GOSHEN TOWNSHIP — The Goshen Butler Township Community Foundation has been a bastion of support for families in need in both of its namesake townships for decades and is currently seeking community support to continue that legacy of giving.

The Community Foundation was founded on June 1, 1954, to provide necessary services for community members facing medical challenges and family crises at a time when there were no other agencies providing that type of support. In those early years the foundation often lent families hospital style beds to allow family members to be cared for at home. Since then, the foundation has continued working to assist families with adapting to their medical needs, often collaborating with church groups and other community organizations to provide homes with wheelchair ramps, or to provide resident with specialized medical equipment as in the case of one resident who would otherwise had to have travel to Cleveland for care, allowing them to recover and graduate from a nursing program.

Community Foundation Treasurer Keith Martig said that as time has passed the Community Foundation has looked to “fill the gaps” of what kinds of community support are available from other non-profits like providing more tailored assistance to families experiencing medical crises or employment hardship. Martig explained that recently the Community Foundation had made an electric payment for a family so they could remain caught up on bills and had provided gas cards for another resident needing an organ transplant to help with mounting travel costs between hospitals.

“We’re trying to reach out to these people and make sure they know that their community cares about them,” said Martig.

The Foundation has also provided direct support to the community’s first responders in recent years including the Winona and Damascus Volunteer Fire Departments, which were given funding for powered cots to make extricating patients safer for both themselves and the patients and other equipment updates. The community parks in both Winona and Damascus have also both directly benefited from the Community Foundation’s funding program, receiving funding to help with the costs of mowing, painting, and general upkeep annually.

However, Martig said that the Foundation’s coffers are not limitless and that each year in September it reaches out to the community for support through its annual fund drive. The Community Fund has already mailed out approximately 3,300 letters to residences in Goshen and Butler Township seeking donations, with Martig noting that the foundation typically tries to have its main fundraising push completed by November. However, contributions can be mailed to the Community Foundation’s P.O. box year-round at “Box 33, Damascus, Ohio, 44619.” Martig also said that the foundation was also in need of volunteers with diversified skills that current members lack, like experience working with computers and web design and that those interested in volunteering should send a written note to the same P.O. box.