By Deb KellyThe Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE— During its first award ceremony of the year Thursaday, the Wabash Valley Community Foundation presented $144,560 in community grants to 17 area agencies.

Beth Tevlin, executive director of the WVCF, said it is “one of the largest … grant awards for a spring cycle we’ve ever made.”

The organization, which has been serving the Wabash Valley since 1991, presents grant awards twice a year, in the fall and in the spring, to area charitable programs.

WVCF’s mission is to increase philanthropic resources by encouraging individuals and groups to create permanently endowed funds. Those funds are then distributed to applicant-programs that have the greatest impact in the community.

One of the largest grants awarded Thursday was to the West Central Indiana Economic Development District Inc./Area 7 Agency on Aging. The grant of nearly $38,000 will be used to expand the services of McMillan Adult Day Care for new clients coming from Clay, Parke, Sullivan and Vermillion counties.

McMillan Adult Day Care is a facility in Terre Haute whose mission is to assist family caregivers in keeping their family members in the community and avoiding long-term care. The program provides structured social, recreational, educational and spiritual activities and personal care.

Margaret Scott, the director of McMillan Adult Day Care and a registered nurse, said she hopes the grant will help her organization extend services to those living in other counties who would like to make use of the programs there.

“I get a lot of calls from folks who live out of county that would like to bring their family member to us so they can have some respite time and so that their family member would have the socialization and the programming and the support services that they need,” Scott said.

Many of the support services provided at McMillan are for Alzheimer’s patients and their families, Scott said.

The grant will allow McMillan to provide gas vouchers as well as some scholarship funds for new clients who are low-income. The grant also will help the organization advertise in the outlying counties. Currently, there are between 16 and 18 clients served at McMillan, ranging in age from 27 to 98, Scott said.

For more information on McMillan Adult Day Care’s support services and programs, visit www.mcmillanadultdayservice.org or call (812) 232-4627.

Scott added, “[WVCF has] been very generous to us, and we certainly appreciate the fact that the money is there and available for those of us in the not-for-profit sector.”

Beth Tevlin, executive director of WVCF, said, “One of the things I was so pleased about, in listening to what the grantees were going to do, was the broad spectrum of people that are going to be touched by these grants, people ranging in age from children to senior citizens.

“We’re providing help for those in need, but we’re also providing things that enrich our lives.”

For more information about the Wabash Valley Community Foundation, visit www.wvcf.com or call program director Kelli Miller at (812) 232-2234.

Deb Kelly can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.kelly@tribstar.com.

Grant recipients

WCIED Area 7 Agency on Aging $37,815

Boy Scouts $15,000

Terre Haute Symphony $12,960

Recovery Associates $12,600

Hamilton Center Spectrum Services $10,000

Wabash Valley Senior Center $8,000

Light House Mission $7,200

Maple Center $6,500

Sheldon Swope Art Museum $6,500

14th & Chestnut Community Center $6,185

Riley Children’s Foundation $5,000

Cross Tabernacle Church $5,000

ArtReach $3,000

Sisters of Providence White Violet Center for Eco-Justice $3,000

Freebirds Solution Center $2,600

Vigo County School Corp. $2,000

Bright Hope Riders $1,200

• The next opportunity to seek funding through the Community Foundation’s competitive grants process begins with a letter-of-intent submission due May 1. Applications and guidelines can be found at www.wvcf.com, or by calling program director Kelli Miller at the Community Foundation at (812) 232-2234.