PORTSMOUTH — The Portsmouth Area Ladies (PALS) are nearing another grant deadline, as they close quarter four applications for 2024.

The group is composed of a plethora of dedicated women who live and work in the Portsmouth community and aim to improve the quality of life in the area through microgrants, and sometimes, larger grants — based on scope of project.

Seventeen years ago, a group of Portsmouth area ladies started a new nonprofit group — PALS, Inc. — to benefit the community and improve the quality of life for the residents in the Portsmouth area.

The premise was quite simple.

A group of volunteers, all ladies, carry out fundraising activities through events — and then distribute that money to other organizations in the community for a variety of needs through grants.

From that simple premise, and a lot of hard work by members, PALS has donated over $200,000 back to our community.

The group’s mission statement follows, “Portsmouth Area Ladies, Inc. (PALS) will engage in fundraising events and activities using volunteers to support charitable needs and organizations that will improve the quality of life and the changing needs of the residents in Portsmouth and the surrounding area. PALS will cooperate with other not-for-profit organizations when appropriate and address the needs of community children which are not being met by other organizations. The Portsmouth Area Ladies Inc. (PALS) is a 501C3 organization.”

There are a lot of reasons PALS members participate in the program.

To President and longtime member Tami Davis, the answer is obvious.

“I think it was instilled in me a long time ago that I should do all I can to help people. If I can help people through PALS, that’s what I want to do,” Davis explained. “I enjoy helping people. I always have. For the longest time, I was involved in events at the Southern Ohio Medical Center. Programs like Hollydays and Festival of Trees, the Horse Show, working in the fair booth, working to raise money for the Guilds to use to help the hospital with new equipment, build the Friends Center, etc. When the Friends of SOMC group was no longer, several of the ladies that had been involved wanted to stay involved and formed PALS. I was one of the founding members. We decided we would work to make a difference in the community through fundraising and helping others by providing them funds.”

The non-profit spends the year fundraising through reverse raffles, purse bingos and more — to raise funding that they then divert to other non-profits who offer social programming, community development and more.

They also offer scholarships.

In addition to their fundraising for grants, the group also volunteers at the MLK Breakfast and, last year, donated Christmas trees and decorations to the residents of Hisle Park Apartments, with the help of Big Lots, which made the season possible for many of the young community members.

The next grant deadline is Sunday, Oct. 20.

Their grant application is an easy process that can be found online at portsmouthpals.org.

Davis explained that any area non-profit can apply, and the group does give priority.

“We support anything that benefits our community, should we have funding appropriate to the ask,” Davis said. “We especially like helping those involving children, since they are the future of this area.”

Davis says that members of PALS are excited for their continued success, with 2024 being a standout year.

Davis claimed, “2024 has been a great year for PALS. We’ve been able to provide funding through our grant requests to several organizations to date. Our goal is to provide funding to area organizations to ‘Help Make Portsmouth a Better Place.’”

Grants made since the beginning of PALS include grants to Scioto County Health Coalition, the Homeless Shelter, Scioto County Children’s Services, Hillview, Cirq d Art, RSVP, SOLO, Area Agency on Aging and the Counseling Center.

Grants have also been made to Portsmouth Public Library, Scioto County ESC, the Red Cross, Portsmouth Little Theatre, local food pantries, the Floodwall, SOPPA, and Hollydays.

In addition, Friends of Greenlawn, Rotary of Portsmouth, the Portsmouth Area Arts Council, Main St. Portsmouth, SOMC Hospice and Ohio River Valley T1d have also been the beneficiaries of PALS’ grants.

Portsmouth Wind Symphony, Portsmouth Civic Chorale, Salvation Army, Portsmouth Little League, Watch Me Grow, Scioto County Heritage Museum and Steven A. Hunter Hope Fund have been the recipients of grants to help their programs.

PALS has also helped Sierra’s Haven, Animal Welfare League, St. Francis Catholic Outreach, Trillium Project, Hisle House, Friends of Portsmouth, Friends of Brush Creek and Potter’s House Ministries, as well as the Scioto County Historical Society.

PALS is an extended network of driven locals.

Some of them include Tami Davis, Teri Webb, Shawn Jordan, Linda Woods-Jones, Debbie Smith, Patty Tennant, Carol Davis, Therese Egbert, Tess Midkiff, Kay Bouyack, Phyllis Fried, Rhoni Maxwell-Rader, Lynsi Eason, Jill Arnzen, Linda Woods-Jones, Ruth Ann Logan, Betty Kennedy, Julia Wisniewski, Toni Dengel and more.

“PALS would love to have other ladies join us. All they need to do is go to our website and complete an application,” Davis said.

Quarter four applications close on Sunday, Oct. 20.

See their website for more information — www.portsmouthpals.org.

“Our most recent fundraiser, PALS Designer Purse Bingo was a huge success, thanks to all our members and to the public who have been such great supporters of PALS and our efforts. We could not do what we do without the community’s support,” Davis said.