Reading Muhlenberg Career & Technology Center Education Fund
This fund supports students at Reading Muhlenberg Career & Technology Center. Support aims to remove barriers and/or increase a student’s chance of success upon graduation. Support could be but is not limited to assistance with specialty clothing or tools required for an internship or a job upon graduation, transportation to and from an internship, or stipends to enhance wages for an internship. Distributions may also be made directly to the Reading Muhlenberg Career & Technology Center to add or enhance a technical education program.
Friends of the West Reading Police Department and K9 Unit Fund
Distributions from this fund maintain and enhance the West Reading Police Department and K9 Unit and to support education and awareness for the citizens of West Reading regarding the West Reading Police Department and its K9 Unit.
Pamela A. and Gregory W. Heid’s Fund for the Animals
This fund awards grants to animal welfare organizations for the direct support of animal care, food and medicine.
Embracing Aging Fund
This fund provides grants to address the needs of Berks County’s older residents by removing barriers to aging well.
Home Health Care Foundation Fund
The purpose of the Fund is to administer programs and educational activities that promote general health, wellness and preventative healthcare for the residents of Berks County. As well as support organizations and programs that help residents recover from illness or disability at home or provide health-related charity care for the residents of Berks County.
History
On January 1, 2019, Tower Health assumed the operations of Home Health Care Management, Berks Visiting Nurse Association, the Visiting Nurse Association of Pottstown and Vicinity, and Advantage Home Care.
For years, each of these organizations provided compassionate and much-needed care to the communities they served. In that spirit, the Home Health Care Foundation was created as part of the merger to support charity care and other programs for the good of the community.
The Home Health Care Foundation became an affiliate of Berks County Community Foundation in 2020.
Home Health Care Foundation Board
Kim R. Berry
Jim Gierlich
Robert R. Kreitz, Esq.
Rabbi Brian I. Michelson, Chair of the Home Health Care Foundation Board of Directors
Kevin K. Murphy, President, ex officio, of Home Health Care Foundation, and President, Berks County Community Foundation
Mike Paolini
Karen S. Thacker Ph.D., RN, CNE
Frances A. Aitken, CPA, Treasurer, ex officio, of Home Health Care Foundation, and COO and Treasurer, Berks County Community Foundation*
*Serves as an officer, not a board member.
In 2025, Home Health Care Foundation merged with the Community Foundation and now operates as a fund of the Community Foundation. The fund will support:
Programs and activities that support preventative healthcare and community health.
Programs and educational activities that promote the general health and wellness of Berks County residents or its contiguous counties
Organizations and programs that help the residents of Berks County or its contiguous counties recover from illness or disability at home
Organizations that provide health-related charity care for the residents of Berks County or its contiguous counties
Fund for Science Research Institutes
This fund supports Science Research Institutes serving students in Berks County schools.
St. John’s UCC Reading Fund
The St. John’s UCC Reading Fund supports organizations and causes that were important to the mission of the church. Grants support programs and initiatives that reduce hunger, offer shelter or improve housing, meet a pressing need for youth, or create or maintain open space.
Distributions are made in the following order of preference:
• Religious organizations or causes within a one-mile radius of 149 S. 9th Street, Reading, PA.
• Organizations or causes within a one-mile radius of 149 S. 9th Street, Reading, PA.
• Religious organizations or causes in the City of Reading.
• Organizations or causes in the City of Reading.
• Religious organizations or causes in Berks County.
• Organizations or causes in Berks County.
St. John’s was located at 149 S. Ninth St. in Reading. It was formed in 1871 as St. John’s Reformed Church of Reading.
In 2017, a majority of its remaining members voted to dissolve St. John’s United Church of Christ as a legal entity.
In 2019, the church filed with Berks County Court to transfer much of its assets to the Community Foundation and to give its building and some assets to Open Door Mennonite Church, Lancaster County, to establish the South 9th Street Mennonite Church in the building.
In 2020, the St. John’s UCC Reading Fund of Berks County Community Foundation was created to continue the church’s mission.
Albany Township Tomorrow Fund
The Albany Township Tomorrow Fund was created in honor of Pauline Levan Hamm and Gloria Longenberger Hamm and their lifelong efforts to support and improve the Albany Township community. The Fund provides grants to support community-minded organizations and initiatives that benefit the general population of Albany Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania.
Marlene L. Driscoll Fund
The Marlene L. Driscoll Fund was established to support programs that benefit residents of the Boyertown Area School District.
Military Assistance Fund
This fund supports charitable and educational programs and organizations that help those who served in any of the branches of the United States of America’s Armed Forces, National Guard, or Military Reserves. Questions? Email our Health and Human Services Program Officer, Cindy Milian, for details at cindym@bccf.org
