JEN FUND
W
hen the Moore family lost its matriarch, Jennifer, a 1991 Waynesburg Central High School graduate, at just 40-years of age, they made a commitment to honoring her memory each year by giving back to the community. One of the most prominent ways in which they do so is by giving gas cards away to cancer patients and their families to help them travel for treatment. Art, and his son’s, Samuel, 15, and David, 13, have found several ways to raise the money to pay for the gas cards through their non-profit Jen Fund organization. “The boys decided to start a lawn care service. They have seven customers, including the Buckingham Cemetery where Jen is buried. They had been cutting lawns for a while and just decided to turn it into a business since Samuel will turn 16 in December and be able to drive,” Art said. “They are calling it Moore Brothers Lawn Service and for every $1,000 they earn they are donating $25 to the Jen Fund organization.” Other ways in which money is contribFrom left, David, Art and Samuel Moore following a uted to the fund for the gas cards is through balloon release at Buckingham Cemetery in direct donations by businesses and individuWashington County. The Moores attached business cards to the bal-loons to raise awareness of The Jen als, collections at the local Giant Eagle store, Fund, started in the name of Art’s late wife and the as well as the sales of t-shirts, hoodies, deboys’ mother who passed away in 2011 of a rare form cals, and window clings. The cards are then of cancer. distributed as close to Sept. 21, Jennifer’s birthday, as possible, to multiple cancer treat“No one is paid (by the Jen Fund non-profit). ment centers where patients have expressed a need. Among the centers being helped are UPMC We are all volunteers. I’d like to say 100 percent goes in Washington, the Darnell House in Washing- to the fund, but there are costs for the postal service ton, and the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center (some of the gas cards require mailing) and paperin Morgantown, W.Va. Families are also helped at work,” he said. “Our biggest thing is we need to get the information out there, through ads, publicity, or other times during the year, Art said. A new goal set by Art and his sons is to create word-of-mouth. The more people know, the better a memorial scholarship at Bethlehem-Center High we are.” Art Moore said he is grateful to the Greenlee School, where Jennifer had been employed. “It will go to people (students) who help out in Funeral Home in Beallsville which has made clients aware of the opportunity available for friends the community, the same as she did,” Art said. He hopes to present the first scholarship to a and family members to make donations to The Jen graduating senior from the class of 2016 at but the Fund. For more information, visit The Jen Fund on details are still being worked out at present. The larger goal for the scholarship is to one day be able Facebook. Donations can be made to The Jen Fund, P.O. Box 64, Clarksville, Pa. 15322. to present it at other school districts, he said.
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2015
• GreeneSaver
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