{"id":101442,"date":"2018-02-09T11:27:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T18:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-valley-resources-names-2017-project-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2018-02-09T11:27:05","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T18:27:05","slug":"mancos-valley-resources-names-2017-project-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-valley-resources-names-2017-project-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos Valley Resources names 2017 project of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Clara
Clara Martinez, front right, gives the Project of the Year award plaque to Dana Weaver, left, and Patricia Burk, center, of Pay It Forward.<\/span>Stephanie Alderton\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On Thursday, the charitable group Mancos Valley Resources presented its annual Sponsored Project of the Year award to local nonprofit Pay It Forward.<\/p>\n

Pay It Forward, one of about 15 nonprofits supported by MVR, has raised money for Mancos families in need for about six years, according to a news release from MVR board member Mary Brisson. In 2017, the group distributed about $16,800 to people in need, including about 16 families affected by the Western Excelsior plant fire. MVR board members presented an award plaque to Pay It Forward\u2019s leaders during a potluck dinner at the Mancos Visitor Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to honor you with this plaque to commemorate your efforts and love, and the importance of your commitment and your service to the community,\u201d MVR president Clara Martinez said. \u201cWe\u2019re so happy to be part of your organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Western Excelsior plant in Mancos burned down, leaving about 100 people in the Four Corners region without jobs, Pay It Forward volunteers raised money to pay for affected families\u2019 rent, utility bills, gas money and other expenses. One of the nonprofit\u2019s leaders, Dana Weaver, said much of the money also pays for non-medical expenses, like transportation, for people dealing with unexpected health emergencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite needed,\u201d she said. \u201cI just hope that we can keep the money coming in and keep the thing going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pay It Forward was founded in 2011 by Tami Graham, who is now a member of MVR\u2019s board of directors. According to Brisson\u2019s release, she helped to start Pay It Forward after Mancos-area residents raised money for her during a health crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to create a fund that would support others in time of need, as the community supported me,\u201d she wrote in the release.<\/p>\n

Now the fund is managed by Weaver, Patricia Burk and Gwen Hawkins, and runs primarily on donations from Mancos-area individuals and businesses.<\/p>\n

MVR is a fundraising organization that benefits Mancos-area nonprofits. This is the third time it has honored one of those nonprofits with its Project of the Year award. The first organization to receive the award was the Mancos Valley Chorus, and last year\u2019s recipient was Chicken Creek Nordic Trails. Joan and Peter Brind\u2019Amour, who lead that group, said they believed receiving the award last year was instrumental in helping them win a grant to purchase ski trail maintenance equipment.<\/p>\n

Anyone can donate to Pay It Forward, or the other organizations Mancos Valley Resources supports, by mailing a check with the name of the beneficiary on the memo line to P.O. Box 204, Mancos, CO 81328. Residents of the 81328 ZIP code can apply for aid through Pay It Forward by getting an application at www.mancospayitforward.org<\/a> or the Mancos Visitor Center on 101 E. Bauer Ave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forward honored for Western Excelsior fire aid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[408,21,13,83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-101442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-charity","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101442"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=101442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}