Paul Thompson
Northeast News

Historic Northeast non-profit organizations will receive more than $36,000 in local tourism funding from the City of Kansas City during the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

The Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund (NTDF) has a $1,272,110 budget, which supports dozens of community events every year. According to City documents, the NTDF board is directed to promote neighborhoods “through cultural, social, ethnic, historic, educational, and recreational activities.”

Events in the 18th and Vine Jazz District, Crown Center, Union Station and the World War I Museum are funded, but so are organizations based out of the Historic Northeast. That includes the Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association, which will receive NTDF funds for two events in 2018: $8,808 for the annual Fourth of July celebration, and $15,215 for for the 25th annual Scare-it Halloween.

“I’m very pleased that NTDF supported us at that level,” said Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association President Leslie Caplan. “We really want to see the July 4 event grow, because it’s important to the neighborhood.”

As for the annual Scare-it Halloween event, Caplan said that the funds would help plan a special celebration for Scare-it Halloween’s 25th anniversary.

Elsewhere, the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce received $4,922 for its International Taste and Tour event, which celebrates Kansas City’s vast array of international cuisine. This year, the event will be held on September 8.

“Actually, we got more this year than we received last year, so we’re really excited about that,” said Bobbi Baker-Hughes of the Northeast Chamber. “We hope to do something a little bit different to add to the great event. Every year we like to add a new element.”

For Northeast Arts KC, the $3,865 for the annual Summer Dusk Free Concert Series – held on every Third Friday during the summer – and the $3,737 for the Chalk Walk in Historic Northeast (May 19-20) represent a cut from previous incarnations of the event. Northeast Arts KC representative Rebecca Koop indicated last week that the cuts would have an impact on the organization’s programming.

“I may not have a 100-foot tent for Chalk Walk, like we did last year,” Koop said.

This year, the NTDF committee parsed through 133 applications, including nine from organizations that had never applied for NTDF funding before. In total, the NTDF committee recommended funding for 130 projects organized by 98 organizations, meeting on more than a half-dozen occasions to decide the specific allocations.

Koop told the Northeast News that the decrease in City funding shows how competitive the NTDF process is.

“It’s a very competitive grant cycle, so we’ll just try to do the best we can with what we’re getting,” said Koop. “Without that help, we wouldn’t have the organization. We couldn’t do the events.”