Greensburg Salem Education Foundation seeks $50K in donations to match alumnus' gift

Donations to the Greensburg Salem Education Foundation will have double the impact in the coming months.

Each contribution to the endowment fund will be matched by the family of Bill Lendl, a 1980 graduate and entrepreneur who was honored earlier this year as a distinguished alumnus.

Up to $50,000 will be donated to match other contributions, which would ultimately provide up to $100,000 for the foundation.

“That’s quite a substantial gift, and we want to take advantage of it,” said foundation board member Todd Turin, who is encouraging parents, alumni, faculty and other members of the Greensburg Salem community to contribute what they can. “The objective of the endowment is to have a large enough amount of money that the interest on an annual basis is providing the foundation with monies to support programs that benefit our students.”

Formed in 2013, the foundation has since donated more than $100,000 to augment educational opportunities for Greensburg Salem students.

According to Turin, the foundation hopes the endowment interest, in part, will help to continue a program that began this school year — helping high school students who qualify in advance for college credits to afford related administrative fees.

Earlier this year, Greensburg Salem accepted a $45,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to begin covering typical fees of $60 to $70 per credit for college-in-high school courses. The grant is expected to cover credit fees for one course per student, completed in their junior or senior year of high school, according to district Superintendent Ken Bissell.

The district found that about 80% of its high school students were taking the advanced courses, but just 10% were paying the fees needed to receive the related college credits.

The foundation also wants to continue supporting a summer camp for young district writers in grades 4-7. To inspire their writing projects, students take field trips to such local sites as Greensburg’s Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Turin said.

In past years, the district was able to tap grant funds to pay for the camp. “In 2016, no grants were found, and the young writers’ camp was canceled,” Turn said. “Our foundation stepped in beginning in the summer of 2017 and made it one of our flagship programs.”

Lendl, who lives in West Chester, Ohio, heads wealth management and real estate companies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Penn State and a master of business administration degree from the University of Notre Dame.

His career has taken him to multiple states, as well as Europe, and has included serving as site leader at a Merck pharmaceutical location that became the third largest private employer in Ohio’s Butler County.

“It’s an honor and privilege to be able to contribute to the foundation, to do this for our heritage,” said Lendl. “If a student has the inspiration to take an advanced course, we can’t let money get in the way.”

As of Monday, the foundation had collected more than $6,700 in donations toward the Lendl family’s matching gift.

Visit gsedfound.com to learn more about the nonprofit foundation. Visit bit.ly/gsefdonordrive to make a donation.