By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
news@joplinglobe.com
PITTSBURG, Kan. — Two Crawford County educational entities were among those awarded grant money last week from the Kansas Health Foundation.
For the Family Resource Center, the $25,000 in funding is “icing on the cake,” said Monica Murnan, executive director.
The FRC, a day care and educational operation, recently completed a move from outdated quarters to a renovated site all on one floor and with more square footage. The move required raising $2.12 million.
“This was a nice end to a long fundraising process,” Murnan said.
The grant award will be used to relocate playground equipment to the new site, to do dirt work in order to improve drainage and to install sidewalks on the playground.
“The whole premise of it is a reinvestment in us,” Murnan said, referring to the first such grant from the Kansas Health Foundation that the FRC submitted in 1995 when it first organized. That grant paid for Murnan’s first year salary.
“With this grant, we’re reaffirming the whole concept that health isn’t just about doctors and medicine, it’s a holistic concept,” she said. “We run a million miles (on our playground) and don’t really go anywhere, but for the 400-ish kids we serve here, that’s an important part of their day.”
For Pittsburg State University, a $24,600 grant will allow administrators to start an interdisciplinary minor in public health.
“The current plan is to create a pair of general education courses, Introduction to Epidemiology and Introduction to Public Health, to anchor the minor,” said Bobby Winters, assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Then we’ll put the rest of it together using existing courses from several departments.”
Winters said administrators believe the minor has the potential to create a wider knowledge of public health issues among leaders, broaden the expertise of those who are already in the health care professions, and draw students into health care areas who might not have gone in that direction otherwise.
PSU’s James Dawson, biology department, and Janis Schiefelbein, nursing department, will develop the courses next summer.
“We also have support through the grant available for travel to the governor’s conference on public health, where we plan to take a group of faculty and students,” he said.
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