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PACF awards annual fall grants

PARKERSBURG – Our Community’s Foundation celebrated the announcement of its annual fall grant awards Tuesday with a luncheon.

“(Tuesday) is the national day of giving, which we thought was appropriate since we are about giving to the community in many different ways,” said Marian Clowes, program and development officer for the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation.

Clowes went on to speak of appreciation for every person or group who donates to their local community foundation.

“We appreciate all of the donors throughout the region who have given to their community by giving to their community foundation,” she said. “Everything we have or will ever do is because of our donors.”

Our Community’s Foundation is the collective name for the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation and its Regional Affiliate organizations in Doddridge, Jackson, Little Kanawha Area, Mason and Ritchie counties.

In this cycle, the PACF awarded grants totaling $134,800 to 30 different organizations. In conjunction, Jackson County Community Foundation awarded $5,000; Mason County Community Foundation awarded $55,133; Ritchie County Community Foundation awarded $3,580; Little Kanawha Area Community Foundation awarded $1,250; and Doddridge County Community Foundation awarded $1,150.

Grants awarded through the Community Action Grant program are provided through various unrestricted, field of interest and donor advised funds at the foundation.

The 2013 calendar year marks the 50th anniversary of the PACF as a tax-exempt nonprofit public charity foundation, which was created in 1963 by local citizens to make grants to nonprofits, schools, churches and municipalities in 11 counties and scholarships to students. While the foundation offers many different types of charitable funds, the focus is to build permanent endowments to annually distribute some earnings forever.

“Throughout this year, we have been excited to celebrate half a century of giving to the community,” Clowes said.

Through the Fall Community Action Grants program, a total of $200,913 was awarded to organizations within the foundation’s 11-county service region of Wood, Wirt, Ritchie, Doddridge, Mason, Calhoun, Gilmer, Roane, Pleasants and Jackson counties in West Virginia and Washington County, Ohio.

During Tuesday’s event at the PACF offices on Park Avenue, representatives of organizations who received funds through the latest grant cycle discussed their grant-funded projects and to provide input to the foundation on its grantmaking process and on the needs of the communities that the grantee organizations serve. Recipient organizations in Jackson and Mason counties received their awards during separate programs earlier in the fall.

Our Community’s Foundation began in 1963 and manages more than 400 charitable funds by supporting a variety of charitable causes in our region. In 2012, the foundation awarded $1.65 million to the region in grants and scholarships.

The organizations who received funds through the Fall Community Action Grants program were:

* Artsbridge Inc.: $1,500 for operating support to assist with relocation to a new facility.

* Community Resources: $2,600 for equipment to assist the agency in becoming paperless to improve organizational efficiency.

* Criss School Parent Teacher Association: $3,000 for the purchase of bleachers.

* Downtown PKB: $7,000 for support of the 2014 Summer Concert Series at Point Park.

* EVE Inc.: $2,000 for the Survivor’s Assistance Loan Fund.

* Jackson County Public Library Association: $7,000 to expand the family literacy program.

* Literacy Volunteers of the Mid-Ohio Valley: $1,000 to provide software and printed materials to support the needs of adult learners.

* Main Street Ripley: $2,200 for signage for Mill Creek Valley Water Trail.

* Mason County CERT: $4,000 to provide equipment for CERT volunteers.

* Mid-Ohio Valley Fellowship Home: $7,500 for operating support.

* Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department: $5,500 to purchase meningitis vaccine.

* Nazareth Farm: $2,850 to encourage homeowners who receive home repairs through the organization to engage in community service as a means of relieving a portion of the repair costs.

* Old Man Rivers: $5,100 for painting of the facility and replacement of awnings.

* Parchment Valley Baptist Church: $5,000 for the Snak Pak project, which provides supplemental food to Jackson County school children for the weekends.

* Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library: $5,000 to digitize genealogy/local history materials.

* Parkersburg Area Coalition for the Homeless: $5,000 for operating support for House to Home.

* Parkersburg Art Center: $7,000 for operating support.

* Parkersburg High School Physical Education Department: $7,500 to purchase a heart rate monitor system for use in physical education.

* Regeneration Inc.: $5,000 to purchase supplemental food to provide Ritchie County school children with food for the weekends.

* Ritchie County Middle/High School Peer Mediators: $3,000 to support training for the school’s peer mediators.

* SW Resources Inc.:- $7,600 to purchase carpet cleaning equipment to employ clients.

* The BoMar Club: $3,250 to replace windows in the club facility.

* Vienna Public Library: $5,300 to update the library’s computer lab with new computers and software.

* West Central Beekeeping Association: $2,000 to purchase equipment in order to provide training for beekeepers and to introduce the art of beekeeping to students.

* West Virginia Symphony Orchestra-Parkersburg: $500 to purchase a laptop computer.

* West Virginia University Foundation, Bonnie Wells Wilson Mobile Mammography Program: $5,500 to support screening mammograms for women in Doddridge, Gilmer, Pleasants, Ritchie and Wirt counties.

* West Virginia University Foundation, Children’s Vision Rehabilitation Project: $4,700 to support comprehensive low vision clinics in the Mid-Ohio Valley.

* Williamstown Elementary School: $5,200 for the purchase of iPads to improve student learning in the second and third grades.

* Wood County Christian School: $2,000 to assist with the installation of a security system.

* Wood County Habitat for Humanity: $5,000 for incentives for homeowners to participate in a post-purchase homeowner education program.

* Wood County Permanent 4-H Camp Association: $5,000 to replace the walk-in refrigeration system and large capacity mixer at the 4-H camp.

* * *

Doddridge County Community Foundation Grants

* Nazareth Farm: $1,150 to encourage homeowners who receive home repairs through the organization to engage in community service as a means of relieving a portion of the repair costs.

* * *

Jackson County Community Foundation Grants

* Cottageville Elementary School: $500 for the purchase of a digital piano and iPads to improve music instruction.

* Fannin Chapel Family Center: $1,900 to construct an emergency shelter for the people of northern Jackson and southern Wood County.

* Main Street Ripley: $1,800 for a summer arts camp for youth at the Alpine Theatre.

* West Virginia University Foundation, Children’s Vision Rehabilitation Project: $800 to support comprehensive low vision clinics for children in the Mid-Ohio Valley.

* * *

Little Kanawha Area Community Foundation Grants

* Gilmer County Family Resource Network: $250 for program support

* West Virginia University Foundation, Bonnie Wells Wilson Mobile Mammography Program: $1,000 to support screening mammograms for women in the Little Kanawha area.

* * *

Mason County Community Foundation Grants

* Ashton Elementary School: $994 to develop a listening library for first grade classrooms.

* Beale Elementary School: $1,000 to support performances by Sadecky’s Puppets, teaching kindness and respect to students.

* Main Street Baptist Church: $3,765 to support “Backpack Blessings” which provides supplemental food for weekends to participating K-2 children from Point Pleasant Primary School.

* Make a Wish of Greater Pennsylvania and Southern West Virginia: $3,900 to support wish expenses for a Mason County child.

* Mason County Alternative Education: $920 to purchase graphing calculators.

* Mason County CERT: $3,100 to provide equipment for CERT volunteers.

* Mason County Public Library: $2,600 for a display case and folding chairs.

* Mason County Schools: $4,500 to provide ACT test preparation classes for high school students.

* Mason County Sherriff’s Department: $400 to support the DARE program.

* New Haven and Community Volunteer Fire Department: $3,200 to purchase a hose reel and personal protective equipment for firefighters.

* Point Pleasant High School Baseball Boosters: $5,000 for improvements to the baseball facilities.

* Point Pleasant Junior Senior High School: $14,129 to purchase iPads and a charging cart to improve the Gordon and Mildred Jackson library’s research capabilities and to implement “flipped classroom” instruction and $900 to purchase “Geo Safari” devices for geography instruction.

* Point Pleasant Primary School: $5,500 to purchase stringed instruments to enhance music programs.

* Roosevelt Elementary School: $800 for a school garden project for fifth and sixth graders and $1,000 to purchase pedometer kits for students and teachers to improve physical fitness.

* Wahama Junior Senior High School: $925 to purchase paperback novels to be used in project-based learning in the classroom.

* West Virginia University Foundation, Children’s Vision Rehabilitation Project: $2,500 to support comprehensive low vision clinics for children in the Mid-Ohio Valley.

* * *

Ritchie County Community Foundation Grants

* Creed Collins Elementary School: $500 for iPads to assist with systematic educational reforms.

* Ritchie County Commission: $1,000 to repair the clock tower at the courthouse.

* Ritchie County Middle/High School Peer Mediators: $1,040 to support training for the school’s peer mediators.

* West Virginia University Foundation, Bonnie Wells Wilson Mobile Mammography Program: $1,040 to support screening mammograms for women in Ritchie County.

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