By Taylor Boyd
A new community-focused foundation in Patrick County is working to encourage growth through the arts, education, tourism and stronger local connections.
The Growing Patrick County Foundation, a program of the nonprofit Peace Production, was created to promote what organizers describe as healthy, natural growth through arts, culture, services, education and community engagement.
Mayana Kingery, president of Peace Production, said the effort began with a simple question about what Patrick County lacked.
She was told that “Every county has a foundation that’s just really focused on that county, except Patrick County. So we started focusing on that, started building the program and looked at really what we could do that’s not doubling services or overlapping, and just really evaluated what’s going on and what’s needed.”
