A community-based nonprofit is looking to boost membership and raise awareness throughout the Fox Chapel-area communities it has served for almost 100 years.
The District Association of the Fox Chapel Area raises funds that are donated directly back into the communities in the Fox Chapel Area School District — Aspinwall, Blawnox, O’Hara, Fox Chapel, Indiana Township and Sharpsburg — as well as a portion of Harmar.
Projects chosen to receive donations contribute culturally and help to beautify the communities.
“The District Association has been serving our community: building trails, docks, playgrounds, parks, supporting afterschool programs, the library and community center, painting murals, hanging banners in honor of our veterans and the list goes on. There isn’t a part of the community it hasn’t touched,” said the organization’s president, Courtney Myhrum of O’Hara. “Our dollars pay for things that tax dollars don’t.”
And while Myhrum is grateful for the families that join the District annually, the nonprofit is on a mission to bolster its membership from around 400 to 4,000.
“We rely solely on membership and proceeds from the Fox Chapel Follies. Your donations go right back into our community,” Myhrum said. “My goal is to grow the membership so we can continue to support efforts not funded by our tax dollars.”
The District Association was formed by Herbert G. Lytle in 1928 when he gathered about 40 property owners at Shady Side Academy.
Back then, the immediate concern of the District Association was fire and police protection.
Over time, the nonprofit evolved into its modern mission of philanthropy.
The Fox Chapel Follies is the District’s moneymaker, a rousing theater production presented every three years that is directed by Philip Beard, a District member and Aspinwall resident, attorney and novelist.
The six days of performances include dinner and are held at the Pittsburgh Field Club. District Association members are given first dibs on purchasing tickets, which always sell out.
This year’s Follies raised almost $145,000, including an anonymous donation of $40,000 that covered all production costs.
“Give us your dollars, and we’ll give it right back,” Myhrum said.
Membership options range from $35 for family, $75 for sponsor, $125 for benefactor and $150 for business.
“We’re grateful for the generosity from the community,” Myhrum said. “But if we had 4,000 members from each household in the school district, that would be amazing. We’re sort of a mom-and-pop organization in that we don’t even have an up-to-date current database.”
Funds distributed
More than $115,000 has been donated since the last Follies in 2021.
Recipients of that tally included a variety of local nonprofits, including Second Harvest in Sharpsburg, the Pittsburgh North Optimist Foundation, Riverfront Theater, Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania, Aspinwall Neighbors, Cooper-Siegel Community Library, the Nancy Werner Park in O’Hara, the Sharpsburg Parks Commission and more.
• Second Harvest, a nonprofit community thrift store in Sharpsburg, was approved for $15,000 to beautify and improve the exterior of their building during major construction.
• The Lauri Ann West Community Center received $3,000 for native plants to help the community plant during the 2021 spring season.
• Riverfront Theater Company, currently in residence at the Aspinwall RiverTrail Park, received $10,000 for new lighting equipment.
• In 2022, Best of Blawnox received $2,000 for the Spring Art Fling.
• FCDA donated $3,000 to the Fox Chapel Area Adult Education program to assist with operating costs after a loss of business from the covid shutdown.
• In February, $20,000 was donated to the Allegheny Rivertrail Park to finance ongoing improvements along the newly acquired land between Aspinwall and Sharpsburg.
• An updated playset, costing $5,045, for the 16th Street playground in Sharpsburg.
• $5,400 was donated to clean up debris and trash located on the island known as Nancy Werner Park along the Allegheny River in Sharpsburg.
• $25,000 was given toward the basement-level renovations at the Cooper-Siegel Community Library.
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District Association board member Matthew Rudzki is most proud of the Etna-Sharpsburg Gateway Portal project.
The District Association donated $20,000 to the Borough of Sharpsburg to transform a triangle of land, about an acre in size, occupying Sharpsburg and Etna.
“We took a space that was gray aesthetically and in terms of infrastructure and made it green in both senses,” Rudzki said. “The improvements spruced up the front porch of our town. Since then, the portal has been a hub for events such as (the) Etna-Sharpsburg Earth Day Challenge and National Night Out.”
Aaron Thomas, southwest area director for Volunteers of America PA, received a $15,000 grant from the District for major upgrades to the interior of its building at 1650 Main St. in Sharpsburg.
The Youth Empowerment Project of Sharpsburg serves more than 90 youngsters year-round from the Fox Chapel Area School District and other riverfront communities such as Etna, Shaler, Millvale and Blawnox.
Thomas described the generosity from the District Association as a game changer.
“The building was in bad shape. My first job was to beautify the space for the children,” Thomas said.
He said working with the District board members was a breeze.
“All you can do is ask and they gave us $15,000, and it was a game changer because it kicked off everything with our program,” Thomas said. “The kids have a really clean two-story building with new flooring, painting, and it was a smooth, easy process. Courtney wanted to see the vision of what we wanted to do here and took a real interest.”
To join the District Association or apply for a grant, visit theda.org.