PARKERSBURG — A foundation created by a prominent attorney and his wife has donated $125,000 to the United Way of the Mid-Ohio Valley to help restaurant workers affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Last month, the Deitzler Foundation made a $100,000 donation to the organization’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund. That was a few weeks after the foundation, created by Harry and Kathe Deitzler, made its initial $25,000 donation to the fund.
“Kathe and I always intended to donate more after that first one,” said Harry Deitzler, an attorney with Hill Peterson Carper Bee & Deitzler in Charleston. “We were just waiting to see how the program would develop. When we initially spoke with Stacy (DiCicco with United Way), she said they were going to try to get it to where it would help the target group.
Deitzler
“I guess it was a month or so later when she updated me. Our hope was that others who have the ability to assist will participate to the extent of their ability and make a meaningful difference for the people who are suffering as a result of this pandemic. And, I think others are doing it. We just want to be on that team.”
Deitzler, who lives in Parkersburg, said he and his wife particularly wanted to do something to help workers in the food service industry, but others in similar situations such as hairdressers. Both Deitzler and his wife had food industry jobs growing up.
“Kathe and I know what it’s like when all of your money goes to just live,” Deitzler told The West Virginia Record. “When you lose that income, it’s just awful. We are so happy to be able to help out like this.
“They’re such good and wonderful people.”
DeCicco said the same about the Deitzlers. Their donation was the largest non-corporate gift ever to that United Way.
“Donors like Harry and Kathe who have been giving consistently for years helped to ensure that we were ready to serve this community well,” DeCicco recently told The Parkersburg News. “The additional and amazingly generous gifts to the impact fund will truly be life changing for so many of our community members,” DeCicco said. “We are humbled that the Deitzler Foundation recognized our ongoing work and felt that they could entrust this magnificent gift to us.”
Deitzler said the foundation’s first donation in March allowed United Way to begin helping with food for people affected by the pandemic, while the $100,000 donation helped the COVID-19 fund address other issues for these workers, such as paying utility bills.
The Deitzler Foundation was created in 2001, and it has made donations of more than $1.4 million. More than $500,000 of that has been distributed in the Parkersburg area.
Deitzler said the foundation likes working with United Way because they have faith in DeCicco’s “efficiency and ability to make things happen.”
“There are other organizations that help, but our target for this was to help people who ordinarily do not find themselves in this situation,” he said. “We donate to other organizations as well.”
Deitzler said he thinks it’s important for charitable groups and individuals to step up when they can, especially now.
“Individuals and other foundations have cash reserves set aside,” he said. “The purpose of these cash reserves is to solve a problem when there is an emergency. Well, there is nothing that is going to happen in my lifetime more than what we’re dealing with today. There was no point in holding back these cash reserves, in my opinion.
“Foundations, under federal tax laws, must give a minimum of 5 percent of their assets each year. They can give more, but they have to give that much. There actually is no limit to the amount you can give. But, I think if you have cash reserves to donate, this is the time to do it.”
