Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 20, 1993                   TAG: 9311200146
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ENDOWMENT FOR CHILDREN CREATED

The foundation announced that the fund, called the Roanoke Valley Children's Fund, would be established through a gift of $100,000 from the B. Wilson Porterfield Jr. Foundation.

Annual income from the fund will be used to address the needs of children in the Roanoke Valley community from before birth (prenatal care) to age 6, considered crucial periods in childhood development, said Angelica Lloyd, who heads the foundation.

"We know that a healthy start helps prevent a lot of later problems," Lloyd said. "This is when proper nutrition, immunization, development of self-esteem and expanded life experiences are necessary for future development of mind and body."

The foundation plans to work through community service agencies to review resources and to identify where its own resources can best help. Grants from the fund could be used to help support services for children, advocate children's issues and "to increase awareness about what a critical time period this is in a child's life," Lloyd said.

The Porterfield Foundation issued a challenge that if The Foundation for Roanoke Valley raised $100,000 to match the foundation's $100,000 gift, then it would place another $50,000 in the children's fund. One donor already has pledged $25,000.

The foundation, founded in 1988, works to pool bequests, trust funds and other donations that can be used to support projects in social services, education and other causes in the Roanoke Valley. Once referred to as the "community's savings account," the foundation's permanent endowment assets have grown from $685,000 in 1992 to $1.6 million.

"Just as the United Way is thought of as a community checking account, where funds are donated every year and used every year, the foundation holds the assets that it is given and uses only the interest to support community charitable activities," Lloyd said.

The foundation has made 82 grants totalling $71,000, in part to support child- and family-related issues. Grant recipients have included the Greenvale Nursery, the Northwest Child Development Center and the West End Center for Youth.