsletter with information and lessons about the status of valley air quality. It will also discuss what people can do to improve air quality, and what agriculture is doing to help.
The activity newsletter will be directed to 4th through 8th grade students. The newsletter will get distributed through three major newspapers in California, including the Fresno Bee. That will give adults the opportunity to read it also.
California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom will work with Valley CAN to develop an informational write-up and student activity lesson that will be associated with the Department of Education’s Content Standards for California public schools.
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Application 11
Applicant: American Lung Association of Central California (ALCC)-Asthma Camp
Amount Granted: $1,000
Summary of Project: ALACC requested funding to support it’s “Asthma Camps.” The camps are geared towards children, teenagers, and families suffering from asthma. For over 25 years, ALACC has made these camps available to families regardless of their financial status.
Three of the camps are Camp Sierra in Yosemite which is for kids ages 10-13. It has 24 hour medical supervision, and a variety of activities such as crafts, campfires, hiking, and swimming. The Teen Asthma Camp at Wonder Valley Resort is for ages 13-17, and Family Asthma Camp is for kids ages 5-9 and their parents, who will learn how to manage asthma and be able to live better with it.
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Application 12
Applicant: Advanced Transportation Technology (ATT) Fresno City College- Biodiesel
Amount Granted: $5,200
Summary of Project: Valley CAN will fund ATT to help establish a biodiesel production system at All Valley Environmental, Inc., a company that collects used vegetable oil from local restaurants, it is based in Fresno. ATT students will assist in production of the fuel, which is biodegradable, non-toxic, and helps reduce emissions by 45-75 percent.
ATT reaches out to the community by providing program information in many venues such as mail-outs, hand-outs, shows, conferences, and on-site visitations. The program also serves as a large regional area comprised of the southern, central, and parts of the northern San Joaquin Valley.
Students in the program will be able to get hands on experience using the latest in technology for Biodiesel production and become aware of the benefits of alternative forms of energy.
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Application 13
Applicant: Advanced Transportation Technology (ATT) Fresno City College- HOPE
Amount Granted: $9,500
Summary of Project: ATT seeks funding to establish a Hydrogen Education Outreach Program to educate high school and college students, as well as community leaders on the benefits of hydrogen fuel.
Members of ATT will go to classrooms as guest instructors and lecture, and provide hands on learning activities on hydrogen and energy. The program will then present to college presidents, elected representatives and members of the business community.
The ATT program will continue to meet a regional transportation industry demand for service technicians for alternative fuel technologies by expanding its services and training those in the field of alternative-fueled vehicles, emissions reduction, and efficient transportation technologies.
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