photo by: Josie Burkhart

St. Clairsville Middle School Principal Mike McKeever accepts a Belmont County Enrichment Fund grant through the Community Foundation of the Ohio Valley for the project Lego Education to Benefit STEM Classrooms.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley awarded more than $50,000 to organizations in the Ohio Valley through the Belmont County Enrichment Fund.

The grants were awarded to 13 organizations’ projects that improve the quality of life for residents of Belmont County.

CFOV awarded a total of $50,135 to support 13 projects at a reception Thursday morning. Representatives of the organizations were on hand to take home the grants.

The mission of Belmont County Enrichment Fund is to strengthen and uplift Belmont County through strategic philanthropic efforts.

“Every year, we witness the difference these grants make in Belmont County,” said CFOV Executive Director Susie Nelson. “It is inspiring to see the dedication of local organizations working to improve the lives of those in our community, and we are honored to support their efforts.”

Some schools in Belmont County received grants to fund their projects, including Union Local School District for its Trust-Based Relational Intervention at ULSD project, St. Clairsville-Richland City Schools for its Lego Education project to benefit science, technology, engineering and math and Bellaire Local Schools for its OMNIVERSE project, which is technology that includes virtual reality.

A few churches also received grants, including Calvary Presbyterian Church of St. Clairsville for its Little Kidz Kloset Outreach, which provides useful items to children ages birth to 5; First Christian Church for its 5 Loaves Food Ministry to support those struggling with food insecurity; Barnesville First United Methodist Church for Blessing Bags, which provides weekend food bags for Barnesville schools students facing food insecurity; and Thoburn United Methodist Church for St. Clairsville Food Pantry Freezer Replacement, which aims to expand storage capacity.

Other organizations that received grants include the Belmont County General Health District: Be a Lifesaver project that is to provide CPR and AED training to the public; Faith in Action Caregivers Inc. for its Volunteer Match Program, providing no-cost transportation for older adults and those with disabilities; OR&W Fire District for Lifting Air Bags; R.L. Strength & Conditioning Guiding the Youth project; Somerton Volunteer Fire Department for Hazardous Weather Emergency Equipment; and Tri-County Help Center Impacting the Community Through Anti-Violence Initiatives project.

All of the organizations expressed gratitude for the opportunity to receive these grants for their projects and missions.

The general health district’s goal is to have Belmont County residents and those in surrounding areas to be trained in lifesaving measures via CPR and AED to help save lives through its Be a Lifesaver project. The health department would offer this training to the public.

“Our vision at the health department is health promotion, prevention and intervention,” representatives said. “Offering CPR certification and training will help our organization fulfill our mission, vision and values of education, information, knowledge, care and dedication to Belmont County residents.”

While the health department wants to offer CPR training, Rick Leigh offers training to children to make a difference in their lives by building self-esteem, athletic skills and confidence through the program.

Leigh wants to build the children up physically and mentally, saying people might not know how many children in the valley are raising themselves right now and don’t have anyone tell them what’s right and what’s wrong. He said many children might be heading down the wrong path, but his program brings them back.

“I’m a product of that, going down the wrong path and trying to make my way out, so with so many kids and the incomes are very low, not having a place to go and being accepted,” he said. “… (W)e give them a place to be, they feel part of something, and they work out. So this fund helps us keep that going.”

Tri-County Help Center has a group room in its main office and will have survivor support groups in the group room. The goal with the funding now is to update furniture and equipment in the room.

Tri-County Help Center is going to schools right now, primarily visting seventh-graders, to offer educational presentations on what domestic violence, dating violence, bullying and sexual assault look like in a relationship.

“I think there’s a need in the community. We try to help with that,” representatives of Tri-County said. “So this funding will really help us connect with our members of the community, as well as offer a safe space for survivors in the community to come and share their stories, talk to somebody, know that they have support.”

The committee looks at all of the applications and uses a scoring rubric to determine which organizations will receive the grants.

Program Officer Debbie Stanton said the program is a competitive process and that it was very hard to say no to a lot of organizations, but after listening to all of the representatives from the organizations that were awarded talk about their projects at the Thursday reception, it makes it all worthwhile.

“Communities thrive because of nonprofit projects, because your churches, your schools, your nonprofits, they fill that gap that’s there in the community that makes things better, such as parks and schools and everything that makes a community,” Stanton said. “It’s great that it comes from a nonprofit.”