Charitable Foundation Gives New Roof to Local Lodge

The J.W. and M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation was founded in 1994 with a mission to enhance and empower lives in Muskingum County and their latest grant recipient has been announced.

The foundation has awarded the Fraternal Order of Police, Zane Lodge #5, a grant that enables them to fully replace the roof on their lodge. Lodge president, Tom Porter explains what they do and why they qualified for the grant.

“We give back to our community. We are law enforcement members of Coshocton, Muskingum, Morgan, and Perry counties. We come from agencies large and small and we give back to our community. We sponsor softball, baseball, we sponsor all kinds of youth sports. We sponsor grants for criminal justice programs. We just recently hosted the Muskingum County Senior Dinner,” Porter said.

According to to Porter, the roof is around 25 to 30 years old, missing shingles and leaking throughout the lodge. Thanks to the grant from the foundation, they plan to have locally owned Precision Roofing replace it with a metal roof.

“We were elated. Just. Words can’t describe how we felt. Our members come out here, they utilize this lodge, like I said, for training. We have charitable organization meetings out here, we do various activities. We were trying to scratch our heads and try to figure out where we were going to come up with the money for a new roof and to have this granted to us is just beyond words,” Porter said.

Applications for the next grant cycle at J.W. and M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation opens in January and their small schools grant deadline is December 31.