The Morris Area Foundation held its annual general meeting last Thursday to reflect on the past year and to plan for the future.

Officials with the organization, which aims to improve Morris and the surrounding area by giving generous donations to local groups and causes, were happy with last year's outcome.

"We had a very good year last year. We were quite happy with the progress that we made. We started the year off with just about $55,000 in our endowment fund and ended the year with just over $137,000. We are very happy with the response we had from our donors," said President Del Stevenson.

Two years ago the foundation was able to donate over $1,500 toward community projects, and last year it granted $6,000. This year, it received a $5,000 grant from Canada 150, which will be going towards the Morris splash park project and to the Valley Agricultural Society's First Nations village, an addition to this summer's Manitoba Stampede and Exhibition.

Next year, Stevenson said the foundation would like to get involved with a youth in philanthropy project, and plans to partner with the Morris and Rosenort high schools.