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Martina Gatti Pardue, left, is the vice chair of the Clinton Township Community Foundation, a new nonprofit with roots in the Clinton Township Inclusive Playground Committee. Clinton Township Supervisor Paul Gieleghem, right, played a role in the inclusive playground group along with Pardue and many of the community foundation’s original members.
Images provided by Martina Gatti Pardue and Clinton Township
CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Born out of the success of one community project, a new nonprofit aims to boost more projects around Clinton Township.
The Clinton Township Community Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization set up with the mission of collaborating with local government to support quality-of-life projects around the township.
“While the township budget is tight and we can’t afford everything that everybody wants, this is a way to bring people together to widen the circle and (create) a good cause for everybody to contribute to,” Clinton Township Supervisor Paul Gieleghem said.
The foundation has its origins in the Clinton Township Inclusive Playground Committee, which was set up to build a playground that would allow children to play together regardless of their abilities. After several years of fundraising and working with other groups in the community, the Clinton Township inclusive playground opened in April 2025. The committee was dissolved shortly after the playground opened.
“We didn’t really talk about this as a group until we had the ribbon-cutting,” Gieleghem said. “Then people started congregating. I think there was a feeling (that) we put all these hours into (the inclusive playground) and all this energy, and what are we going to do now? This is an idea that has been brewing, I think, for a while, but we just had to introduce the topic and get it out there to folks.”
Many of the founding officers of the Clinton Township Community Foundation are alumni of the playground committee. The group’s chair, AnnMarie Ottoy, reprises her role from the original committee. She also serves as the marketing and communications director of the Rochester Hills-based adult education firm Dutton Farm. Martina Gatti Pardue serves as the vice chair with experience at engineering firm Actalent as a project coordinator, while Kerry Jantz of the Clinton Township Kiwanis serves as secretary. Steve Gurin, an accountant serving as the treasurer, is the only officer without a history with the inclusive playground.
“It’s exciting because we’re keeping that momentum going,” Pardue said. “We want to get the community engaged and get their feedback — collaboration of everybody, get the ideas and wants of what the Clinton Township residents are looking for to get everybody involved.”
Along with the success of the playground committee and seeking to continue the work toward broader ends, the Clinton Township Community Foundation follows in the footsteps of similar groups serving the Sterling Heights and the Rochester-Rochester Hills-Oakland Township communities. The Sterling Heights Community Foundation has provided support for projects including the city’s library and senior center, various parks and amenities, and art sculptures. The foundation sponsors a number of events held within the city. Similarly, the Community Foundation of Greater Rochester supports the development and maintenance of parks and trails, civic groups, recreation programs, arts organizations and more within the municipalities it serves.
For Gieleghem, the creation of a foundation is a long overdue and necessary development given Clinton Township’s evolution from an outer-ring to inner-ring suburban community.
“When that happens, your cost structure goes up, and your revenue tends to stagnate. It’s going up, but it’s going up incidentally,” Gieleghem said. “We are not turning farm fields into subdivisions anymore. We are trying to do redevelopment of a community that is already grown. Our older neighborhoods are 75 years old, and our newer neighborhoods are 25 to 35 years old.
“Doing things like this in creating a community foundation and involving people in supporting the things they want to see in their community builds on the vibrancy and helps us maintain quality of life for residents,” he said.
As things stand, the Clinton Township Community Foundation has a way to go before it can begin supporting projects that the Clinton Township community deems worthy. It is currently seeking applicants for the foundation’s board of directors, the application for which can be found by going to the township’s website. For more information, contact Debbie Kowalkowski at Committees@clintontownship-mi.gov or call (586) 286-9366.
