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Winter 2004 Newsletter
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Grants Make Impact on Eastern Shore
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Norfolk Foundation grants are making life better all along
the remote Eastern Shore of Virginia.
A $14,000 Foundation strategic planning grant helped one
non-profit win a $1 million federal literacy grant to help
Hispanic families. Foundation funds also provided the
critical amount needed to break ground on a new library in
Nassawadox.
 Through another grant the Eastern Shore Literacy Council
purchased computers to help adults lean to read. Other
Foundation grants are restoring historic buildings and
renovating spaces for arts programs in a region with little
resources to provide funding.
These are only a few of the results of The Norfolk
Foundation's $615,641 investment in the Eastern Shore of
Virginia during the past four years. Grants to 12 nonprofit
organizations serving Northampton and Accomack counties just
north of the Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel — are making a
positive impact on life in two of Virginia's poorest
counties. The largest grant on the Shore—a $243,000 grant to
the Eastern Shore Agency on Aging/Community Action
Agency—made a new Head Start center in Accomac a reality. The
center opened last spring with programs for 100 preschoolers.
"We would not have been able to do this project if The
Norfolk Foundation had not given us a grant" says Diane Musso,
Head Start administrator on the Shore. "This grant was the
first we received and the largest one."
On the Eastern Shore "funds granted by The Norfolk Foundation
have provided many needed resources for nonprofit agencies,"
says Flo Bowers, executive director of
the United Way of Virginia's Eastern Shore.
The influx of grants has been inspired by one Foundation
donor, who in 1998 created the Argyle Fund. The fund is
unrestricted, but the donor's stated preference for the
Eastern Shore has led to the Foundation's ongoing interest in
the region that has the lowest incomes in Virginia. In 2002
median family incomes were $ 17,205 in Northampton County and
just $200 a year more in adjacent Accomack County, according
to the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the
University of Virginia.
"The Argyle Fund helped the Foundation recognize that two
nearby Virginia counties in the most need of support have few
funders who concentrate on the region," says Leigh Davis, the
Foundation's vice president of community philanthropy.
 For an Eastern Shore reading program, a $14,000 Building
Excellence grant in 2002 paid for a consultant to evaluate
its work. Since 1999 Shore People Advancing Readiness for
Kindergarten (SPARK) has used environmental awareness to
promote family literacy. Special family days take low income
families with preschool children on outings to islands,
wildlife preserves and farms. Their visits are documented in
lively children's books savored by children and parents.
SPARK is sponsored by Eastern Shore Community College and
Accomack County Public Schools.
Armed with a professional outside evaluation, SPARK applied
for a $1 million four-year Even Start Family Literacy grant.
After winning the federal grant last fall SPARK expanded its
program to Hispanic families in Accomack County, offering an
array of literacy services for children and parents.
For Valerie Davis, a 43-year-old widow from Painter, another
grant is opening doors to a new career. The Foundation's
$11,500 grant to the Eastern Shore Literacy Council paid for
computers to help adults improve reading skills. Each year
volunteers tutor more than 200 adults. The computers add a
new dimension to students' weekly one-on-one tutoring
sessions. Davis is in her fourth year of the program, has
passed the General Educational Development (GED) test and is
studying to become a registered nurse.
Another Foundation grant is helping build the Northampton
Free Library. The current library is in cramped quarters in
Nassawadox that overflow with boxes of books. But rising 200
meters away is a new library being built with help from a
$40,000 grant to the Friends of Northampton Free Library.
"The Foundation's grant gave us a lot of local credibility
and helped spur local funding," says Dave Foyer, secretary of
the Friends board. "After we got the grant the county took us
a lot more seriously." Poyer expects the 3,400-square-foot
library to open in December.
Two recent Foundation grants are helping preserve two
historic buildings open for tours. A $40,000 grant to the
Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society is paying for
critical roof and chimney work on Ken- Place, a grand 1801
mints early home in Onancock. Another $10,000 grant to The
Eastern Shore of Virginia Barrier Islands Center is helping
restore a 1752 building on the grounds of the former
poorhouse in Machipongo. A previous $25,000 grant helped
transform the main building into a museum that showcases
traditional Eastern Shore life.
At Kerr Place, "the Foundation's grant helped us get
additional funds from other foundations. It legitimized the
project," says John Verrill, executive director of the
historical society.
Other Foundation grants are underpinning the arts on the
Eastern Shore. A recent $10,997 grant to the North Street
Playhouse paid for a new furnace and stage lighting for the
Onancock theater. In Cape Charles a $25,000 grant helped buy
comfortable seats and restore huge hand painted murals in the
1940s-era theater used by Arts Enter Cape Charles. The arts
center produces several plays a year and brings the Virginia
Symphony and other arts groups to perform.
"The Foundation grant was a godsend," says Clelia Sheppard,
director of the arts center "We thought we would never be
able to buy new seats and restore the oil paintings at a time
when arts cuts were happening everywhere."
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