by Shelby Powers

The Bellbrook community recently benefited from a generous grant from the Mark Andrew Kreusch Memorial Fund, a component of the Dayton Foundation.  Thanks to the suggestion of Memorial Fund’s ambassador, BHS junior Hali Midtlien, an annual grant has been given to the Bell Creek Intermediate School’s Homework Help Program.  The grant helps to pay for snacks and transportation, which allow for even more students to attend. Bell Creek guidance counselor and Homework Help coordinator Kelly Anderson commented, “It’s been great because they enjoy the snacks, and it’s sort of an extra incentive to do something that kids don’t really like to do, which is homework.”  Midtlien has connections to both programs; she has tutored fourth and fifth grade students for the past two years through Homework Help, and her mother is good friends with Suzie Kreusch, who started the fund in honor of her son who lost his life in a boat accident at age four.

The goal of the memorial fund is to enrich the lives of children, and more than $32,000 have been put toward projects since 2008.  Along with the Homework Help grant, the Kreusch family has funded other projects such have building parks in their son’s name and the Victory Project, which provides employment and educational services to previously-arrested inner city kids. Several years ago, when the television show Extreme Makeover Home Edition came to rebuild a house for a local family in need, the Memorial Fund donated a basketball hoop and court to the house, honoring Mark’s love of sports.  According to the Dayton Foundation’s web page, this spring the Memorial Fund will contribute its largest project yet, the construction of a simulated city called MAK Town Safety Village, which will be used to teach kindergarteners through fourth graders about street safety.

Connecting the Kreusch foundation, which has previously been more focused where the family lives in Centerville, is something that Hali Midtlien is extremely excited about.  She hopes that the Kreusch Memorial Fund will continue improve the lives of Bellbrook children and the Bellbrook community as a whole.  Midtlien expressed her excitement for the Bellbrook-Kreusch partnership, saying, “In general, the charity is a great resource that we can use in our community.”

To learn more about the Mark A. Kreusch Memorial Fund, go to its website: http://www.daytonfoundation.org/kreusch.html