Lee Initiatives awards $633,204 to 58 nonprofits with a focus on health and wellness

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

May 3—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — With a $5,000 grant from Lee Initiatives Health and Wellness Endowment, Nick Miller can continue providing weeklong baseball summer camps at which children in transient foster home situations are made to feel like all-stars, he said.

"Lee Initiatives has been providing for our local camps since our inception in 2013," said Miller, founder and executive director of Run Home Camps.

The camp was first established in Windber and in recent years has become a model for camps nationwide.

"These are kids with no opportunity to engage in organized sports," Miller said.

"There are very few activities for these kids who are in difficult family situations.

"They are often transient — in and out of foster care or kinship care."

In 2021, the organization opened its first branch camp in Phoenix, Arizona; then Tulsa, Oklahoma; then Texas and Wisconsin.

"It's beyond what we could have imagined," Miller said. "We intended to do it locally, but we found it's really a great model for the rest of the country."

Run Home Camps was one of 58 nonprofits in the Johnstown region awarded a total of $633,204 Thursday from the Lee Initiatives Health & Wellness Endowment.

The Highlands Health clinic, 315 Locust St., Johnstown, was the largest grant recipient Thursday, with an award of $50,000 to further its mission of supporting the area's residents who are uninsured or underinsured and need the support of the clinic.

"I am extremely happy because of the fact that we have been recognized for all the hard work we do for the community," said Rosalie Danchanko, executive director of Highlands Health. "It makes me proud."

Representatives from the awarded nonprofits attended Lee Initiatives' 18th annual grant award reception Thursday morning at The Boulevard Grill, 165 Southmont Blvd., Johnstown.

Lee Initiatives has provided more than $8 million to nonprofits with a focus on health and wellness since it was established 18 years ago after the sale of Lee Hospital.

The endowment fund has grown to $18 million over the years to continue the hospital's mission of improving the health and wellness of the community, said Jodi Clark, Lee Initiatives CEO.

"All of us can attest to the fact that since COVID-19 pandemic, costs have increased everywhere," she said. "These organizations have to work twice as hard. It's so rewarding to be giving away funds to organizations that we need in the community."

She encouraged people to donate to the fund to help keep grants flowing for nonprofits well into the future, and she encouraged more nonprofits to apply for grants.