Over $1.8 million was given away at the 8th Annual Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation Grant Award Ceremony on Tuesday night at the Greene Room Events Center at Wild Rose Casino and Resort.

The main highlight of the evening was the competitive grants, which the GGCGC Board, the non-profit gaming license holder for Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson, selected ten recipients. The highest grant amount was $100,000 that went to Jefferson Matters: A Main Street and Chamber Community for the Imagination Alley on the downtown square. GGCGC Vice President Craig Marquardt said this was among the most competitive grant recipients they’ve had, which they had to narrow down from the total requested amount of $2.3 million. 

“Well we had a really good variety of applications that came in and I think the ones that were chosen and the ones that were funded really kind of covered throughout the county, and covered a lot of different projects, from large to small. A lot of people were very pleased and happy with what they received, and we’re happy to be a part of it.”

Wild Rose Jefferson General Manager Travis Dvorak continues to appreciate the partnership that the casino has with GGCGC.

“It’s just amazing how we just keep continue to keep growing and people keep coming and they like us, hopefully we’re doing something right, but what’s great is the more we grow, the more Grow Greene County grows their funding, and more funding for the community, and the contiguous counties, it’s wonderful. My hats go off to all these people getting grants today because they’re doing all the work, they’re doing all the effort, they are taking this funding and put to good effort, and I think this county and all the surrounding counties are better for it.”     

Other grant and funding allocation went to economic impact awardees with Greene County Development Corporation and Jefferson Matters, legacy grants with pledges to certain projects, as well as the two local school districts, the seven municipalities and the six contiguous counties toward their community foundations, as they receive 0.9-percent of the five-percent adjusted gross revenue from the casino. 

Click the link below to see the full list of recipients.