TUCSON, AZ (Sept. 11, 2024) – The Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance (SCVHA) is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area Heritage Grant recipients. After a request for competitive proposals, nine organizations operating within the National Heritage Area were chosen to receive funding totaling $182,000.
These organizations will execute work focused on natural conservation, historic rehabilitation, and cultural preservation projects within the 3,300 square miles of the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area. Like last year, special consideration was given to projects containing an educational outreach component that will help increase awareness of the area’s heritage assets and inspire long-term stewardship.
“It was a difficult selection process this year. The quality of the projects was outstanding, but their funding requests totaled more than double the amount we had budgeted to award, so it was indeed competitive,” said Lesley Kontowicz, Executive Director. She added, “Despite our limited funding, the combined investment is significant, totaling nearly $1 million. And the impact of these projects will be long lasting—preserving historic sites, conserving our natural environment, and celebrating our cultural traditions all the while teaching others how to be stewards.”
In this competitive cycle, SCVHA fielded a variety of proposals that satisfy the organization’s mission to connect people to the historical and cultural foundations and the living landscape of the Santa Cruz Valley and actively work towards its long-term stewardship. The recipients and their projects, listed in alphabetical order, are:
- Border Community Alliance: Celebrate the Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Arts, Culture & Food Series
- Children's Museum of Tucson: Interpretive Adventure Learning Tours and Outreach (ALTO) Programs
- Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection: Further Enhancement of a Critical Wildlife Corridor in the Santa Cruz Watershed
- Los Descendientes de Tucson: Sosa-Carrillo House Historical Placemaking and Renovation
- Tucson Audubon Society: Expanding Bringing Birds Home: Translating and Enhancing Tucson Audubon’s Urban Bird and Pollinator Habitat Recipe Cards
- Tucson City of Gastronomy: Pueblos del Maíz Fiesta
- Tucson Symphony Society: Santa Cruz Watershed Soundscape: Building Hydro-Local Community through Music and Watershed Science
- Tubac Nature Center: A Habitat Management Plan for the Tubac Nature Preserve
- Vail Preservation Society: Rehabilitation and a Community Youth Corps: Activating the Old Vail Post Office, Connecting Vail’s Mexican American Borderlands History to Its Future
In addition to the Heritage Grants, the SCVHA currently has $20,000 in funding for small grants of up to $5,000 through its inaugural Rolling Grants Fund. Awards are based on project significance, urgency, and need. They are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis and will close when the funding has been fully allocated. The Sonoran Institute’s annual Dragonfly Festival is the first recipient of this fund. To apply, visit www.santacruzheritage.org/grants.