Extraordinary Women Micro-Grants Awarded

ROUTE 66 ROAD AHEAD PARTNERSHIP
The Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership is pleased to announce ten grant awards from its Extraordinary Women Micro-Grants Program. The 2024 round of the Micro-Grant program was completed in September, with $2,000 awards made to:

• Andrea Parson-Briley for Trolly Renovations and Route 66 Mural at Supertam on 66 (Carterville, MO). The project seeks to provide extra seating for a small Route 66 Ice Cream Parlor and Superman Museum and add an outdoor mural to enhance the shop’s exterior.
• Tansu Philip for Viva La Boba (San Bernardino, CA). The Extra Ordinary Women Micro-Grant award will help Viva La Boba enhance the community’s access to high quality coffee by purchasing a new espresso machine and address the challenge of high heat by installing outdoor misting equipment.
• Carol Singer for the Singer Auto Parts Employee Safety project (Marshfield, MO). Grant award funds are earmarked to purchase rubber pads to cushion the concrete floor, decreasing employee fatigue and lowering chances of injury.
• Shawna Gentry for Emma Jean’s Holland Burger Project (Victorville, CA). Her grant award will help repair the exterior façade, as well as restore and enhance the planters that frame the building’s entrance.
• Karla Claus for her Enjoy Route 66 Tours enhancement project (Newberry Springs, CA). Claus plans to increase the profile of this tour business through new signage and providing folding chairs and a pop-up tent for customers.
• Rotchana and Tami Sussman for the White Springs Cafe Website redesign (Arcadia, CA). Mother and daughter will update the online presence of their small Route 66 family restaurant.
• Angela Kirkman for the 1st Sunday Market at Tumbleroot Brewing LLC (Santa Fe, NM). This Grant award project works to support and expand this outdoor market on Route 66 by investing in marketing and promotion materials and adding music and entertainment to the market.
• Nayomie Mendoza for a renovation project at Cuernavaca’s Grill (Los Angeles, CA). This Route 66 Extra Ordinary Women Grant will assist in the purchase of new exterior signage and a new grill for the kitchen of this second-generation restaurant.
• Meghan Matinez for Manuel’s Food Market (Albuquerque, NM). Matinez plans to reconstruct the façade of this historic Route 66 store and upgrade its signage.
• Lucy Haro for the Qusqo Bakery Community Visibility and Accessibility Project (Los Angeles, CA). Outdoor signage will be enhanced by improved lighting and increased ADA accessibility at this neighborhood bakery.

The grant program is funded in part by a grant from the Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In addition to direct fundraising efforts undertaken by the Road Ahead, the public may make direct donations to the Extraordinary Women Micro-Grant Program online at 100extraordinarywomen.com/route-66- extraordinary-women-initiative.
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The Route 66 Extraordinary Women Micro-Grant Program provides critical and flexible funding to businesses and attractions located along Route 66 that are majority women-owned or operated. The Grant Program is one in a series of “birthday gifts” to be given to Route 66 in the years leading up to the historic road’s one-hundredth birthday in 2026.