Grants Fund Local Improvements in Indiana

In the city of Angola, transforming an underused park by the county courthouse is part of a broader effort to revitalize downtown.

“People love that area but have no place to sit,” says Mackenzie Bird, executive director of the nonprofit Angola Main Street.

That’s why the group applied for—and received—a $10,000 AARP Community Challenge grant to buy picnic tables for the city’s Commissioners Park. Three of the six new hexagonal tables will have one side without a bench to accommodate a wheelchair. The increased seating can be used by residents during concerts and street festivals, as well as by workers on lunch breaks, Bird says.

The nonprofit in the northeastern part of the state is one of five Indiana groups to receive 2024 AARP Community Challenge grants, totaling $50,910. The grants fund projects designed to make communities more livable for residents.

A separate grant, for $20,000, is aimed at improving accessibility in South Milford, about 35 miles north of Fort Wayne. The money will help pay for a new wheelchair-accessible walking path in Austin Park.

It will complement ongoing improvements to the park, where volunteers have cleared out weeds and trees from an unused area, says Katie Bowman, board president of the South Milford Community League.

Other grant awardees include:

• City of Lafayette: $10,000 to create public art in the Lincoln neighborhood.
• CORE Community Center in Frankfort: $8,410 to install a new walking path.
• Families Anchored in Total Harmony in Gary: $2,500 to include AARP HomeFit Guides in food recipients’ weekly produce boxes. HomeFit offers recommendations on ways to modify homes to improve safety and comfort for older adults.

—David Lewellen