2450 - Mill River Wetland Committee

2450 Budget Requests

2450 Budget Requests

Obj

Description

FY20

FY21

FY22

FY23

FY24 REQUESTED

58500

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OTHER AGENCIES

5,000

6,000

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Statement of Purpose:

The purpose of the Mill River Wetland Committee (MRWC), a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, is to educate the community about the value of watersheds, to advocate for their continued protection, and to engage all people in the fight to protect our environment. MRWC has been advocating stewardship of the rivers and estuaries as they relate to the overall health of the environment since 1966. Advocacy and involvement in preservation of open space here in Fairfield are foundations of the organization. The award-winning River-Lab Program was developed in 1967 and has been an engaging educational experience for children and adults throughout Fairfield. MRWC typically educates 3,500 students from the Fairfield schools through the River-Lab Program.

Students were not able to participate in our outdoor programs during the 2020-2021 academic year, but we did develop and provide Fairfield Public Schools with online and classroom experiences for Grade 5. Without the income from our regular programming, we had to also decrease expenses further. To do this, we eliminated our office manager role and focused on decreasing program costs wherever possible while beginning a new community outreach program and retooling our programs to align with the recently adopted NGS standards. Despite lowering expenses, we awarded our 5th Annual MRWC Scholarships to two Fairfield High School Seniors last spring.

During the summer of 2021, we were notified that we would be able to restart our programs with the Fairfield Public Schools during the 2021-2022 academic year and this drove us to ramp back up our planning and employ a coordinator to assist us in the scheduling and delivery of our educational programs. This required a complete redevelopment of our curriculum for three grade levels to match their NGSS curriculum and delivery styles and adding an additional grade level that we had not supported in the past 40 years. This was a significant commitment of all MRWC resources to have these programs ready for this year. In the fall of 2021 we educated more than 1400 students and are poised to engage a similar number in the spring of 2022. MRWC will continue to educate our Fairfield students and community with the most up-to-date conservation curriculum, despite the adaptations for unconventional delivery that continues to be required by Covid protocols.

The current economic climate continues to pose significant challenges for nonprofits seeking funding. MRWC is acutely aware of this reality and is always looking for ways to adapt the type of programming offered as well as make significant financial changes to maintain a fiscally sound organization. Our focus is to look, in tandem, with the Fairfield Public Schools to support increasing expenses in our current programs. In addition, our COVID expansion into community programs has sparked our goal to widen our reach throughout the community of Fairfield for both financial and educational growth. We are hopeful for an improved economic and health outlook for the coming year, and get back to our focus on growth and expansion of our school and community education, advocacy and engagement programming. In order to continue our growth in these areas, MRWC requests $6,000 for the 2023-24 budget cycle.

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