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DeGol foundation supports mission

American Rescue Workers ministry to receive $100K

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A charitable foundation started almost 20 years ago by a longstanding family-owned business is making a major donation to a local ministry so that its mission to help people in need can continue.

The Bruno and Lena DeGol Family Foundation, founded in 2002, will give $100,000 to the American Rescue Workers, said Joe Adams, a member of the foundation’s board.

The money should pay most of the cost of a new building for the group that is at 502 Mulberry St. in Hollidaysburg, he said.

The new building will replace an existing structure that’s falling apart, said Deborah LaValla, co-director of the ministry along with her husband, Victor. Many people called the dilapidated site, “the Clothing Room,” she said.

“This gift is an answer to prayer in so many ways,” LaValla said in a prepared statement. “We honestly couldn’t afford to continue to put our limited financial resources into the upkeep of a structure we barely used as much more than storage space.”

The family foundation supports several charities in Gallitzin and other parts of the region, in addition to the Hollidaysburg ministry. But the gift to the American Rescue Workers, which will be officially presented today, is larger than most of the other donations that the foundation has made in years past, even to the rescue workers ministry.

Foundation board members decided the higher amount had merit for several reasons.

“It had benefit to the community because it would make an impact for years to come,” said Adams, who is also a retired chief financial officer of the DeGol company. “And it continues the legacy that Bruno and Lena DeGol started with the foundation.”

The DeGol family businesses are now run by other family members and have diversified from the retail and wholesale lumber yards of the 1950s and 1960s into carpeting sales and vinyl window manufacturing. The family has also operated Scotch Valley Country Club for many years.

The foundation gave its gift now not just because it’s a traditional time to make a charitable donation but because the ministry would like to get started on construction early in the new year, Adams said.

The ministry’s building will have a new name, “DeGol House,” to thank the family for its generosity as well as its commitment to help with some of the future capital expenses at the house, LaValla said.

“This is our way of saying thank you to the (Bruno and Lena) DeGol Family Foundation,” LaValla said. “We look forward to this gift being the catalyst for a larger capital campaign as we sell tiles honoring loved ones to be displayed in the new structure. We thank God for this tremendous blessing.”

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