The Hardy County Community Foundation is pleased to announce that it has awarded nineteen grants totaling $23,312.20 to support local organizations and programs. These grants represent distributions from five endowment funds held by the Community Foundation.

The Hardy County Community Impact Fund is an unrestricted grantmaking fund and provides the Community Foundation with the greatest flexibility to respond to the community’s current and evolving needs and opportunities. Grants from this fund include:

• Big Blue Wardensville – $1,000 for transporting youth to and from the community center;
• Catholic Charities of WV – $1,000 to provide emergency assistance for Hardy County individuals and families;
• Children’s Home Society – $1,000 to help foster families purchase necessary safety items;
• EACHS Head Start – $1,000 for interactive toys that promote healthy habits;
• Eastern Regional Family Resource Network – $1,000 for its Celebrate the Family programs;
• Girls on the Run of the Shenandoah Valley – $1,000 to reduce registration fees for their 10-week program;
• Hardy County Convention & Visitor’s Bureau – $1,000 to locate African American cemeteries in Hardy County;
• Hardy County Health and Wellness Center – $1,000 for a Strong Swimmers, Safe Kids program which will provide swimming lessons for children;
• Lost River Educational Foundation – $1,000 to provide a summer series of in-person arts and culture classes;
• Moorefield Church of God – $1,000 to provide general support for the Lifted Hands Food Pantry;
• Moorefield Intermediate School – $1,000 for their Leadership Clubs;
• Moorefield Little League – $1,000 to help with the enclosure of an indoor practice facility;
• Town of Wardensville – $1,000 for summer youth basketball camps and community volunteer days;
• Wardensville Lions Club – $1,000 for their Story Time early literacy program.
• WVU Foundation – $600 for the digitization of the Moorefield Examiner, 1943-1950 editions

Grants from the Elizabeth “Betty” Pancake Williams Youth Development, Education and 4-H Fund and the Renick Cunningham Williams Community & Business Development and Entrepreneurship Fund are also supporting Girls on the Run Shenandoah Valley and the Hardy County Convention & Visitors Bureau programs.

The Deanna Wilson & J Cavanagh STEM Fund supports programs geared towards advancing interest and learning in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math among youth. This fund awarded a $1,000 grant to Farms Work Wonders for a STEM-themed summer camp, and a $1,000 grant to WVU Extension Service to purchase supplies and materials for STEM classes at 4-H Camp and at-home kits for family engagement.

The France Frye & June Orndorff Fund provides support for public parks located in Wardensville, WV. A $727 grant from this fund was awarded to the Town of Wardensville for general support for J. Allen Hawkins Town Park.

The Hardy County Founding Fund is a donor-advised fund, which allows donors broad flexibility in recommending grants to varying charitable organizations and causes. Bonnie Crites and Alicen Adkins received grants to support the existing robotic team at Moorefield High School and, due to high demand, add two new teams for students at the middle and intermediate schools. The Middle School also received a grant to provide materials for a MakerSpace Lab, and Susan Wojtowicz, a MMS English teacher received a grant to purchase 4 classroom sets of novels in verse to encourage student reading.  A special $5,000 donor-advised grant was awarded to Hardy County Schools to help support the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, which sends one book each month free of charge to any Hardy County child from birth to age five enrolled in the program.

The John R. and Agnes J. Mathias Fund and William “Bill” Sloan and Family Community Giving Fund are both providing funding for the Lost River Project’s Music in the Park summer live music program.

According to Amy Pancake, the Foundation’s Director, funding requests continue to increase. “We received many exceptional applications, including requests from several new organizations,” she said. “We are so pleased and thankful to be able to support a diversity of organizations that are doing such impactful work in our community. Our grants connect our donors and nonprofits around a common desire to build a stronger community and we’ve certainly seen that happen with this grant cycle,” she added. Pancake also said there will be a second grant cycle in late summer focused primarily on schools.