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Playing Santa for schools, communities, nonprofits

By early 2017, Pugliese Charitable Foundation will have awarded more than $7 million

THE MONEY GUYS — Trustees of the Pugliese Charitable Foundation that will hit the $7 million giving mark by early 2017 are, from left, William W. McElwain, H. Lee Kinney and Thomas T. Timmons. The foundation has made nearly 500 grants to communities, schools and nonprofits in its history and will begin to accept applications for the new year from January to March 31. Written requests for an application can be mailed to the foundation at P.O. Box 2620, Wintersville, OH 43953-2620. The photo on the wall shows the late Douglas Naylor, who was a charter trustee of the foundation. -- Janice Kiaski

WINTERSVILLE — The Pugliese Charitable Foundation plays Santa Claus year-round.

For more than 15 years, area schools, communities and nonprofits have received presents in the form of grants to do things otherwise not likely to happen.

By early 2017, the foundation will have made nearly 500 grants since its beginnings in 1999, technically as the Charles M. Pugliese and Thelma M. Pugliese Charitable Foundation.

Such is testimony to local need and the good that foundation monies can do, agreed William W. McElwain, H. Lee Kinney and Thomas T. Timmons, trustees of the foundation also served by Robert C. Hargrave, legal counsel from the get-go.

And it constitutes another financial milestone, too.

“When we start giving money in 2017, we will hit $7 million in grants from this foundation,” Kinney said of the accomplishment, “and then to see the things we’ve done are incredible.”

The grants have been as high as more than $1 million given to Steubenville City Schools to help bring to fruition the building of Pugliese West Elementary School in the city’s West End to far smaller grants, such as $500 scholarships.

Kinney and McElwain are charter trustees of the foundation that originally also included the late Douglas Naylor. After his death, Timmons was appointed by the two.

As time passes, Kinney said he realizes many people have little if any working knowledge about  the local couple whose legacy is the foundation.

The couple primarly operated hotels, including in Steubenville, Wheeling, Warren and Portsmouth. Pugliese had a strong work ethic, loved to make money and amassed a fortune, according to Kinney, who connected with the businessman as he and McElwain and Hargrave as counsel sought investors in 1985 to launch a new bank in Steubenville — Unibank.

One of 12 children raised during the Depression by a mother he greatly admired, Pugliese turned up as one of the major investors and served on the Unibank board for the life of the bank. By his 80s, Pugliese had long been a widower with no children — Thelma having died in 1972.

A contemplation of his mortality apparently was the backdrop against which the foundation was established with Pugliese naming Kinney, McElwain and Naylor as trustees. It is a self-perpetuating, autocratic board, Kinney explained.

Pugliese funded the foundation in 1999 and died during the early 2000s.

“I always talk them up. I try to hype Mr. and Mrs. Pugliese,” Kinney said of the couple, noting the foundation in a non-brick-and-mortar gesture helps fund an annual party at the Eastern Ohio Correction Center. “I tell them how nice Mr. and Mrs. Pugliese were, that they worked hard and had no children and saved their money. I tell those guys these people actually made this  possible,” Kinney said.

McElwain said the foundation has $11.4 million in assets at present and is required by IRS regulation to award 5 percent of its assets annually. “That’s just a given,” McElwain explained. The foundation is a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt entity.

It annually entertains applications from charitable organizations with a current 501(c)3 designation and from schools and communities, the latter two of which “are tax exempt by the nature of their existence,” Kinney said.

The applications and grant guidelines may be requested in writing from the Pugliese Charitable Foundation at P.O. Box 2620, Wintersville, OH 43953-2620.

Each calendar year, applications are received the first quarter of a year through March 31 for action thereafter. An application must be postmarked by midnight March 31 for consideration.

“Our post office box fills up in March,” Kinney said, explaining that the application is not difficult but does require some basic information and an explanation of the project proposed to be funded.

The foundation doesn’t consider awards for operational expenses, favoring instead  brick-and-mortar undertakings.

“We like projects of some kind,” McElwain said.

The foundation also generally doesn’t give to the same thing multiple years, and each year a maximum award is set. “This year it’s going to be a $50,000 maximum,” Kinney said.

A quirk in the eligibility consideration department is that a prospective grantee must be within a 30-mile radius of the corner of Fourth and Market streets in downtown Steubenville, which is where Unibank was and is home now to Huntington.

“We can only give to charitable organizations within 30 miles of the bank at the corner of Fourth and Market, of course, because Charlie was on the board at the bank. He loved the bank. He had activities within that (area) he wanted to be inclusive so he just picked the mileage,” Kinney explained.

Even so, the 30-mile radius extends as far north as East Liverpool, east to Robinson Township and south to St. Clairsville, for example.

After the March 31 deadline from year to year comes the review process, according to Timmons, who explained about 30 to 40 applications are received.

“We meet after that and review the applications and decide what we’re going to do,” Timmons said.

“We start our process of elimination,” Kinney added. “If we like the idea and don’t know the people, we go visit them,” he said, noting the trustees do “quite a few site visits.

Kinney cited one example as a visit to Brooke Hills Park last year.

“They want to start building cottages like Oglebay has, and we gave them enough money to build the first cottage, so we went over there to check them out. It’s amazing what you don’t know. They have a huge park,” Kinney said.

When the recipients are selected, it’s time to play Santa Claus of sorts.

“Most of them are very grateful when they get the money, surprised sometimes when they get it, and we don’t expect a whole lot of accolades,” McElwain said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in the program and help where we can. It makes you feel good.”

McElwain likes that the foundation can help a variety of things, from small towns to food pantries.

Timmons appreciates that opportunity to help a variety of things, too.

“Being able to help a lot of organizations and a lot of small communities with hardships raising money and helping the schools, too, we’ve done a lot for the schools, that’s extremely gratifying,” Timmons said.

“We’ve done a complete variety of things,” Kinney said of the diversity.

Kinney said, although it’s never happened, people can gift money to the foundation, which would be accepted as a tax-deductible gift. “They can put it in their will or tell their attorney or send a check,” he said.

A look at some of the grants greater than $10,000 awarded through the foundation’s history include the following:

– Dyslexic Learning Center at the Masonic Temple, $22,500.

– American Legion Post 33 Teramana Ballfield, $60,000.

– American Red Cross, $32,750.

– Bergholz Volunteer Fire and Medical Equipment, $95,000.

– Bethany University, $50,000.

– Scholarships for students with financial need at the following area high schools, including Brooke, Buckeye, Catholic Central, Edison, Indian Creek, Jefferson County Joint Vocational School, Weirton Madonna, Oak Glen, Steubenville; Toronto and Weirton, $331,000.

– Burgettstown Senior Center, $75,000.

– Capital improvements at area public and private kindergarten through 12 school districts, $2,001,772.

– Franciscan University of Steubenville, $548,000.

– West Liberty University, $49,950.

– Eastern Gateway Community College, $549,500.

– Twelve area food pantries, $114,000.

– Cities of Steubenville and Toronto, $133,500.

– East Springfield Community Center, $33,851.

– East Springfield Fire Department, $25,000

– Friendship Park, $50,000.

– Hill n’ Dale Fire Department, $60,000.

– Hounds’ Haven, $45,500.

– Jefferson County Agricultural Society, $84,808.

– Fourth Street Health Center, $10,000.

– Jefferson County Historical Society, $32,980.

– Kiwanis Youth Soccer Club, $70,000.

– Martha Manor Home for the Aged, $40,000.

– Boy Scouts of America (Ohio Valley), $35,000.

– Old Fort Steuben, $25,000.

– Richmond Fire Department, $125,000.

– Public Library of Steubenville                                 and Jefferson County, $10,000.

– Grand Theater Restoration Project, $35,000.

– Toronto Ambulance District, $20,000.

– Steubenville Prime Time Senior Center, $90,056.

– Unionport Fire and Rescue, $118,766.

– United Ways of  Brooke County, Jefferson County, Southern Columbiana County, Upper Ohio Valley, Washington County and Weirton, $82,250.

– Valley Hospice, $20,000.

– Weirton Museum and Cultural Center, $30,905.

– Wellsville Historical Society, $23,400.

– YWCA of Steubenville, $56,800.

– Hearing and Speech Center, $10,000.

– Steubenville Parks (Belleview Pool), $10,000.

– Eastern Ohio Correction Center for Men, $18,500.

– Elkhorn Christian Camp, $18,000.

– Weirton Senior Center, $31,285.

– Four Seasons Ministries, $25,000.

– Brooke Hills Park, $55,000.

– Weirton Christian Center, $33,049.

– Villages and townships of Mingo Junction, Richmond, Yorkville, Smithfield, Adena, Rayland, Warren, Cross Creek, Ross and Wayne, $387,911.

– Questers Inc., $33,500.

(Kiaski can be contacted at jkiaski@heraldstaronline.com.)

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