10/27/2026
We’ve got some exciting news to share!
The Family Reading Partnership of the Chemung Valley has been selected as a recipient of a Fall 2026 Neighborhood Mini-Grant from Sustainable Finger Lakes, through its Chemung and Tioga Watersheds Chapter!
This grant will help us build and install another Outdoor Bright Red Bookshelf next summer!
Our Outdoor Bright Red Bookshelves are weather-protected cabinets located in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, where children can pick out free books to take home and keep.
With each new location, we’re making it a little easier for families to find books while they’re out enjoying our community.
A big thank you to Sustainable Finger Lakes for supporting our efforts to expand this program! We’re also excited to be among seven projects selected for funding this fall.
Stay tuned! We’ll share more details about our newest Outdoor Bright Red Bookshelf as plans come together for summer 2027!
Announcing our Fall 2026 Neighborhood Mini-Grant Awardees for the Chemung and Tioga Watersheds chapter! We are happy to have awarded the following 7 projects:
📚Chemung County’s network of libraries collaboratively hosts a “Library of Things” available to all Southern Tier Library System patrons, offering loans of items that many households use occasionally, as a free alternative to purchasing them.
🌲The Corning Street Tree Project, an all-volunteer organization, has planted 147 trees throughout Corning’s urban public rights-of-way and shared neighborhood spaces since 2017.
🌳Dakota Hughes, in collaboration with the Town of Caton in Steuben County, will create and maintain a “community orchard” of native fruit and hazelnut trees and bushes in Margaret Smyers Park in Caton, supported by a grant for plants and anti-deer barriers.
🚮Derek Ruth will coordinate and lead a neighborhood litter cleanup on and around Gray Street Elmira.
📕The Family Reading Partnership of Chemung Valley is expanding their Bright Red Bookshelf children’s book distribution program with Outdoor Bright Red Bookshelves designed for protection from weather and installed in public spaces.
🌸Hadiya Fuller and Charles Fuller, granddaughter and grandfather, seek to create a wildflower u-pick micro farm on a vacant lot in the City of Elmira with multigenerational help from their family, creating not only a business but an environmentally beneficial community attraction in a neighborhood that currently has little green space.
⛺The Spencer Van Etten Farmers Market received a grant to buy a year-round storage shed for this equipment, making for easier operation and helping to sustain a source of local food, livelihoods, and community.
Thank you to all of our donors, supporters, and council members for making this possible!
Learn more about our awardees by visiting our website: https://sustainablefingerlakes.org/neighborhood-mini-grant-program/neighborhood-mini-grant-pilot-chemung-and-tioga-watersheds/
