Click play to listen to this article.

AARP is taking applications for its 2025 Community Challenge grants and Wyoming's state chapter encouraged nonprofits and municipalities to apply.

Since 2017, AARP has invested more than $20 million in 1,700 projects nationwide. The grants are designed for quick-action projects to help communities of all sizes become more livable, especially for those aged 50 and up.

Ron Hammel, a member of the AARP Wyoming Executive Council, runs Wyoming's grant program as a volunteer.

Image

"Let's say you're a small community up in Wyoming and you have an idea to do something that would benefit a lot of people in that area but you have no way of getting the money," Hammel explained. "This is one place where people could get up to $25,000 to fund a project."

Last year, a total of $45,000 was awarded to four Wyoming projects. Applications for the 2025 cycle are due March 5.

The City of Evanston last year received more than $12,000 to install concrete pingpong, foosball and chess tables in outdoor spaces downtown.

Mieke Madrid, program coordinator and grant writer for Evanston Main Street, said the project helps the program meet its goal to help build lasting memories.

"It is important to create public spaces that are for people of all ages and abilities and to create a dynamic space," Madrid emphasized.

Madrid pointed out the game tables help create a "sense of place" for locals and visitors alike.

In Buffalo, Powder River American Legion Post 13 used more than $5,000 to purchase 500 veterans markers for the town's several cemeteries.

Chuck Guilford, former post commander, said it gave their efforts a needed boost.

"We've been doing it piecemeal for the longest time ordering 40 markers or 20 markers and looking at years and years to get it done," Guilford recounted. "With the funding, we were able to order a sufficient supply."

Now, Guilford added, the grave of every interred veteran in Johnson County is marked as such.