ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601120081
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: G3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
Downtown shoppers and economic developers aren't the only people who have been watching the Heironimus saga over recent months.
A number of local service organizations, including the City Rescue Mission, Girl Scouts and YMCA, receive funding from the Edgar A. Thurman Foundation for Children, the trust that owns the building being vacated when S. H. Heironimus Co. Inc. closes its downtown Roanoke store.
The foundation, set up by the estate of wealthy Roanoke businessman Edgar Thurman, uses income from rental of the building to support grants it distributes to Virginia organizations operating programs for needy children. In 1994, the Thurman Foundation awarded 27 grants, ranging in size from $3,000 to $24,000 and an average of nearly $9,900.
While the future of the building has not been decided, these organizations shouldn't be concerned about their funding, said Freda Carper, Roanoke spokeswoman for Crestar Bank, which administers the foundation.
"It shouldn't mean anything," Carper said. "They should continue to get funded."
The Heironimus building, she said, is one of the foundation's assets, which totaled $5.8 million in June 1992, according to Virginia Giving: The Directory of the Commonwealth's Foundations.
Carper said the foundation plans to sell or lease the property.
The YMCA of the Roanoke Valley, which received $12,000 from the Thurman Foundation in 1994 and a similar amount this year, used the money for youth outreach and child-care programs for low-income families, said YMCA executive director Cal Johnson.
"We have counted on the money for years and years," Johnson said.
Also receiving Thurman Foundation money is the West End Center Inc., a Roanoke after-school program that offers recreation, tutoring and nutrition.
"They have been our largest, most consistent foundation for 10 years," said Kaye Hale, director of the center, which in 1994 received $17,000 from Thurman.
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