MERCER COUNTY Groups teaming up for children

The F.H. Buhl Club puts its annual allocations directly into programs for kids.
SHARON, Pa. -- If not for the United Way of Mercer County, a lot of children with learning disabilities wouldn't be getting help for their problems.
Nor would a lot of kids get a price break on admission to indoor and outdoor swimming pools operated by the F.H. Buhl Club.
The Buhl Club gets an annual allocation of $68,500 from the local United Way campaign and channels that money into those two programs, said Jeff Valentino, club executive director.
The Mercer County Association for Children with Learning Disabilities makes its headquarters at the club at the corner of Pine Avenue and East State Street and has been a fixture there since 1972.
Valentino said the club allocates $18,00 a year from its United Way funds to help finance the ACLD program and the rest goes directly into the club's aquatic program.
Fall fund-raiser
The local United Way is in the midst of its annual fall fund-raising campaign, seeking to secure $1 million to aid nearly two dozen human service agencies operating in and around Mercer County.
The drive reached the 25 percent mark last week.
"If it wasn't for the United Way, I don't know what we'd do," Valentino said, adding that the ACLD program would likely fold or at least suffer a serious drop in service.
That program, run by a nonprofit organization of professionals and parents, serves 200 children a year who have difficulty learning in the traditional school setting. Tutoring covers basic educational subjects such as reading, math, spelling, writing and perception, and language.
The ACLD has a couple of other locations around the county, but most of its clients are served at the Buhl Club.
Valentino said the $18,000 put into the program goes to pay tutor salaries.
"We teach [children] how to learn," said Elizabeth Regule, ACLD executive director, explaining that children get one-on-one tutoring to help them discover learning methods that are most effective for them.
Most of the ACLD's work is done by volunteers, although the tutors, who are certified professional teachers, are paid.
The agency charges $15 a hour for tutoring but ability to pay isn't a deciding factor in getting help, Regule said.
The ACLD underwrites between 40 percent and 60 percent of the children it services, providing scholarships to help pay for tutoring, she said.
Every penny received in donations goes directly to service for the children, she said, adding that it costs $800 to serve one child for one year.
The ACLD program also offers an Explorers Club, which helps children work on both gross and fine-motor skills in the Buhl Club gym.
The tutoring program is primarily directed at children but adults are eligible for the service as well.
Thousands of visits
Valentino said United Way funds channeled into the aquatic program help finance an estimated 50,000 visits by children to Buhl Club swimming pools each year.
It also helps provides three Red Cross-based swimming programs each year with 200 children participating in each session, he said.
The sessions run for 10 weeks each.
People don't realize the United Way's importance in Mercer County, Valentino said.
In some way, a member of probably every family in the county uses some service provided by a United Way-sponsored agency every day, he added.