Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance has already made significant progress toward the short-term goal of revitalizing the Gallinas River Park between Grand Avenue and Mills Avenue; we have obtained $1.4 million. Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, Friends of the Gallinas River Park, and many partners have accomplished the following:
Created and now facilitate the Friends of the Gallinas River Park, a program of HPWA to lead, coordinate and engage the community in Park Revitalization and other activities.
Secured $773,000 toward river and Bosque restoration from Bridge Street downstream to Independence Street.
Received a $45,000 and technical support from the National Endowment for the Arts to hold a community workshop to develop the visionary conceptual design for the new park. Then secured $140,000 from the NM State Legislature, San Miguel County and City of Las Vegas to develop shovel ready drawings needed to implement the revitalization for the park.
Received two Las Vegas Lodger’s Tax infrastructure grants for $40,000 to complete interpretive signs, pop-up installations, promotion materials, and park benches.
Raised ($10,000) from generous individual donors to fund trash cans and events.
Las Vegas Community Foundation awarded $53,000 to support interpretive signage, complete construction plans, and coordinate stakeholder agreements.
Awarded $238,000 from the NM state Legislature for the first phase of construction.
Completed a $15,000 grant from the Santa Fe Community Foundation to conduct an educational program with West Las Vegas High School students. Students learned about the importance of wetlands and rivers, then helped to design and build two interpretive signs that were installed. These designs set the style for all future interpretive signs.
Santa Fe Community Foundation Pinon Awards 2021 VISIONARY AWARD
Below is an excerpt from a Las Vegas Optic Article written by Beth Urech…
“Lea Knutson, founder and executive director of Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, accepted the Visionary Piñon Award for the non-profit during a recent dinner at La Fonda on the Plaza hosted by the Santa Fe Community Foundation.
The award honors a non-profit that can “anticipate the unmet needs of future generations and has the stamina to achieve success.” This describes perfectly the work of HPWA.” If you’d like to continue reading the article, click here
If you’d like to read the Santa Fe Community Foundation newsletter about the event, click here
Photo Gallery of the event
