The Vermont Community Foundation Grants $130,000 for 2024 Flood Relief
The funds will assist communities that were turned upside down by the flooding that ripped through the state two weeks ago.
Photo courtesy of Friends of the Winooski River
The grants are helping with clean-up, shelter, food, and also funding local long-term recovery groups as they dispatch volunteers and assist people coping with everything from replacing sheetrock to filing for state and federal help.
“Our team is committed to quickly delivering assistance to the communities that need it most and working with others to apply our collective effort and goodwill to this challenge,” said Dan Smith, President & CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation. “The fact that so many people have already stepped forward to help their fellow Vermonters is a testament to the strength of our communities. Your donations and continuing support will help create a more resilient future for Vermont.”
The flooding earlier this month occurred on the one-year anniversary of the disastrous 2023 flooding in Vermont, deepening the loss and challenge.
“We’re all stunned and saddened to find ourselves back here but are using the lessons from 2023 and the knowledge we now have to serve communities quickly. The flexible dollars we receive from our donors make all the difference for being able to provide help where it’s needed most, in response to locally defined needs,” said Holly Morehouse, vice president for Grants & Community Impact at the Vermont Community Foundation.
The Foundation has reactivated the Vermont Flood Response & Recovery Fund to help communities cope with the fresh round of flooding. The Fund, created after the 2023 flooding, raised nearly $14 million and granted funds to more than 100 communities. Grantmaking to address the damages from the 2023 floods had shifted toward long-term recovery, home repair, and resilience projects. Now the Vermont Community Foundation is addressing immediate relief and clean-up needs in flooded regions once again.
“We now realize that we must be prepared to respond to not just an isolated event, but rather overlapping crises due to climate and weather-related disruptions,” Morehouse said. “This is the new normal, which means resilience must be the cornerstone of our strategy—we must build forward stronger.”
The $130,000 in grants distributed last week includes assistance to the towns of Plainfield, Peacham, Barnet, and Lyndon, as well as grants to Community Resilience for the Greater Waterbury Area (CReW); the Vermont Chapter of the American Red Cross; Kingdom United Resilience & Recovery Effort (KURRVE); and the Lamoille Area Recovery Network (LeARN). Grants are also supporting direct aid to individuals and households impacted by flooding. More grants to hard-hit communities are on the way.
As the full scope of the damage is assessed, the Vermont Community Foundation is collaborating with state and nonprofit partners to help support the individuals, farms, and communities that need help.
To donate to the Vermont Flood Response & Recovery Fund and learn more about what the fund has accomplished, please visit vtfloodresponse.org
VT Flood Response and Recovery Fund
The VT Flood Response and Recovery Fund was established to support Vermonters in responding to and recovering from the catastrophic rainfall across Vermont.
