Seed Money Award plants beauty in the Valley

Application process opens for annual Black Mountain Beautification Committee grant

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
January 25, 2023

Students and staff at the Collins Early Learning Center receive funding from the BMBC Seed Money Award in 2022. The annual grant, which is now accepting applications through March 13, funded a raised garden bed at the daycare. Photo courtesy of BMBC

The application period for a grant program designed to plant beauty around the Swannanoa Valley is open through Monday, March 13. 

The Seed Money Award, given annually to applicants who submit a gardening project best exemplifying the mission of the Black Mountain Beautification Committee, is returning for its eighth year. 

Organizations and businesses within Black Mountain considering gardening and landscaping projects are eligible to seek funding up to the $2,500, according to the BMBC, which encourages potential applicants to interpret the guidelines broadly. Funding for the grant is raised by BMBC’s annual spring Garden Show and Sale, and the award is typically divided between several applicants.

“We encourage you to use your imagination,” the local nonprofit organization stated in a release announcing the start of the 2023 application process. 

Seed Money Award applications are available through blackmountainbeautification.org or the BMBC Facebook page. Physical copies can be found at Town Hall, the Black Mountain Library or the Black Mountain Visitor Center. 

A shade garden behind the Black Mountain Center for the Arts was created in 2022, when the nonprofit organization received funding from the BMBC Seed Money Award. The annual grant has supported nearly two dozen local gardening and landscaping projects since 2014. Photo courtesy of BMBC

Last year, the Seed Money Award was granted to projects at the Collins Early Learning Center, the Lakeview Senior Center, Black Mountain Center for the Arts and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley. 

To date, the grant has funded multiple beautification initiatives in Black Mountain, including landscaping improvements at Black Mountain Primary School, a geological garden at the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, the Black Mountain Public Library and various additional locations. 

For more information visit the BMBC website, or call Jean Chamberlain at 614-203-9241. 

The BMBC was established in 2000 as a nonprofit organization, relying solely on the support of community volunteers, private donations and the  Town of Black Mountain. Membership in the committee, which meets monthly, includes more than 100 residents.