Values – Holt Community Foundation

Education: Programs at local schools involving students, parents, teachers, staff, and administrators
Equity: Inclusion, fairness, and justice for a diverse community
Environment: Parks, playgrounds, and natural areas
Health: Wellness and mindfulness
Research: Knowledge, understanding, and local history
Creativity: Music and artistic endeavors

Education

Programs at local schools involving students, parents, teachers, staff, and administrators

Meet Our Scholars

Levi Petersen ’16
LCC
Bailey Hall ’16
LCC
Tyler Steinhaus ’15
CMU
Aaron Centofanti ’15
Michigan State
Tanner Beachnau ’13
CMU
Mallory Weil ’14
Ball State
James Fulghum ’14
Alma College
Emma Webster ’13
SVSU
Blake Darling ’12
Albion College
WMU Grad School
Emily Klauka ’11
Hope College
Morgan Smith ’17
Michigan State
Grant Van Liew ’12
Shawnee State
Zach Van Liew ’15
LCC
Tara Lierman ’15
GVSU
Grace Darling ’17
GVSU
Spencer Baldwin ’18
Kalamazoo College
Elena Vazquez ’18
Jackson College

Other Scholars Not Pictured:

Abigail Mealy ’15, CMU
Marie Hengesbach, CMU
Dannica Ramos-Washington, Olivet College
Megan Root, Ohio Northern University

Thank you to the Cochran and Anderson Families

The Holt Community is full of wonderful people, young and old, who come together through public schools, sporting events, and work activities. The Anderson and Cochran families joined together in a philanthropic effort that began in 2011 and distributed $74,000 in scholarship over 10 years to Holt Student-Athletes. On behalf of the entire Holt Community, thank you to the Cochran and Anderson families!

Equity

Inclusion, fairness, and justice for a diverse community

The Holt Community Foundation just recently began looking at ways to improve the equity for those living in Holt so that we can all enjoy our time in this beautiful area of Michigan. We convey some preliminary data below (Updated Apr 2018).

Holt has 145 homeless students. These are students doubling up with another family, living in a hotel or shelter, couch surfing, living in their cars, etc.
43% of our student population receive free/reduced lunches.
There are 5 mobile home parks within our district and several apartment complexes. This creates a very transient population including lower income families.
We have 2 hotels/motels in Holt that host homeless students.

Environment

Parks, playgrounds, and natural areas

The Holt Community Garden Club is focused on improving the environment where we live, work, and play. This means maintaining a natural and beautiful landscape. The Holt Community Garden Club raises funds through donations in order to pay for some of the expenses associated our garden projects (e.g. mulch, tools, etc.). Come join us for some fun and healthy activity outside! Thank you to every volunteer gardener and donor!

Purchasing Plants and Signs

The Holt Community Garden Club prefers that you contact john@holtcommunity.org or (774) 473-9663 to discuss purchasing a plant or sign. We can usually get plants and signs donated. We also strongly encourage you to have us purchase the sign(s) and plant(s) because we can maintain quality and uniformity in the garden which helps it look great! We purchase our signs from a local Michigan company (QuickTrophy.com) and usually buy and install the “Large Square Garden Sign” with four rows of text included. Please contact the Holt Community Foundation if you would like a plant or sign installed somewhere!

Health

Wellness and mindfulness

Many of our fundraising events combine healthy living with charitable activities. Come join us every year during our Jason Baragar All-Ages Basketball Tournament, H.O.L.T. Scholarship Golf Outing, Holt Community Fun Run/Walk/Roll, or any of our various healthy events!

Research

Knowledge, understanding, and local history

One of the Holt Community Foundation’s core values is research in the form of projects that create new knowledge or document local history. Our foundation is relatively new and we are just now beginning to build our archives of Holt Community History! Note: Tons of work goes into compiling the historical Holt documents and records you will find below. Please consider donating to the H.O.L.T. Scholarship either at the bottom of this page or at this link if you appreciate the work that goes into keeping these historical records! There are some existing, wonderful resources about Holt history. We’ve listed some below!

Capital Area District Library
- Archived digital version of past Holt High School yearbooks (link)
- Like the Capital Area District Library (CADL) on Facebook (link)
Michigan State University
Local Historians like Jacob McCormick
Holt-Delhi Historical Society
- Like the Holt-Delhi Historical Society on Facebook (link)

Holt High School Basketball Archive

Creativity

Music and artistic endeavors

Hey, you scrolled down all the way and read the entire page! This is where we hide the origin story of the Holt Community Foundation. John Girdwood always had an interest in music and education, so he combined those passions into a traveling “road show” where he would bring musical instruments into Michigan classrooms to play for children. He recorded his first visit to a Mt. Pleasant pre-school in 2007. You can watch that video below!

Hey, here’s one more thing… a Word document file that can be used to draft sheet music (click here to download)