Community Foundation for the Alleghenies awards $336,974 in grants for local projects

Russ O Reilly, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·2 min read

Nov. 22—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — The Community Foundation for the Alleghenies awarded $336,974 Tuesday to further 87 projects in Cambria, Somerset, Indiana and Bedford counties.

The foundation's fall 2023 grant awards were announced at Sandyvale Memorial Gardens and Conservancy, which received a grant of $7,500 to build a garage to house landscaping equipment, make renovations to restroom facilities and expand programming to winter months.

"Sandyvale is grateful for this grant from the Community Foundation, which will ultimately enable us to expand our educational programming for the region's students, adults, seniors, the physically challenged, and surrounding low-income communities," Sandyvale Memorial Gardens and Conservancy President Diana Kabo said.

Including the project at Sandyvale Memorial Gardens and Conservancy, the CFA will distribute more than $90,000 in funding for initiatives in arts, neighborhood beautification, support services for people with cancer, addiction counseling services and early childhood education projects in Cambria County.

"It heartens me, because I can point to this project and the many others and show donors what is being done with endowment funds at the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, which encourages new donation," CFA President and CEO Mike Kane said Tuesday at Sandyvale Memorial Gardens and Conservancy.

More than $71,000 is set to be directed to Somerset County, where nearly half of the grants are meeting essential community needs. Approximately $18,000 is dedicated to upgrading life-saving equipment for local volunteer fire departments.

Organizations providing weekend meals to students or funds for household heating assistance are also grant recipients.

Indiana and Bedford counties received more than $50,000 each to support similar projects, including updating fire protection equipment, childcare facility expansion and children's educational and recreational programming.

"A total of 105 applications were submitted requesting more than $600,000 in funding so we, unfortunately, could not support them all," Kane said.

"We encourage anyone who wants to be able to make a contribution that can be used toward a wide variety of needs to reach out to us or visit our website and make a gift to our fund for the future."