Making a difference behind the scenes

In the last two years a group of anonymous donors has contributed more than $50,000 to various projects within the community.

Those donors are members of the nonprofit group Creston CWC, Inc., a local group whose sole purpose is to fund projects that have the potential to improve the community.

One of the projects they have funded each of the past two years has been the hanging flower baskets on West Adams Street each summer, and they will do so again this year, but they are asking for the community’s help if they want to see the project continue and grow.

“It just so happens that each spring – so this will be our third year that the flower baskets are the project that received the most votes within our group to fund – so this will be our third year doing the flower baskets,” said Melissa Driskell of Creston CWC. “Our concern is that the community is getting used to seeing them and they’re beautiful, but if the group does not vote on it, we wouldn’t be funding them, so we are trying to find a way to continue the ‘tradition,’ for lack of a better word, so our group isn’t solely responsible for providing this each year.”

The flower baskets are created by Kelly’s Flowers, hung by the City of Creston and maintained and watered by Lynam Lawn Care and Landscaping. The cost of all that is $300 for each basket, so people interested in helping fund the baskets don’t have to worry about taking care of them. They are hung near Memorial Day and depending on the weather can last until Labor Day.

“The idea with the flower baskets is trying to get the community more aware and more involved if they want to keep it continuing and growing,” said Mindy Stalker of Creston CWC. “We’d like to see it down all the different streets. When you go to Winterset, or places like that, they’re all over. But it takes community support to make it grow.

“We’re fairly established in our membership,” she added, “so we don’t expect a big fluctuation in numbers. We’re maxed out in our abilities to grow this project. Like Melissa said, we vote on projects at our meetings so we’re at the mercy of a ballot. If there’s a project that takes precedent over baskets, then they won’t happen.”

Creston CWC, Inc., a 501 C3 non-profit whose members, except the executive board of Stalker, Driskell and Leslie Wurster, prefer to remain anonymous. They aren’t looking for praise or attention. They don’t want to take credit for the projects they fund.

Their goal is simple: To make a positive impact on the community.

It’s important to note, however, that even though membership is anonymous, the executive board tends to be more visible, so if people have ideas for projects that could use some funding they have someone to reach out to.

“I think that’s a point too, of the executive board being more visible, is to let people know you can reach out to them,” said Wurster. “We don’t have to come to you. You can come to us and we can help you present yourself and get your project funded. Maybe if we don’t fund it this time around, it might be funded another time around. Just because a project comes to our community or our group and doesn’t get elected on or voted on that time, it has the possibility to circle around again and get another chance.”

A community member can suggest a project for the group, but the person requesting the funding must be a group member.

“That’s why it’s good to contact an executive board member,” Driskell said, “because we know our membership well enough that if there is a project out there that somebody has an idea on, we can typically find a member that has that same passion that’s willing to help.”

For example, Stalker said there are people within the group working on a dog park, and people outside the group have expressed interest in one as well.

“So, that’s something that’s already in the works,” she said. “What I find a lot of times when somebody has an idea to do something, they’re recreating the wheel and they don’t know that ‘Sally’ and ‘Mary’ are over here and they’ve already done some of the leg work, so if we can match those individuals up with other interested parties, then that’s something we have the ability to do.”

The focus right now, Driskell said, is on the flower baskets and getting help from the community to continue funding them, so the group can do other projects, and letting the community know they can contact members of the executive board with ideas for projects to better the community because they don’t always know what projects need to be done.

Donations for the flower baskets are tax deductible and can be sent to P.O. Box 210 Creston, Iowa 50801.

The baskets are only a small part of what the group does. Recently they donated funds to the Creston Archery team to help them get established with some new equipment and tools.

“We’re just a group of people that wanted to do more for the community, and if you don’t know how to do it as an individual, then you can come together,” said Wurster. “Some people don’t really want to get involved. They just want to donate money and maybe donate an idea. It just gives different opportunities and different ways for people to contribute without being the hands-on person.”

To submit an idea to the executive board of Creston CWC, Inc., email them at crestoncwc@gmail.com.