Wildhorse Foundation gives $28,000 for Island City pathway project

The Island City Parent Teacher Organization won a $28,000 boost on June 3 for a pathway project meant to make the walk around Island City Elementary safer for students, staff and neighbors. The grant from the Wildhorse Foundation will help pay for a roughly quarter-mile, eight-foot-wide concrete loop in the heart of Island City, where the current surface is loose pea gravel and there are no sidewalks.

That gap matters because the path is not just being pitched as a school amenity. It is planned as a daily route for students, the SoleKIDS Running Club and staff during school hours, then as a public walking loop at other times. Island City Elementary sits at 10201 W. 4th St., and the school-side route is expected to give children and adults a paved place to move without relying on nearby roads or informal dirt paths.

The project has already lined up most of its cost, but the last stretch still has to be closed before concrete can be poured. A separate report said the PTO had raised about 75% of the total and was still seeking the remaining $30,000. The pathway committee has said it is pursuing multiple funding sources and hopes to finish that gap by mid-summer so construction can begin on schedule and be ready by August 1, 2026.

Rachel Robinson, a Pathway Committee member, said the group hoped to see the path in use by fall. For families in Island City, that would mean a safer daily route for walking, exercise and school-mile runs, especially for grades 3 through 5 that currently have to navigate a gravel surface without sidewalks.

The Wildhorse Foundation’s award was part of a larger first-quarter 2026 grant round. The foundation gave $495,628 to 35 organizations out of 70 eligible applicants that requested $1.5 million. Seven organizations in Union and Wallowa counties received $100,097 in that round, and the Island City Pathway Project was listed at $28,000 among northeastern Oregon awards.

The foundation says it makes quarterly grants in northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, focuses on education, public health and public safety, and caps requests at $30,000 per year. Founded in 2001, it says it has awarded more than $20 million overall. For Island City, the question now is whether the remaining financing, summer construction schedule and long-term upkeep all hold together well enough to turn a gravel strip into a lasting piece of neighborhood infrastructure.