News

The Parkersburg Area Community Foundation and Regional Affiliates (PACF) is supporting the health, human services, recreation, and education needs of our community through its fall grant awards. At a December 4 reception, the PACF announced $203,381 in grant awards to support charitable projects benefiting the residents of the region.

Through the Foundation’s bi-annual Community Action Grants Program, area nonprofits seek grant assistance to address community needs.  To be considered for a Community Action Grant, an applicant must be a private, nonprofit organization, tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or a public institution.  Either the applicant or program to be funded must be located in the Foundation’s eleven-county geographic service area (Calhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, Jackson, Mason, Pleasants, Ritchie, Roane, Wirt, and Wood counties in West Virginia, and Washington County, Ohio).  Submitted applications are considered for support from charitable funds managed by the Foundation that are designed to support a wide variety of projects and causes throughout the region.

The fall 2019 Parkersburg Area Community Foundation & Regional Affiliates grant recipients are:

• American Red Cross of Northwest West Virginia Chapter - $4,000 to install smoke alarms in homes and assist families impacted by house fires
• Boys and Girls Club of Parkersburg - $15,000 to replace the HVAC unit serving the gymnasium
• Boys and Girls Club of Pleasants County - $2,020 to purchase materials and supplies to enhance Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math programs
• Calhoun County Committee on Aging - $4,550 to replace an air conditioning unit
• Calhoun County Family Resource Network – $7,500 to provide healthy food for limited-resource senior citizens
• Calhoun County Schools - $9,650 for suicide prevention programs
• City of Spencer - $6,400 to renovate the Spencer Armory
• Doddridge County Family Resource Network - $2,650 to purchase bedding for youth through the annual Good Shepherd Tree Program
• Ely Chapman Education Foundation - $6,700 to purchase a new commercial dishwasher
• GFWC Parkersburg Woman’s Club - $5,000 to support the Brown Bag project, which provides nutritious food for weekends for students in need at McKinley and Emerson Elementary Schools
• Gilmer County Family Resource Network - $2,000 to support the teen shoe box project, which provides hygiene items, gloves, and socks for teens at Christmas
• Harmony Mental Health - $3,750 to assist with renovations to their new facility in Elizabeth, WV, where they provide counseling services and trauma-informed care
• Healthy Grandfamilies Coalition - $5,000 to provide meals at educational programs to help grandparents who are raising grandchildren
• Mid-Ohio Valley Foster Grandparent Program - $4,000 to support seniors who mentor children in schools and nonprofits organizations in the region
• Normantown Historical Community Center - $10,575 to replace a roof on their facility in Gilmer County
• Parents and Friends of the Hearing Impaired - $5,000 to provide hearing aids to limited-resource individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing
• Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library - $15,000 to upgrade technology and equipment
• Regeneration/Packs of Plenty - $3,500 to provide food to Ritchie County students on weekends and school holidays
• Ritchie County Family Resource Network - $1,000 to purchase hygiene and cleaning products to be distributed to low-income individuals
• Rosenbaum Family House and WVU Medicine - $5,000 to assist with costs for patient families from the PACF service region who stay at the house during care and treatment for a loved one or family member
• South Parkersburg United Methodist - $6,000 to support the Backpack Blessings Program, which provides food on weekends to students from Martin, Gihon, and Fairplains elementary schools
• The Salvation Army - $15,000 to upgrade kitchen equipment to provide hot and nutritious meals to those who struggle with poverty and hunger
• Voices for Children – CASA - $11,400 to support programs that provide direct services through volunteer advocacy for abused and neglected children
• Wood County Schools - $15,000 to support training and implementation of Safe Talk, a suicide prevention program
• Wood County Society - $12,500 to support staffing for the new ArtBeat Studio, a collaborative and adaptive community art studio
• West Virginia Health Right - $6,500 to purchase dental supplies for the mobile dental unit serving Roane County residents
• West Virginia University at Parkersburg - $5,000 to purchase supplies and equipment for two summerTeen Tech Academies to provide Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math experiences for area youth
• YMCA of Parkersburg - $12,500 to purchase a Microsoft Surface Pro for each of ten after-school sites to use for academic mentoring and for general operating support

In addition, through the support of the Tamara K. Brown Helping to Heal Fund, the Hollow Creeks Fund, and the Mid-Ohio Valley Endowment for Women, Children, and Families, the PACF provided support to school nurses at the following schools to purchase equipment to help them meet student health needs:

• Blennerhassett Elementary School - $250 to purchase period preparedness kits for 5^th grade girls
• Blennerhassett Middle School  - $60 to purchase an automatic wrist blood pressure monitor
• Franklin Elementary Center - $246 to purchase a “Stop the Bleed” kit and supplies to address traumatic injuries
• Greenmont Elementary School - $230 to purchase a refrigerator to store medications
• Kanawha Elementary School - $150 to renovate gym shower rooms for student use
• Parkersburg South High School - $250 to purchase CPR training supplies

In addition to the grants announced above, the Foundation’s Ritchie County, Doddridge County, and Little Kanawha Area Community Foundation affiliates recently announced an additional $8,950 in grants to organizations providing services in Ritchie, Doddridge, Wirt, Calhoun, and Gilmer counties.

The Doddridge County Community Foundation (DCCF), the Ritchie County Community Foundation (RCCF), and the Little Kanawha Area Community Foundation (LKACF), affiliates of the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation (PACF), recently announced their fall grants to support charitable organizations in their service areas.

DCCF awarded the following grant:

• Doddridge County Family Resource Network - $1,950 grant from the Doddridge County Grantmaking Fund to provide bedding, blankets, and pillows to youth through the annual Good Shepherd Tree Program, which provides Christmas wish list items to children newborn through age 18.

LKACF awarded the following grants:

•  Calhoun County Schools - $1,250 from the Little Kanawha Area Grantmaking Fund for suicide prevention programs.
  
•  Harmony Mental Health - $1,250 from the Little Kanawha Area Grantmaking Fund to help renovate the organization’s new facility in Elizabeth, where they provide counseling services to area residents, including trauma-informed care to children and youth.
• Normantown Historical Community Center - $500 from the Gilmer County Grantmaking Fund to help replace a roof on their facility.
• Pleasant Hill Elementary School - $500 from the Edna Yoak Robinson Fund for Education to bring the West Virginia Farm Bureau's Mobile Agriculture Education Science Lab to the school in January, where students will explore the importance of agriculture in everyday life, conduct experiments, and learn about nutrition and health lifestyles.

RCCF awarded the following grants:

• Regeneration/Packs of Plenty - $1,000 from the Ritchie County Grantmaking Fund to provide food to Ritchie County students on weekends and school holidays.
• Mid-Ohio Valley Foster Grandparent Program - $1,000 from the Ritchie County Grantmaking Fund to support seniors placed in Ritchie County schools and nonprofit organizations to assist children and youth with learning activities.
• Ritchie County Family Resource Network - $1,000 grant from the Ritchie County Grantmaking Fund to purchase hygiene and cleaning products to be distributed to low-income families in need.
• American Red Cross - $500 from the Ritchie County Grantmaking Fund to install smoke alarms in Ritchie County residents' homes and assist families impacted by house fires.
  

DCCF, RCCF, and LKACF held a reception at Calhoun Banks on November 12, to announce grants and present the awards to recipients. “We appreciate the generosity of Martha Haymaker and Calhoun Banks for hosting us for our grant reception,” said Marian Clowes, PACF Associate Director for Community Leadership. “We are pleased to be able to support these great organizations as they work to help improve the lives of youth, seniors, and families in our region.”

Volunteer firefighters must be ready for anything: car accidents, structure fires, missing persons, gas leaks.  They may need to cut a tree out of a road or triage a six-vehicle accident on U.S Route 50.  When someone has an emergency in a small town, in many instances, the Volunteer Fire Department is expected to take care of it.  “What is routine to us is life-altering to someone else,” said Craig Mullens, President of the Harrisville Volunteer Fire Department and a second-generation firefighter.  “We are expected to do our best on someone’s worst day.”

Up-to-date equipment is critical for a fire department.  The Department has received many grants from the PACF and its Ritchie County Community Foundation affiliate.  Over the years, these grant awards have enabled the Department to purchase a utility terrain vehicle (UTV) and trailer, communication gear, a spare Jaws of Life® device (60% of calls are related to vehicle accidents), and turnout gear (protective pants, coats, helmets, and gloves). 

Over the past five years, the PACF and its regional affiliates has awarded nearly $105,000 to local emergency service groups helping to purchase protective apparel, communication devices, and life-saving equipment.  The majority of these grants were made possible by the Foundation’s Unrestricted Funds, Field of Interest Funds, and Donor Advised Funds.  

Mullen has high praise for the Foundation.  “It’s a great organization and it’s made possible by wonderful people.  They provide for the community,” Mullens said.  “Where there’s a need for a nonprofit, they seem to be able to help out.”