CHOOSING A PATH:
NEW FUND CONTINUES LIFE’S WORK OF HELPING OTHERS Laura Stanley Keppler wasn’t your traditional rule breaker, but she knew when a rule needed broken to help someone in trouble. From leaving the course in the middle of a golf game in order to rescue an injured bird, to teaching her two-year old grandson the words to Bohemian Rhapsody instead of Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Laura lived by the famous wisdom of Katharine Hepburn, “If you obey all the rules, you’ll miss all the fun.” Laura began her teaching career at Muncie Community Schools in 1996. She taught at Sutton and Southview elementary schools, and then the Youth Opportunity Center. Her classroom was once 12
again a place where Laura “broke the rules”. She regularly gave students who had been told they couldn’t succeed the permission they needed to break the rules and succeed anyway. “It was clear that Laura cared about the kids,” said Kelly Stanley, Laura’s father. “She felt she could do the most for those children in special circumstances and in need of special attention. That, in part, is what led her to the YOC. We knew she really cared about those kids and really connected with them.” When Laura unexpectedly passed away at the age of 49, her family, friends, students, colleagues, and members of the community were shocked. People flooded Laura’s Facebook page with messages about how she made a difference in their lives. Strangers called on Laura’s parents, Kelly and Donna Stanley, during her memorial service to share story after story about the way Laura left their lives a little better. Even the employees at
