MORGANTOWN — YCF and The Shack Neighborhood House Inc. announced two new endowment funds: The Shack Neighborhood House Inc. Facility Fund and The Shack Neighborhood House Inc. Children’s Fund.
“I came to know the Shack more than 20 years ago for the same reason others have — to fulfill a need. This same need inspired Mary Behner to open the doors of the Shack 90 years ago: To offer a safe and inclusive space for local children and families to learn and play,” said former Shack board member Janel Allen.
In 1928, a time of intense poverty, Behner opened The Shack in Scott’s Run. The coal industry’s decline and the stock market crash left the residents of Scott’s Run unemployed, with limited educational opportunities. Behner had first started teaching Sunday School in an abandoned schoolhouse. She soon expanded into another abandoned building, donated by a coal company, to develop a library, charm school, choruses, sewing club and the first integrated nursery school.
Ninety years later, the Shack continues to serve the community of Scott’s Run.
“The Shack is a unique place … so full of history and heart,” said Director Tia Lasporgara. “It’s a place where anyone who walks through the door is truly family and everyone has a good Shack story or two, breathing life into the history of the Shack. It has been such a supportive part of many people’s lives for the past 90 years … truly amazing.”
YCF’s mission is to promote philanthropy and build endowment funds to benefit communities.
The Shack’s new endowment funds with YCF are to benefit the physical facility and programs.
“As a way for others to give back, the board along with the past and present executive directors believe the establishment of these funds is a way for the community to celebrate not only The Shack’s past, but also its future,” Allen said.
Collaboration with the Monongalia County Family Resources Center allows the Shack to offer care for 100 children daily, and more than 200 children daily in the summertime. The Shack runs many diverse programs annually, either free or priced on a sliding scale based on each family’s income.
The Shack is able to fully endow the Facility Fund. To achieve the $10,000 level for endowing the Children’s Fund, the board is reaching out to the community for help.
“Partnering with YCF ensures your (public) contributions have a profound effect on the community’s children and families, thus working towards the fulfillment of The Shack’s mission,” Allen said.
“YCF is eager to help The Shack meet, and exceed, their endowment goal in 2018,” said Patty Showers Ryan, YCF president.
Donations to its endowment funds are tax deductible and invested for long-term support. The annual earnings are available to support the facility and the programs.
“Establishing these funds is such a great way to celebrate and honor The Shack’s 90th birthday,” Lasporgara said.
For questions about The Shack, call 304-599-5466.
To make a donation to The Shack Neighborhood House Inc. Children’s Fund, mail a check payable to YCF, PO Box 409, Morgantown, WV 26507, (the memo line should indicate the name of the Fund). Donations are also accepted online at ycfwv.org. Community members may also make gifts of stock and include YCF in their estate plans to benefit either of the Shack’s endowment funds.
