Published: June 14, 2007 11:29 pm         

JARI fund drive gets $600G head start

Johnstown Area Regional Industries kicked off its Partners for Progress Fund Drive with a bang Thursday at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.

Shortly after announcing its $1.1 million goal, JARI announced that eight area companies have made advance donations totaling $610,000. The organization expects to reach its goal by soliciting other local companies before Aug.1.

“We would like to leverage the success we’ve had during the past five years since our last fund drive,” said Linda Thomson, JARI president. “We have upped our goal a little as compared to our last drive, so we are being a little more aggressive this time around.

“To have eight companies step up right from the start with $610,000 in donations is extremely important. It shows that that we have the very critical support we need from our business community.”

The goal of the 2002 fund drive was $1 million, which Thomson said was surpassed by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those funds helped JARI create 3,300 jobs, train 5,000 workers, foster 100 new businesses or company expansions and assist in drawing $870 million in defense and government contracts to the region.

Among the eight donating organizations, six are longtime Johnstown businesses. They are: AmeriServ Financial, $100,000; Conemaugh Health System, $100,000; First National Bank, $60,000; Concurrent Technologies Corp., $50,000; Crown American Hotels, $50,000; and an anonymous local company, $100,000.

The other two donors – Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman – are not based in the region, but have growing stakes in Cambria County.

Lockheed, which has an aerospace division facility in Richland Township, donated $100,000.

Northrop, which is the lead tenant for the Greater Johnstown Regional Technology Park, added $50,000.



Companies that have made advance donations to Johnstown Area Regional Industries:

AmeriServ Financial

Conemaugh Health System

Concurrent Technologies Corp.

Crown American Hotels

First National Bank

Lockheed Martin

Northrop Grumman

One anonymous company

     

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