Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation

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Jefferson County Scholarship Grows

Rotary Club of Charles Town Awards $5,000 to EWVCF

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On Wednesday, December 13, a total of $52,000 was distributed by the Rotary Club of Charles Town to 17 nonprofit organizations that continue doing incredible work every day throughout West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. 
Grant recipients were:
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EWVCF Executive Director Michael Whalton accepted the $5,000 grant from Rotary Club of Charles Town President Amy Wix Loera during the Club’s annual Christmas for Charities luncheon held at the Corner Connection in Charles Town.
The contribution to the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation has been added to the Rotary Club of Charles Town Scholarship Fund. Established several years ago by the club, the fund annually awards a $500 scholarship to a graduating senior from Jefferson and Washington High Schools.

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EASTERN PANHANDLE SCHOOLS RECEIVE $85,000 IN GRANTS FROM EWVCF

This fall, the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation (EWVCF) awarded nearly $85,000 to Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan County schools through their Education and Mini Grants for Teachers program.

129 grants were awarded to educators at forty-seven schools across the Eastern Panhandle. 94 Mini Grants totaling nearly $35,000 were given to individual teachers, and 35 Education grants totaling just under $50,000 helped fund collaborative efforts and major school projects.

In Morgan County, over $10,000 went towards projects like Morgan Golden’s Biography Bottles, wherein second and fourth graders at Pleasant View Elementary School will pair up, read a biography about a particular person, and then create a biography bottle model of their subject together. Grants also helped fund Alex Arthur’s LEGO Club at Paw Paw Schools and more up-to-date nonfiction books for Donna Meyer’s Pleasant View classroom library.

At Berkeley Springs High School, Meghan Powell and Stark Harbour received funding to take their sophomore students on a field trip to DC to visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum and WWII memorials after finishing their reading unit on the same subjects. Morgan County Schools’ Director of Child Nutrition Angela Beddow and Summer Goller received a grant to purchase vegetable processing equipment for the county’s Farm to School program.

At Morgan County Schools, Director of Child Nutrition Angela Beddow and Summer Goller received an Education grant to boost the county’s Farm to School program with new vegetable processing equipment. Pictured above (L-R) are Warm Springs Intermediate School Principal Rebecca Huber, Morgan County Commissioner Bill Clark, Angela Beddow, and Morgan County Association for Food and Farms former President Garrett Oursler in WSIS’s high tunnel.

Across Jefferson County, educators received nearly $15,000 for programs like Angela Wyatt’s “Summer Camp: A Musical Caper About Finding a Place to Belong.” Wyatt, the music teacher at Driswood Elementary School, will use her grant for costumes, props, and set pieces for the end-of-year fully-staged musical theatre production put on by the school’s 5th graders. Grants also helped purchase ukuleles and other “hands on” instruments for Bonnie Pullen’s music classroom at Ranson Elementary School, and planters to be maintained by Francine DeRonda and Michelle LaFollette’s Special Education Science classes at Harpers Ferry Middle School.

At Washington High School, Katlin Grantham and Doug Lance received funding to continue the school’s FFA Community Meals program. Six times a year, Washington High School FFA students shop for ingredients, prepare meals, and then distribute those meals to approximately 60 community members.

At Washington High School, FFA Advisor Katlin Grantham and Doug Lance received an Education grant to continue the school’s FFA Community Meals program. Pictured above, FFA member Khloe Fisher shops at Martin’s for ingredients that she and fellow FFA students will use to prepare meals that they will then distribute to approximately 60 community members.

Berkeley County educators received just under $60,000 for projects like Bree Wert’s Social Skill Staff Snack Cart at Berkeley Heights Elementary School. Every Friday, students in Wert’s Autism class take a snack cart around the building to staff members, which allows them to practice a variety of communication and math skills. This grant will allow Wert to purchase a sturdier cart that will be easier for students to push, and will last for years to come.

At Potomack Intermediate School, all 877 students will have the opportunity to participate in Kimberly Nelson and Heather Blackburn’s LEGOtastic Derby STEM project, wherein students will collaborate to design LEGO cars to be raced on a timed track. Diane Blake, Brandy McFarland, and Faith Mann received funding to paint murals in Mill Creek Intermediate School’s cafeteria. They will be painting scenes to represent West Virginia’s beautiful mountains, gardens, and apple orchards throughout the seasons. At James Rumsey Technical Institute, Rachael Propst’s Forensic Science students and Doug Shaw’s Law and Public Safety students will gain real world forensic experience while solving a fictitious crime with MiniLab kits that include an electrophoresis unit.

At James Rumsey Technical Institute, Rachael Propst and Doug Shaw received an Education grant for MiniLab Kits for their Forensic Science and Law and Public Safety classes, respectively. Pictured above (L-R) are Law and Public Safety students Jacob Kelsey, Koen Heffner, Dani Welch, Alex Arsenal, Kamrie-lyn Alder, Neveah Nesmith, and Rachel Hunter (seated).

The Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation (EWVCF) was established in 1995 to help donors create permanent endowments to provide grants and scholarships throughout the region. Since its inception, EWVCF has awarded $15 million, including over $1 million in 2022 alone. The Community Foundation now holds more than 290 endowed funds with assets of just over $38 million and is the leading steward of philanthropic giving in the region. EWVCF works with a wide range of nonprofit organizations, providing funding for projects from human welfare and scholarships to affordable housing and natural resources conservation; youth and education, animal welfare and historic preservation, and much more. For information visit www.EWVCF.org or call 304-264-0353.

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Announcing our First Frank C. Fischer Veterans Fund Grantees

The Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation’s newly established Frank C. Fischer Veterans Fund was created to support nonprofit and faith-based organizations, civic groups, and government entities that offer programs for United States Veterans. Since this is the very first year that the Community Foundation is awarding grants from the Fund, we decided to ask the readers of our newsletters and Facebook pages to recommend organizations serving Veterans in Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, and/or Hardy Counties.

The response was overwhelming, and we heard from readers about 26 programs that are doing remarkable things for Veterans in our communities. With $10,000 to award from the Frank C. Fischer Fund, we were challenged to come up with a fair and equitable way to thank more than just a few of these worthy organizations. Not willing to whittle down the number, we decided to add $3,000 from our EWVCF Endowment for the Community and award a $500 grant to each of the 26 nominees.

Congratulations to one and all! Thank you for the great work you do to support United States Veterans in our region. We are so pleased that Leslie Crabill at BCT Bank of Charles Town helped FC Fischer establish this Fund, and we look forward to awarding grants from it every Veterans Day.

Here are the 26 organizations that will be receiving $500 grants from the Frank C. Fischer Veterans Fund!

  • Access 304
  • American Legion Auxiliary Green-Copeland Unit 63
  • American Legion Auxiliary, Moorefield unit 64
  • American Legion Post 137
  • Capon Post 2102 Auxiliary
  • Eastern Action
  • Faith Feeding Freedom
  • Harpers Ferry & Bolivar Veterans Honor Guard
  • Horses with Hearts
  • Hospice of the Panhandle
  • Martinsburg Union Rescue Mission
  • Meals on Wheels of Berkeley County
  • Moorefield Church of God
  • Moorefield Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9606
  • People of Worth
  • Senior Life Services of Morgan County
  • Student Veterans of America at Blue Ridge CTC
  • The River House
  • Thin Line Service Dogs
  • To The ResQ
  • Tri-County Veterans Suicide Prevention Coalition
  • Valley View United Inc.
  • Veterans Upward Bound
  • Voices Against Domestic Violence
  • Wanishi Foundation
  • Wardensville Lions Club

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Community Foundation Joins in Annual, Nationwide Celebration

The Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation (EWVCF) joined in a nationwide celebration to recognize the increasingly important role that community foundations play in strengthening the regions they serve while addressing social issues like homelessness, polarization, and discrimination.

The Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation staff retreat was held at Cacapon State Park in late summer. The five-member team has worked hard making the Foundation the leading grantmaker in the Eastern Panhandle. (L to R) Administrative Assistant/Office and Grants Manager Rebecca Knight, Scholarship and Education Program Manager Karin Hammann Dunn, Executive Director Michael Whalton, Director of Affiliates Amy Pancake, and Associate Director/COO Susan Caperton ventured up to the scenic overlook of the beautiful park in Morgan County.

To celebrate Community Foundation Week (November 12-18), we encouraged readers to visit our Facebook page and comment about a favorite local charity. Dozens of Facebook followers responded and To the ResQ, an all-volunteer animal rescue organization that was founded in 2022 received a $500 grant from the Foundation’s Executive Director Fund. Headquartered in Harpers Ferry, To the ResQ received the most recommendations of all nonprofits serving Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan Counties.

Our affiliates awarded $250 grants to Light Up Capon Bridge in Hampshire County and Potomac Highlands Animal Rescue in Hardy County.

We are grateful for the amazing support we’ve received from professional advisors, individual donors, families, businesses, and private foundations that have helped us grow. So many charities are doing great work in our communities and this contest helped us reach even more nonprofit organizations.

Since being established in 1995, the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation has awarded more than $15 million dollars in grants and scholarships. In 2023 alone, nearly $1.3 million dollars will have been granted to support nonprofit organizations and students from Berkeley, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, and Morgan Counties.

Community foundations are independent, public charitable organizations that steward philanthropic resources from donors to local nonprofits and represent one of the fastest-growing forms of philanthropy. We have the reach, expertise, and relationships to address some of the most pressing issues impacting individuals and families nationwide. The 290 endowed funds established by our donors at the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation help us support more than 100 nonprofit organizations in the region.

As community foundations find solutions for communities large and small, urban and rural – it is the collective work of these organizations that will have the most profound impact. Community Foundation Week was created in 1989 by former president George H.W. Bush to recognize the work of community foundations throughout America and our collaborative approach to working with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to address community problems.

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Hampshire County Community Foundation Announces 2023-24 Mini Grants to Teachers

HCCF Board Chair Michael Cheshire presents a mini grant to Slanesville Elementary School teacher Jackie Heath.

More than $10,000 in grant funding was dispersed to teachers and staff at Hampshire County Schools and EACHS Head Start through the Hampshire County Community Foundation’s Mini Grants to Teachers program, which has awarded more than $78,000 in teacher mini grants since 2014.

Teachers throughout the county are encouraged to submit their needs for new classroom programs through a simple application at the beginning of the school year. Each teacher is eligible for up to a $500 award. These awards are intended to help teachers motivate and challenge their students to learn. Examples of Teacher Mini Grant awards include books for classroom libraries, comfortable spaces for independent reading, STEM materials even including drones, music and art supplies. Counselors, librarians, and school nurses are also eligible to apply.

“The Mini-Grant program connects teachers to community support, often providing additional financial resources to facilitate exciting, innovative programs,” says HCCF director, Amy Pancake. “It is a great way to thank our educators for their tremendous impact in Hampshire County.”

Twenty-three projects were funded with the support of Hampshire County Schools and donors to Hampshire County Education Fund, including:

Augusta Elementary School
Charlotte Woleslagle – $360.00 – 5th grade comprehension novel study
Barbara Ray – $472.71 – Inspiring Genius
Destiny Mullan – $489.66 – A “Handy” Way to Learn
Jennifer Metzler – $500.00 – Hand 2 Mind Learning

Capon Bridge Elementary School
Christian Shank – $462.00 – Hands-on Sight Words: Engaging Activities to Boost Reading Skills
Ann Huffman – $425.00 – Bring on Cooperative Groups
Kelly Miller – $500.00 – Math and Reading Station, Organization and seating

Capon Bridge Middle School
Arianna Pownall – $500.00  – Dissecting & Lava Lamp Science Activity
Joyce Main – $500.00 – Anatomical models for science classroom
Patricia Crowley – $500.00 – Anatomical models for science classroom

EACHS Head Start
Kelly Rayner –  $500.00 – The Importance of Literacy and Arts

Hampshire High School
Michael Anderson – $478.00 – Airbrush Set for Class
Amanda Whitacre  – $500.00 – Earth and Space Science
Beilan Su – $500.00 – Science Calculators
Jessica Evans – $500.00 – Exploring Earth and Space Science
Tina Lee – $500.00 – Lockdown Buckets
Adam Feazell – $250.00 – FLEX Student Support
Mary Basinger – $492.18  – Strategies for Success in Math Classroom
Sadie Alkire – $500.00 – Pride & Spirit Yearbook
Lindsay McNelis  – $300.00 – Novels for English 9

Romney Elementary School
Lisa Hughes – $462.73 – Development of Executive Foundation Skills for Success

Romney Middle School
Crystal Rexrode – $500.00 – STEM Beautification

Slanesville Elementary School
Jackie Heath – $500.00 – Flexible Seating

Gifts to the Education Fund may be made at any time. Making a gift of support for this program is easy (and tax deductible). Checks may be payable and mailed to: HCCF, PO Box 40, Romney, WV 26757 with “Teacher Grants” in the memo, or donors may make an on-line gift by going to https://www.ewvcf.org/donate/ and selecting the Hampshire County Education Fund from the drop-down menu.

Martinsburg Office
127 Crimson Circle
Martinsburg, WV 25403
[email protected]
304.264.0353

Romney Office
Post Office Box 40
91 South High Street
Romney, WV 26757
[email protected]
304.822.7200

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Vision

To build vibrant communities that provide opportunities for everyone living in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

Mission

To inspire philanthropy, serve donors, strengthen communities, and improve the quality of life in Eastern West Virginia now and for future generations.

Values

We honor the philanthropic vision of our donors and value their generosity. We respect the work of nonprofit organizations and the passion they bring to carrying out their missions. We earn the trust of our grantees, donors, and partners through our commitment to excellence in our stewardship and our dedication to accountability, integrity, professionalism, and transparency in all our actions. In all our work, we actively embrace accessibility, inclusion, racial and social equity, and the unity that comes from diversity.