The Living Life Fund, held at the Park County Community Foundation (PCCF), is throwing a benefit concert and silent auction on February 15, 2025 at the Livingston Elks Lodge. “Music for the Heart of Park County” will raise funds for granting to local nonprofits working to empower Park County’s kids by fostering mental health and resiliency through outdoor experiences and mentorship opportunities. Doors for this Valentine-themed event open at 6 pm and local musicians Marcedes Carroll, Blake Brightman, and Rancho Deluxe begin performing at 6:30 pm. Read on for more information.

Garrett Stannard, Park High school band director, revealed the district is the recipient of $125,000 from the Park County Community Foundation, bolstering arts programs in the district, at the school board's meeting on Wednesday. Stannard is also the fifth grade band teacher at East Side Elementary, sixth grade choir instructor at Sleeping Giant Middle School, and an art council member at the Park County Community Foundation.

"Last year about this time, they received $500,000 from a family with local ties," said Stannard, referencing the community foundation grant funds. "I applied for the grant. During the decision making process, I obviously recused myself," said Stannard, referencing his art council membership at the foundation, to laughter from those attending. "They had $2.5 million worth of requests, and only $500,000 to administer," added the band director, who explained the district received 25% of the funds, or $125,000. Stannard specified roughly $62,000 is designated for an after school art program for the district's third-fifth graders for approximately two years.

An art program at East Side Elementary was among the recipients of grants recently disbursed by the Park County Community Foundation.
The foundation this week announced the recipients of $500,000 in grant funding for local nonprofits and schools engaged in arts education, art festivals, and performing arts. The community foundation’s board of directors approved the grants based on recommendations of the newly formed Park County Council for the Arts.
Funding is being distributed in four programs areas: Community art week activities, $128,500; School-based arts programming for grades 3-12 in the Livingston Public School district, $120,000; Art-focused community gathering spaces, including performance space enhancements in the Gardiner School and at the Shane Center, $100,000; and the Crazy Mountains Oral History project, a program of the Park County Environmental Council that brings together diverse voices from local communities, including Indigenous perspectives, to create an archive of stories that reflect the region’s connection to the land and environment, $51,500.