WE, THE PEOPLE PROGRAM-
When the final statewide competition for the constitutional program, We, the People, was held at the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse in Charleston last month,  Attorney General, Darrell V. McGraw, Jr., presented remarks to the students from the three Congressional District winning high schools-Keyser (Mineral County), George Washington (Kanawha County) and Shady Spring (Raleigh County). Pictured above with Attorney General McGraw and serving as judges to hear the students’ presentations and discussions was an outstanding group of citizen leaders (Mary Eckerson, Chuck Flannery, Richard Gillespie, Priscilla Haden, Sean Hill, Rob Rupp, Bryan Ward and Joey Wiseman) as well as lawyers and a judge (John Byrd, Bill File, Family Court Judge Mike Kelly, Brittany Ranson, Jim Roncaglione, Ronni Sheets and Cathy Wallace). The Bar Foundation has supported this important national civic education program for several years.

GRANTS COMMITTEE-
Earlier this week, the Bar Foundation’s Grants Committee held a meeting to review several grant applications which had been received and determine recommendations to make to the Board of Directors at its March meeting. The application requests ranged from $3,500 to $15,000 for beneficial programs at worthwhile organizations involving civic education, child abuse and neglect prevention and alternate dispute resolution. Since initiating its Grants Program just six years ago, the Bar Foundation has made more than 20 grants totalling nearly $90,000. In addition, the Bar Foundation has committed to provide a Public Service Scholarship for a qualified student at the WVU College of Law in Morgantown.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF BAR FOUNDATIONS-
Last week, the National Conference of Bar Foundations held its Midyear meeting during the American Bar Association event in Atlanta, GA. The WV Bar Foundation is one of more than 100 state, national, local and specialty bar foundations that are NCBF members. The  meeting was attended by the largest number of bar foundations ever for a midyear meeting and excellent seminars were presented on such matters as bar foundation/bar association relationships, endowment campaigns, best practices and planned giving programs.