Avon Club Foundation

AVON CLUB FOUNDATION awarded three scholarships to exceptional women in the Avonworth area!

Welcome 2021. Thank you for choosing to volunteer with the Avon Club. We have an excellent group of committee chairs and executive board this year. Some of you are continuing from last year for which I express my deep appreciation. I hope this year we return to more normalcy. Our members adapted last year to on line meetings and helping in different ways, including donating to the Pittsburgh food bank.

The Avon Club Foundation’s purpose is to support the charitable needs of the Avonworth community and other worthy, tax-exempt organizations. We focus on projects and programs that promote education, preservation and the environment, recreation, and social responsibility. In 2020, we disbursed $21,000 in grants, an increase of almost $2,000 over the previous year. Our largest recipients were Meals on Wheels, the YMCA, POWER, Wooden Ladder preschool, Avonworth Municipal Authority/Community Park, Animal Friends, North Hills Community Outreach, Avonworth Blessings in a Backpack, and others.

Without meeting in person, it is more difficult to feel a part of the club, develop bonds, and include new people. We will work on that, knowing we are faced with an indefinite duration of social distancing. Continuing last year’s inclusion theme, we will strive to welcome members of the entire Avonworth community and improve communication and involvement of our associate members. This organization has been around over 75 years, has worked toward strong community goals and we have fun doing it! Please continue with us and invite friends and neighbors to join.

This year we hold our Holiday House tour the first Saturday of December. Held every-other year, it is our biggest fundraiser to fund our mission of grants to organizations. It is a big, successful event and we will need everyone’s help. Thank you in advance!

As you know, our organization has a long history of creating opportunities to strengthen the Avonworth Community and provide community service…from public flower beds to the Fall Festival to the disbursements. Please take this time to consider how you can help the community. Is there an elderly neighbor who needs a prescription or food picked up and delivered? Is there an essential worker who needs childcare? 

This is also a time where we can reflect back on our history. Recall that our club began by rolling bandages to aid the WWII war effort. We have an opportunity to aid the health care workers again today. One of our members works at UPMC Mercy and has obtained materials for making secondary surgical masks to replenish the N95 supplies that may be reallocated to the COVID-19 responders. 

She has yards of poly-cotton blend, patterns and ribbon tie-backs that she got from Joann’s before they closed. We need volunteers with some sewing capability to let us know if you can help. We need volunteers to pick up and deliver the fabric; and pick up and deliver the masks. Please let me know if you can help! 

There are other things we are doing and thinking about too:

– Finance Committee is evaluating the grant applications to make sure we deliver funds to the most critical areas this year

– Calling each other and checking in

– Participating in virtual fund raisers for other community groups – Ordering meals for delivery to essential businesses in the area

– We are considering the idea of a second disbursement period in the fall; do we dip into the Endowment to ensure Critical Needs are met?

What are your ideas and actions?

Stay Home – Stay Safe.