Houston won a pair of awards Monday night at the Missouri Community Betterment Program banquet in Columbia.
The town placed second in its population category. Community Betterment and Arts Council’s youth group also took second.
Twenty-one communities and 10 community leaders were honored at the 93 rd annual conference
Makayla Koch, who is state president of the Missouri Community Betterment Youth organization, won a Youth Leadership Award.
Houston’s 2016 projects included the Houston Community Kitchen, Lone Star Annex, Pregnancy Resource Center of South Central Missouri, Lynch-Tweed Civil War House, Texas County Food Pantry solar panels and youth projects. The Houston projects totaled more than $307,000, which included $135,000 in grants. Other donations came from community groups, businesses and individuals.
St. James won Houston’s population category. Other winners were: Louisiana, third; Fayette, fourth; and Malden, fifth. Houston also won a session competition, “Caterpillars to Butterflies.”
Cameron won the grand prize in the state.
The awards event is an integral part of the MCB program, which is administered by the Missouri Community Betterment Educational Fund, which is a not-for profit organization made up of businesses, public utilities, community representatives, federal and state agencies and individuals. From 2008-2016 MCB communities poured more than $425.7 million back into their local economies through their community development projects.