While eventing is currently on lockdown, the U.S. Eventing Association Foundation, the USEA, and a group of organizers and eventing stakeholders have continued to work hard behind the scenes to make the sport safer for when the first horse is ready to leave the start box again. On April 16, USEA Foundation members announced that the Manton Foundation has established a $250,000 matching grant to bolster fundraising efforts to improve safety on our cross-country courses.
“In these tough times, it is nice to be able to share some good news with the eventing community,” said Diane Pitts, Chair of the USEA Foundation. “We are extremely grateful to the Manton Foundation and to the many, many people who have donated to the Frangible Technology Fund. Our commitment to safety and the mandate to make frangible technology more widely available will continue during this downtime as we provide grants to organizers through this fund.”
The Manton Foundation has already donated $100,000 in response to the more than $109,000 raised so far by the USEA Foundation and the GoFundMe initiative. The remaining $150,000 will be given as a matching grant in $50,000 increments. The continued efforts of the eventing community, combined with the matching grant from the Manton Foundation, will see the goal of $500,000 become a reality.
The $500,000 will provide funding for frangible technology and construction of frangible fences at USEA-recognized competitions throughout the country, ongoing research and development of improved frangible technology, and continuing education of all stakeholders on the use of frangible technology. This fund will provide grants to ease the financial burden on competition organizers who run events at the preliminary level and above of adding frangible technology at jumps such as tables.
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The USEA Foundation and the USEA would like to thank the GoFundMe initiative, led by Andy Bowles, Jon Holling, Emily Holmes, Doug Payne, Leslie Law, Kyle Carter and Robert Kellerhouse for successfully kick-starting this latest effort.
“By working together and combining the money raised by both groups, it has given us this great opportunity to have the funds matched by the Manton Foundation,” said Andy Bowles, organizer of the GoFundMe initiative. “This is an amazing start to help provide the opportunity for organizers, cross-country course designers, and cross-country builders to use the technology available to make our sport safer.”
Grant and distribution information is currently being finalized with the assistance of a newly formed Frangible Technology Fund Review Committee consisting of Andy Bowles, Marc Grandia, Jon Holling, Emily Holmes and Darrin Mollett.
