
This year’s competition is open to Muskingum County students in their sophomore or junior year of high school. The submission period extends from January 3, 2023, through February 27, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. A second prompt for students in Tier 2 and Tier 3 has been added this year.
Princess Sarah’s story is all about home—about her finding homes and making homes throughout her life.
Sarah was just over a year old when her mother made the difficult decision to allow her child to be adopted. Sarah found a home with Jim and Judy Culberson, her adoptive parents, and their daughters became her sisters. Sarah created new homes in her undergraduate days and when she traveled to the West Coast for graduate school. When she found her birth father, Sarah also discovered a new culture. As she got to know her biological family, she was exploring another place to call home.

“Hard work and diligent effort, coupled with prudent and conservative management, created the assets which support the Foundation, and it is the desire of the founders that the income and principal of the Foundation be used to help organizations, individuals, and projects in the community that subscribe to these principles.”
William and Mary Helen Straker launched the J.W. and M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation in 1994 with these words. The Strakers lived their belief in hard work over a lifetime partnership. As they entered their retirement years, they created a way to share the assets they had accumulated with the community they loved: Zanesville and Muskingum County, Ohio.
THE STRAKER CHARITABLE FOUNDATION IS COMMITTED TO SUPPORTING PROJECTS
THAT SUPPORT THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, EDUCATION, INITIATIVES THAT HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF CHILDREN, AND ENDEAVORS THAT LEAD TO CIVIC DEVELOPMENT AND STRENGTHENED COMMUNITY LIFE IN THE CITY OF ZANESVILLE AND MUSKINGUM COUNTY, OHIO.
All funding requests to the J.W. & M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation should be submitted in grant application form. In all grant cycles, priority is given to requests that clearly address a documented need in Muskingum County. Please use data to demonstrate the need your organization wants to address.
Request A Grant