Who received $61,600 in grants this fall from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies?
Five volunteer fire departments and 12 other Somerset County nonprofit organizations were awarded a total of $61,600 in grants from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies during its fall grant allocation cycle.
Of that total, $37,590 came from the Somerset County Community Fund, an endowment that specifically benefits Somerset County nonprofit organizations. Donors can contribute to the Somerset County Community Fund through the community foundation’s website, cfalleghenies.org (click on Somerset County at the top of the page).
The two largest grant distributions of $7,500 each went to organizations that help local residents through difficult times — the Somerset Walk of Hope fund and The Salvation Army Somerset Service Center.
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The Somerset Walk of Hope fund helps county residents who are undergoing cancer treatment with immediate financial needs such as traveling expenses, medication or medical bills and utility payments, said Marlene Singer, Johnstown Walk of Hope coordinator.
The Somerset Walk of Hope fund started in Jan. 2021 and it is modeled after the Johnstown Walk of Hope, which provides financial assistance to people receiving cancer treatment at facilities in the Johnstown area. Both funds are managed by the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies.
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“Now that UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Somerset has resumed providing treatment here in Somerset County, the need to support county residents has increased,” Singer wrote in an email to the Daily American. “In 2021, the Somerset Walk of Hope fund received 23 requests from 13 patients. In 2022, the fund assisted 59 patients with 91 requests. Many of the requests have been for travel expenses to and from treatment or for treatment out of the area.
“The total expenses (paid) for Somerset County residents has exceeded $25,000.”
Staff at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Somerset work with their patients to apply for funding through the Somerset Walk of Hope, Singer said. Also, any person or group who wants to plan a fundraising activity for the Somerset Walk of Hope can contact Lladel Lichty, Somerset County endowments director, at 814-525-9020 or llichty@cfalleghenies.org.
The Salvation Army Somerset Service Center also received a $7,500 grant for its Operation Warm Hearts winter heating assistance program. Operation Warm Hearts helps residents who are in need of some financial help to heat their homes this winter, according to Gale Purbaugh, director of the Somerset Center.
“People are having to make the choice to put food on the table or pay their electric bill,” she said. “They need help. There is no shame in asking for help. We all need help at some point.”
Five volunteer fire departments received funding as well: Boswell, $3,000 to purchase two automated external defibrillators, or AEDs; Friedens, $3,000 to purchase a new commercial range; Hooversville, $2,000 for an equipment purchase; Somerset, $4,000 to purchase automated external defibrillators and Stoystown, $2,550 for an equipment purchase.
The Meyersdale Public Library received a $1,450 grant from the foundation to add and upgrade the security cameras at the library, said Terri Foster, library director.
“It is our hope that the additional security will contribute to a sense of safety within the library for both library patrons and staff members,” she said in an email.
In addition, the library's Safety First project includes purchasing new library materials on the subject of personal safety, security and crime prevention, as well as plans to present an educational program about personal safety for the community next spring.
“This (educational program) is in accordance with our library’s mission statement, which notes that ‘Libraries are not just about books, but about problem solving through information,’” she said. “We believe that crime is a problem which may be addressed, in part, through appropriate Information about ways to improve safety.”
Foster thanked the foundation and the library’s Friends of the Library patrons for their financial support for this project.
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Other organizations that received funding this fall from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies were:
Arcadia Performing Arts: $5,000 for a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system;
The Meyersdale Drama/Musical Boosters, $1,000 towards its yearly high school musical production;
Next Step Center, $1,500 for its General Assistance Program;
Pennsylvania Maple Festival, $6,000 for capital improvements to Festival Park and Maple Manor;
Shade Creek Watershed Association, $6,100 for field equipment improvements;
Somerset County Foundation for Higher Education, $3,000 for equipment for the Penn West Clarion University-Somerset nursing program;
Somerset County Foundation for Higher Education, $2,000 for the ACM early college scholarship program;
Somerset County Library, $1,000 for phase one of an HR Review project; and
Somerset County Mobile Food Bank, $5,000 for its Feeding Our Neighbors program.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: 17 Somerset County organizations receive Community Foundation grants
