MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Your Community Foundation of West Virginia has announced that a new round of distributions has been awarded to charitable organizations and schools around the North Central Region.
YCF West Virginia President Patty Showers Ryan announced on WAJR’s Talk of the Town that the organization awarded just over $301,000 in grants to 76 local charitable organizations and schools from across Harrison, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, and Taylor Counties. These grants were presented as part of a ceremony hosted at the Hotel Morgan on Tuesday with values ranging from $325 up to $25,000, with a combination of education mini-grants and ones focused on charitable efforts in the region.
“I’m really happy to say we were able to double the distribution of grant funding that we did from last year in November to this year, and that’s really a result of so many donors giving to our impact fund,” said Showers Ryan.
According to Shower Ryan, a significant amount of grant funds that were awarded during the special ceremony on Tuesday were focused on education requests from over 30 different elementary, middle, and high schools. This included grants awarded to schools in Monongalia, Preston, Taylor, and Harrison Counties, with nearly all of the requests going towards middle and high schools. These will be used to support immediate classroom needs, from learning materials to helping students in the long term.
“Sometimes those are funding things like the classroom rug for reading time, and we see a lot of requests for fidgety types of things for the classroom,” said Showers Ryan. “To help students who might need to fidget and be moving around a little bit, but we still want them learning.”
As part of a separate award presented during the ceremony on Tuesday, nonprofit Food for Preston was presented with the 3rd Annual YCF Billy Coffindaffer Award in recognition of the effort made to support forward-thinking vision and strength in governance. According to Showers Ryan, this was reflective of the over two dozen food pantries that they work with around the Preston County area as well as efforts to expand food portions for those in need in the community. A presence that the YCF board felt was worthy of the recognition.
“There were two criteria that were important to Billy Coffendaffer, and this year we selected Food for Preston, which is a nonprofit in Preston County that is working with 15 food pantries, doing outstanding work,” said Showers Ryan.
For YCF West Virginia, the awarding of over $300,000 in grant funding to North Central West Virginia nonprofits and schools reflects the annual mission of the organization to provide support to area residents and nonprofits in need, with a focus on education during the spring. This includes the distribution of over $300,000 in scholarships to North Central West Virginia high schoolers that is given out in May. With the application period for scholarship opportunities open in January, Showers Ryan encourages those looking to further their education with some financial help to keep their ears open for updates.
“We are wrapping up 2025 and making these distributions and then quickly getting ready for our scholarships,” said Showers Ryan. “In January, we will make scholarship applications available on our website for students to begin applying for scholarships that are awarded in May.”