Linda Ernhardt of Renfrew, has been selected as the area’s seventh annual Steel Magnolia Award honoree, the Middletown Community Foundation has announced.

The awards honor women who have overcome obstacles to positively impact the community. The program is administered by the Middletown Community Foundation and funded by the AK Steel Foundation.

"The AK Steel Foundation is proud to fund the Steel Magnolia Awards to honor women who have overcome adversity and serve as a shining example to others," said Roger K. Newport, Chief Executive Officer of AK Steel.

Middletown Community Foundation Executive Director T. Duane Gordon added that every woman nominated for the award is an inspiration.

“It is so heartwarming, and quite often heartbreaking, to read the stories of these amazing women who have done so much for the community in the face of their own hardships,” he said. “I wish we could honor them all.”

Ernhardt and her husband, Barry, began fostering infants with special needs more than 20 years ago when their own children were 4 and 5. In that time, they have fostered 59 infants, including one born six years ago addicted to cocaine and opiates whom they adopted, caring daily for him though seizures and catheterizations every four hours. They took on doctors’ appointments, therapies, therapeutic riding, adaptive swimming and Miracle League baseball for their child, who is now in school and was chosen as Pennsylvania’s Elks Child of the Year for 2014.

“Her strength of character and positive attitude have carried her through good times and bad,” wrote her nominator, Cindy Harbison of Butler.

Each recipient is able to designate an eligible charity of her choice to receive a $1,500 donation in honor of her selection. Ernhardt chose the Spina Bifida Association of Western Pennsylvania.

The Steel Magnolia Award honors women of all ages who face personal adversity and have shown exceptional strength, courage, compassion and leadership through their work in support of their communities. Nominations by essay were solicited over the summer from the public in each of the 13 communities where AK Steel operates a facility. Volunteer judges from the various communities reviewed the essays of those who agreed to be considered for the award, and no more than one honoree in each community was selected based on the judges’ combined scores.