• Rotary Year: 2022-2023
  • Application Date: 6/21/2022
  • Club Name: Rocky Mount
  • Project Name: Waid Park Iron Bridge Restoration and Beautification
  • Project Total Expenditures: $65,500.00
  • Grant Amount Requested: $4,000.00
  • Describe the Project, its location and its objectives: The Iron Bridge is located inside the treasured Waid Park one of Franklin County's most celebrated of the Parks and Recreation system. The bridge is included in river tubing adventures, bike runs, marathons, trail walks and countless photography shoots and is seen by approximately 156,000 people per year who visit, enjoy and utilize the Waid Park faculties. By including the Waid Park Iron Bridge in a restoration and beautification project, Rotarians insure this community landmark will be around for an additional 30 years minimum for thousands more community members to celebrate and enjoy. The restoration's engineering will be done by Rocky Mount Rotary club members utilizing vocations within the club. Members of the club are community town council members, parks and recreation committee members and hold town management and advertising specialties'. All of these vocations will also be put to use in the restoration and beautification of the bridge. Our club is invested in keeping this town landmark around for future generations. We are encouraged for future generations of Rotarians as we leave the 'service above self' motto in signage on the bridge as a fresh reminder of what is possible.
  • This is the Club’s: Primary Project Application
  • Expected Start Date: 8/22/2022
  • Expected End Date: 1/16/2023
  • Expected Number of Beneficiaries: 156000
  • Describe how the project will benefit the community and/or improve the lives of the less fortunate: I would estimate that on average there are 750 people per day on weekends and 300 people per day during the week equaling 156,000 people per year who utilize the Waid Park Bridge. That is an outstanding number of citizens who get out into the great outdoors each year and who also reduce their chances of chronic diseases. Research shows by walking you can do everything from lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of chronic diseases to making your brain sharper and your heart happier. The Waid Park Iron Bridge Restoration and Beautification plan will see to it that the bridge remains a part of the parks structure for many years to come. The bridges worn floor boards and rusting rails have see many years of usage. In order to have years more of usage for the community this restoration is necessary and will increase the parks ability to have even more activities on and around the bridge.
  • Estimated Total Project Volunteer Hours: 528
  • Describe the Rotarian hands-on activities in the project (i.e. non-financial participation): Rotarians will be able to participate in several outdoor work days at the iron bridge. There will be days of tree and shrub removal from the edges of the bridge for the painters to work. The bridge itself needs to be engineered for structural integrity and to make sure it will hold up for many more years. The joy of Rotary is celebrating our many vocations. We have a two structural engineers within our club. There will be many hours of donated time and efforts to ensuring the bridge restoration is done while checking all the boxes for inspections and to meet codes of our state and locality. Once the bridge is completed, painters will begin and this is where our detail oriented Rotarians will be utilized. There are several thousand bolt heads on the bridge that will be painted Rotary yellow/gold. We will team up to paint these lasting details. The final touch will be a day of landscaping around the bridge. Rotarians will help out with the planting of bulbs and other plants to ensure the bridge has as much beautification of fauna as it does structure.
  • Describe the publicity plan to inform the general public that this is a Rotary sponsored project: Already the Iron Bridge restoration is making headlines as news hounds want to know who is in on this very large project. We will be using the restoration as our Independence Day festival fundraiser which will show up on all of our tickets, a banner will be displayed at the event at the front of football field for the nearly 8K attendees to see, articles from this day will be in social media, print media, and all across the county by word of mouth. Let's move on to advertising after the August announcement this will include monthly post of updates across our club Facebook and shared post to zone and district. We will be frequently sending updates to the district newsletter and zone as well. Across our area the local Cable station will be broadcasting the bridge restoration as an upcoming community event and have a final wrap up at the ‘grand unveiling’ broadcast. The newspaper locally and for our region will have press releases and be invited to our unveiling day. Prominent signage will be placed on the bridge as well as the Rotary colors will be evident on the bridge to remind everyone of Rotary’s significance in the restoration. The Rotary motto will play a role in signage.
  • Cooperating Organizations – Please list each cooperating organization, if any: For this restoration the following partners will be assisting: Franklin County Board of Supervisors, Franklin County Parks and Recreation, Creeks Freaks, AMT Engineering, Roanoke Outside Foundation
  • Letter(s) of Participation: Rocky_Mount_Letter_of_Participation_Roanoke_Outside.pdf, Rocky_Mount_Letter_of_Participation_George_P_Martin.pdf
  • Project Expenditure Budget – list detail uses of funds for the project, or use the Budget Upload: Budget Upload
  • Project Funding Budget – list detail sources of funds for the project, or use the Budget Upload: Projection is for $65500 with known overages. Franklin County Board of Supervisor has agreed to pay all overages. Rocky Mount Rotary has committed to give $4000 from their treasury and apply for the $4000 match from district 7570. Roanoke Outside Foundation has committed to give $9238. AMT Engineering has committed to give $15,000 in engineering labor as an in-kind gift. Creek Freaks have committed to give unknown hours in creek cleanup time as an in-kind giving. Franklin County Parks and Recreation being under the Franklin County Board of Supervisors have committed to give $48,282 of their budget toward the restoration.
  • Budget Upload:E_DG2015_Budget_23.xls
  • Primary Contact Name: Pamela Chitwood
  • Primary Contact Rotary Position: Grants Chair
  • Primary Contact Email: pamchitwood@hotmail.com
  • Primary Contact Phone: 540-489-1525
  • Financial Contact Name: Lisa Schenk
  • Financial Contact Rotary Position: Treasurer
  • Financial Contact Address: 
    P.O.Box 224
    Rocky Mount, VA 24151
    United States View on Map
  • Financial Contact Email: lschenk98@aol.com
  • Financial Contact Phone: 540-537-5745
  • District Grant Project Authorization LetterPlease_DocuSign_2022_2023_District_Grants_P.zip
  • Project Supporting Uploads:Scanned_from_a_Xerox_Multifunction_Printer.pdf, Rocky_Mount_Bridge_Restoration_Time_Line.xlsx
  • Grant Number: 2022-10
  • Grant Award: $4,000.00