Big goal met
The Columbus community had a big challenge to meet a big goal: Raise $500,000 in five months to leverage another $500,000. Mark and Wendy Elwood announced their dollar-for-dollar match in October to support educational programs to prevent substance abuse amid the opioid abuse epidemic.
Local donors came through, meeting the goal a week before the March 31 deadline. That’s impressive, and extremely helpful. We’ll learn exactly how the money will be spent during the April 25 ASAP Bartholomew County report to the community. But even before that, attainment of the challenge goal by the Elwoods is worth celebrating.
Everyone who pitched in, from small amounts to large, should take a bow for working together to make a difference.
Championing inclusion
Columbus has long been a champion of diversity and being a welcoming community, and another chapter in that history will be written April 14.
The Columbus Pride Festival, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day on the Fourth Street entertainment corridor, is the senior project of Erin Bailey, a student at Columbus Signature Academy – New Tech High School. It will be the first gay pride festival held in the city.
Bailey’s project, conceived more than seven months ago, has elevated the topic of inclusion worldwide, and demonstrates an impressive commitment to that idea.
Significant donation
Palliative care services at Our Hospice of South Central Indiana and Columbus Regional Health received a huge boost of support when the Johnson family of Columbus — Ruth, Rick, Alice and Jenny — established the Johnson Family Endowment to support the program, and donated $1 million of the $4 million needed for long-term sustainability.
Palliative care offers relief from symptoms for individuals with seriousness illnesses such as cancer and heart and lung diseases, and is intended to improve quality of life during care for the illnesses, and before hospice services are requested. Columbus Regional said the support of the services improve the continuity of care that can be provided during a person’s lifetime.
We commend the Johnson family for the significant donation, which helps the community in terms of the medical services patients can receive, and is in keeping with the family’s philanthropic history.
