Applications for the Stealey Community Fund are now available for the 2012 round of grant awards.

This will mark the 15th year the fund has provided grant monies for the Middlebourne area, according to Susie Nelson, executive director of The Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley Inc.

The Stealey Community Fund is administered by the CFOV, with the advice of the Stealey Community Fund Advisory Board.

While a community meeting has been in held in past years to explain the funding process, there will be no meeting in 2012. Applications are available at the Middlebourne municipal building, Dean Rohrig’s law office at 504 Cherry Street, or online at www.cfov.org.

Completed applications must be received at the municipal building by noon Thursday, April 19. Grant recipients will be notified by mail the week of May 14.

The fund requires eligible applicants to be qualified as exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or be a similarly exempt government entity.

Since the fund was established in 1998, more than $2.3 million in grant monies have been awarded to various community projects.

Created by Ruth Stealey Green, a retired school teacher who died at the age of 84 on Feb. 14, 1996 at her home in Middlebourne, the fund honors Green and her brother, Philip Stealey, who died in 1993.

The Stealey family had a long history in the development of the town of Middlebourne and its activities. Earnings from the endowment are awarded annually to qualified and approved applicants.

It was Green’s desire that when grant awards are made, special consideration be given to programs and projects that will improve the quality of life of the residents of Middlebourne, such as improved library, recreational, municipal and youth services.