By: Seth Johnson

The Indiana Blind Children’s Foundation (IBCF) is excited to announce that the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) has donated $40,000 towards the build of an adaptive kitchen for students at Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) on behalf of CICF’s Frank Curtis and Irving Moxley Springer Fund.

Established by longtime arts and community leader Frank C. Springer, Jr., the fund is dedicated to honoring Springer’s legacy by contributing funds to Central Indiana charitable organizations involved in the myriad of causes that Springer was passionate about.

“My uncle set up a trust with CICF, and they decide if areas detailed in his trust would be applicable for a grant request,” says niece Cathy Springer Brown, who sometimes makes suggestions for the fund. “A lot of it has to deal with the arts, education and nature, but Uncle Frank was also very interested in helping those with disabilities. That was his lifelong mission.”

After attending the 2023 No Limits Celebration headlined by A.J. Croce, Springer Brown did some research on the Indiana Blind Children’s Foundation and eventually reconnected with IBCF executive director Laura Alvarado, who she had previously worked with as part of the Indianapolis Art Center board. As the two got to talking, Springer Brown brought up her uncle’s fund, which aligned perfectly with IBCF’s adaptive kitchen initiative at ISBVI.

“They [IBCF staff and ISBVI students] discussed how important it was for the students to be able to take care of themselves, and one of the most important ways to take care of yourself is to feed yourself and to be healthy while you’re doing it,” Cathy Springer Brown says. “That struck a note with me. Everybody needs to be able to take care of themselves. It’s such a vital life skill.”

After their discussion, Cathy Springer Brown connected Alvarado with Jennifer Bartenbach, CEO of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, who eventually awarded IBCF with $40,000 in support of the adaptive kitchen initiative on behalf of the Frank Curtis and Irving Moxley Springer Fund.

“I just get so excited when you can hear the passion in a not-for-profit leader’s voice about a project they’re working on and how impactful it’s going to be to the community, the youth that they’re serving, or whatever it may be,” Bartenbach says. “I knew the second that I got to talk to Laura that this was something that was really going to be one of those projects. I knew that it was really going to align with something that Frank would’ve loved.”

Bartenbach continues, “I also am always really drawn to something that is the first of its kind, too, and this really was visionary and something that we don’t have here in Central Indiana. Giving kids access to cooking and the culinary arts like this just really struck me as a unique opportunity.”

Follow this link to make a donation to ISBVI’s adaptive kitchen today.