Community Foundation for the Alleghenies hands out $225K to shore up area nonprofits, back projects
SOMERSET, Pa. – The Next Step Center received a $3,500 boost this week to continue a program that helps people get past low points in life and achieve brighter futures.
The Shade Creek Watershed Association landed $5,000 for a different kind of transition – identifying a way to move pollutants from five mine discharge areas to a central treatment site, said Larry Hutchinson, the association’s vice president.
Both groups were among 67 nonprofits receiving shares this week of more than $225,000 in spring grant awards from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies.
Some 34 projects in Cambria County, 14 in Somerset County and 11 in Bedford County, along with eight multi-county efforts, received support through separate endowments established in those counties.
Community Foundation for the Alleghenies Associate Director Angie Berzonski said county-level committees reviewed 110 applications seeking a total of $627,000 in support.
Through continued contributions, they were able to grant $225,000 in requests, including $49,920 in Somerset County and $111,000 in Cambria County.
That included $41,000 for emergency service providers, including the Ashville, Cover Hill and Middle Taylor Township fire departments; another $22,000 for efforts to combat poverty; and $24,000 for local libraries, Berzonski said.
Somerset County Library Director Cheryl Morgan said her nonprofit’s $3,000 grant will put some of the library’s most popular offerings in Confluence.
Through the “Library ASAP” project, Confluence-area residents will be able to order books and other resources online from libraries in Somerset and Bedford counties, and have them sent to a drop-off “exchange locker.”
Mobile shelves will also be added at the small Logan Place lending library site to quickly relocate books and open up floor space for summer programs such as STEAM Storytime, she said.
“The space down there is limited, so this is really going to open up more opportunities,” she said, “and we couldn’t do this without help.”
In Johnstown, one of the largest grant awards was received by the Artist-Blacksmith’s Association of North America.
The Johnstown-based group is planning to use the $7,500 in funds to host an international team forging competition in downtown’s Central Park.
The Cambria County Clothing Boutique nonprofit secured $2,500 to duplicate a Greater Johnstown School District “clothing closet” effort at Ferndale Area schools, Berzonski said.
The Humane Society of Cambria County secured $6,500 to replace its water heater.
In Bedford County, a project to upgrade the Bedford County Playhouse’s exterior windows and doors received $6,000.
‘This funding is huge’
The Shade Creek Watershed Association’s Hutchinson praised the grant program, saying his group’s award will help pin down the first step of an ambitious five-year effort to clean up Dark Shade Creek.
Step one involves working with a local engineer to map underground mine floors between acid mine discharge sites, which one day could be used as a network to direct those flows to a central treatment site.
“Before we can pump or transport those discharges, we need to map the area,” he said, “so this funding is huge for us.”
For other groups, the funds will enable projects already underway to continue.
The Next Step Center’s 30-day “Transitions Program” provided life skills, wellness and self-sufficiency to 85 program graduates in 2023. Each arrived a month earlier facing homelessness, addiction or other roadblocks to reclaiming their lives, said Justin Kerrigan, office and facilities maintenance manager.
This year’s support from the Somerset County Endowment will ensure those efforts continue, he said.
“This helps us ... help them,” he said, “and it helps them get back on a path toward self-sufficiency.”
