Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation

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Hardy County Community Foundation Announces over $23,000 in Grants

Hardy County Schools received a $5,000 grant from the Hardy County Founding Fund to support the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, which mails books for free once a month to children from birth to 5 years of age. Amanda Riggleman, the Instructional Support Specialist for Hardy County Schools also serves as the program coordinator for the program.

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.

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EWVCF Hires Susan Caperton as Associate Director/COO

            Since 2017, the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation (EWVCF) has operated successfully with just four staff members. Amy Pancake has served as the Director of Affiliates since 2008. Michael Whalton replaced the Foundation’s first Executive Director, Amy Owen, in 2012. In 2017, the Foundation created its first new position in nearly ten years, Program Manager, hiring Karin Hammann Dunn, who now serves as the Scholarship Program Manager. In 2021, Administrative Assistant/Office and Grants Manager Rebecca Knight replaced previous Director of Finance and Administration Felicia Fuller. In that time, the Foundation has grown to just over $35 million in assets and continues to award over $1 million in grants and scholarships each year.

Susan Caperton joined the team in 2023 as our Associate Director/Chief Operations Officer (COO).

            Now, EWVCF is excited to announce that we’ve invited longtime friend to the Foundation Susan Caperton to join the team as Associate Director/Chief Operations Officer. She will manage the Foundation’s committees and oversee grant, scholarship, and nonprofit education training programs. She and Executive Director Michael Whalton will work together to develop, monitor, modify, and implement long-range strategies to benefit the Community Foundation.

            Susan, a resident of Berkeley Springs, first joined EWVCF’s Board in 2015, where she served as Secretary and then Vice President. She was also a member of several of EWVCF’s committees, including the Grants Committee, Scholarship Committee, Executive Committee, and DEI Task Force.

            Susan first became involved with the Foundation through Jan Wilkins. She had been aware of EWVCF through the grant and scholarship programs. “I was impressed with the breadth and depth of impact the organization has throughout the region,” Susan said. Now, she says she is excited to join the staff and learn the ins and outs of day-to-day operations and help the Foundation to increase its impact every day.

            In addition to her years of volunteer service at the Foundation and other local nonprofits, Susan also brings a law degree to the table! She graduated from Northwestern University in 1991, completed a legal internship at Northern Trust in Chicago, and graduated from University of Michigan Law School in 1996. While working in Chicago, she met Gat Caperton, and the two were married in June 1996. They moved to West Virginia that same year, where he purchased Tom Seely Furniture (now Gat Creek) and she joined Bowles Rice LLP, working there for two years.

            Since moving to the Eastern Panhandle, Susan has served a myriad of organizations. She is the current Board President of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of the Eastern Panhandle, a position she has held for four years now. She is also on the Board of the Tom and Virginia Seely Foundation, Morgan Arts Council, Morgan County Starting Points, and Morgan County Partnership; at the last organization, she served as Executive Director from 2008 to 2010.

            Susan and Gat have three daughters. Their eldest, Eliza, 24, graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2021 and now works at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Katie, 22, is a senior at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Their youngest, Evie, is 20 and a sophomore at Grinell College in Iowa. When not working, Susan and Gat enjoy spending time with friends and family, including their dog Annie and cat Oliver.

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EWVCF Awards Over $160K in Youth and Education Grants to Eastern Panhandle Nonprofits and Schools

            The Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation (EWVCF) recently awarded 53 Youth and Education grants, totaling $163,525.43, to 38 organizations tackling the issues faced by families and young ones in Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan County.

            The majority of the funding went to organizations addressing the most basic needs in the Eastern Panhandle. $73,800 will allow organizations such as Community Networks, Graciously Giving Foundation, Faith Community Coalition for the Homeless, Renewed Life Ministry, the Children’s Vision Rehabilitation Program, and Morgan County Starting Points to continue to provide food, shelter, medical care, clothes, childcare, and more to the most vulnerable among us. The Martinsburg Initiative will use their five grants to continue their outreach to local schools in an effort to prevent substance abuse disorders and build strong families in our area. Community Combined Ministries received two grants to support the Kidz Power Pacs program, a vital community effort to end childhood hunger in the Eastern Panhandle.

The West Virginia University Foundation/Children’s Vision Rehabilitation Program team.

            Educational programs in our area received $40,626.43. Nearly $17,000 will be used to improve the literacy of Eastern Panhandle young ones. Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Libraries received a grant for their 2023 Summer Reading Program “All Together Now.” Youth Services Manager Emily Jones reported that Berkeley County school teachers greatly appreciate the library’s reading programs which have been proven to help students maintain reading proficiency through the summer months. Martinsburg Sunrise Rotary Foundation will distribute ten books of each child’s choosing to every second grade student in Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan County through their Eastern Panhandle Reading program. Multiple school officials voiced their support and enthusiasm for this program which distributes tens of thousands of new books every year.  Likewise, EL teacher Jill Leathers of Opequon Elementary School will use her grant to continue to build a bilingual library in her classroom, where students will be allowed to check out bags of these books to encourage at-home reading. Spring Mills Middle School teacher Stephanie Gardner will use her grant to expand and diversify the history books in her 8th grade West Virginia Studies classroom library.

Second graders receiving books from the Martinsburg Sunrise Rotary Foundation.

            Nearly $12,000 will fund STEM-related programs. Harpers Ferry Middle School’s Jill Fornadley, recipient of several previous EWVCF grants and ever the champion of learning via virtual reality, will use this grant to purchase cameras that will allow her students to film and create their own virtual Social Studies content about local West Virginia history which could be shared in schools throughout the state. Kristina Allis, Technology Integration Specialist at Orchard View Intermediate School, will use her grant to purchase Snap Circuits, electrical kits that allow children ages 8 and above to learn about electricity by creating functional circuit boards.  At Wind Dance Farm & Earth Education Center in Morgan County, Director and Environmental Educator Leslie-Devine Milbourne received a grant for technological upgrades and supplies, which will allow the organization to continue their vital work of educating local youth about nature and the environment through their Student Citizen Scientist programs.

Kids enjoy the many outdoor educational programs at Wind Dance Farm and Earth Education Center.

            EWVCF also funded an exciting new educational program from the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission. The Commission is dedicated to providing heritage education to all ages, and this grant will allow them to deliver direct presentations to all Jefferson County 4th grade classrooms. Dr. Deborah Rochefort will travel to all nine elementary schools, presenting herself as a woman from 1775 and teaching students about 18th century textiles. Commission Chair Martin Burke anticipates that this program will generate “more appreciation and interest in life in the 18th century” among Jefferson County students as they are taught American Colonial History.

Dr. Deborah Rochefort.

            Organizations and programs dedicated to fostering a love of the arts in Eastern Panhandle youth received $20,434. The Apollo Civic Theatre, BlackCat Music Cooperative, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and Morgan Arts Council all received grants which will allow them to continue their vital work educating Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan County young ones on the importance of creativity and self-expression through art. Meghan O’Neill of Shepherdstown Middle School and Jordan English of Spring Mills Middle School will use their grants to further musical education. Kim Patton, School Counselor at Opequon Elementary School, will use her grant to ensure that every student will receive a box of multicultural crayons and construction paper for school projects.

The Contemporary American Theatre Festival’s Hostel YOUTH! immersive summer educational program.

            Recreational programs and programs tackling the social and emotional needs of our youth received nearly $30,000. Neil Troppman, Head Coach of the Boy’s Club Lacrosse at Martinsburg High School, received a grant to purchase new helmets for every member of the team. Burke Street Elementary School families will enjoy the opportunity to have portraits taken by a professional photographer at the school thanks to a grant received by School Counselor Teresa Weller. Teri Wilson of Berkeley Heights Elementary School received a grant to purchase Playground Activity Panels, which will allow students to enjoy independent, unstructured outdoor playtime.

Martinsburg High School Boys Club Lacrosse.

            Another vital Eastern Panhandle organization, Potomac Valley Audubon Society, received four grants. Two of those grants will support their “Nature in the Neighborhood” programs, allowing PVAS to bring summer camp experiences to disadvantaged youth in Berkeley and Jefferson county. The other two grants will allow PVAS to continue to bring hands-on environmental education programs directly to schools in our area. Executive Director Kristin Alexander shared the following story with EWVCF about the organization’s Lead Educator Amy Moore Thomas’s recent successful trip to a classroom at Marlowe Elementary School. “Amy had the BEST time presenting her ‘Bugs a Billion’ program to 1st graders,” Alexander wrote. “They got to hold wiggly mealworms and one little girl told Amy that she’d been scared of bugs before the program, but now she was HOLDING one and she wasn’t scared anymore.” When Amy lead students outside to see even more insects, the kids began jumping up and down with excitement. “Amy came back and shared that those kinds of programs are why she loves her job. They re-energize her every time. Thank you for making these programs possible for ALL students,” said Alexander.

One of Potomac Valley Audubon Society’s many classroom programs.

            The Community Foundation’s Youth and Education grants are made possible thanks to the generosity of EWVCF’s donors. Funding came from the Jane P. Snyder Youth Fund, C. Scott and Elizabeth C. Shade Youth Fund, Bonn Poland Family Roundhouse Recreation Fund, Frada Fine Berkeley County Education Fund, and the Tom and Virginia Seely Morgan County Children’s Fund. Additionally, the Fund advisors for the Bill and Nancy White Charitable Fund, Fleming Family Fund, W. Randy Smith Family Fund, and the Michael and Brenda Mullin Charitable Fund stepped in and allowed the Foundation to award nearly $66,000 more than initially expected.

            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 nearly $14.7 million, including $1 million in 2022 alone. The Community Foundation now holds more than 260 endowed funds with assets of $34 million and it 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 to animal welfare and historic preservation, and much more. For information visit www.EWVCF.org, or contact EWVCF Executive Director Michael Whalton at [email protected] , 304-264-0353.

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Martinsburg’s Street Festivals Celebrate Unity, Diversity, and Juneteenth

The Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation (EWVCF) is proud to support two free community events in Martinsburg this weekend, Unity in the Community on the 18th and the Juneteenth Marketplace Celebration on the 19th. A grant from the Foundation’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fund helped support the Community Corner during Saturday’s Unity in the Community event, taking place from 12 PM to 5 PM on Queen and Martin Street.

Unity in the Community is Martinsburg’s newest street fest and the area’s biggest party, thrown “in the spirit of inclusion and positivity!” Locals and visitors alike are encouraged to come and enjoy live music from Martinsburg’s own Christian Lopez, meals from a diverse array of food trucks, a beer garden for the adults, lots of activities for children, the Community Corner highlighting local nonprofit organizations, and the annual Father’s Day Car Show.

Then on Sunday, June 19th, the Juneteenth Marketplace Celebration will take place from 1 PM to 5 PM at the Martinsburg Shopping Plaza on Winchester Avenue. Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in America, with observances dating back to 1865. From 1 PM to 5 PM this Sunday, Martinsburg residents can enjoy live entertainment throughout the afternoon, with more than a dozen performances as well as a DJ. During the festivities, visitors can shop from local vendors and enjoy food from local restaurants and food trucks.

We hope that you will join the Eastern West Community Foundation in celebrating Martinsburg’s community and history this weekend and enjoy these free events that will be fun for the entire family!

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Two Rivers Giving Circle Honors Jane Rissler

The Two Rivers Giving Circle has honored Jane Rissler, the director of the Jefferson County Museum, with its 2022 Preservation Award.

The award was presented at a ceremony and reception held on the afternoon of Sunday, May 15, at the museum in Charles Town. It is a personalized, handcrafted platter made from local clay by award-winning potters Pam and Ren Parziale, of Sycamore Pottery in Leetown.

The accompanying photo shows Giving Circle member Linda Case, left, presenting the award to Ms. Rissler. They are standing in front of a historic flag that was conserved for the museum’s collection with help from a Two Rivers Giving Circle grant. The flag is from Charles Town’s Green-Copeland American Legion Post 63, founded in 1929 by local African Americans who had served in World War I.

The Two Rivers Giving Circle is a field of interest fund of the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation. Since its inception in 2008, it has provided more than $110,000 to Eastern Panhandle organizations engaged in natural resources conservation and historic preservation. It is one of the few grant makers in the region that focuses on these two fields.

Each year, the Giving Circle also recognizes one or more individuals who have been leaders in one or both of these fields.

A Jefferson County native, Ms. Rissler received a bachelor’s degree from Shepherd College, a master’s from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in plant pathology from Cornell University. Her ensuing career as a scientist spanned three-and-a-half decades and included positions with the University of Maryland, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

In 2005, while she was still working and commuting from Jefferson County to Washington, DC, she began volunteering at the county museum. When she retired in 2011, she was hired as the museum’s director.

In her presenting remarks, Ms. Case said Ms. Rissler has greatly modernized the museum’s operations during her tenure as director, leading major upgrades in its computing capabilities and online presence. She has also modernized and strengthened its finances, establishing a special new fund dedicated to acquisitions and conservation, and successfully seeking grant funding to help support these purposes.

“In addition,” Ms. Case said, “she has worked to build bridges to all sectors of the community. She has recounted that in 2016, the museum was preparing for an exhibit and realized it was not representing African Americans and women’s contributions to the county. Since then, she has made a strong push to diversify the museum’s collection and provide exhibits that recognize the contributions of all.”

To learn more about the Giving Circle, and to get information about joining or contributing, go to the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation website at www.ewvcf.org. Or contact Michael Whalton, the Foundation’s executive director, at 304-264-0353 or [email protected]. The cost of membership in the Giving Circle is $500 annually. However, contributions of any amount are welcomed.

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.