Welcome to the Starke County Community Foundation
Starke County is a wonderful rural county comprised of small towns where everyone knows each other; and can always depend on neighbors and friends in a pinch. It has a wonderful heritage and a diverse cultural background that adds to its charm.

Since 1996, Starke County Community Foundation has brought caring people and charitable endeavors together for the good of this great community. The Community Foundation gives donors flexible and tax-effective ways to ensure their charitable giving. We work to build substantial endowment funds for our community through contributions large and small.

Starke County Community Foundation is proud to be a part of the Northern Indiana Community Foundation (NICF). The NICF allows us to maximize our investment benefits and be more cost efficient. This way Starke County donations can do more—right here in Starke County.

So far, Starke County Community Foundation has dispersed over 2 million dollars in grants and scholarships. Currently the Community Foundation holds nearly $3 million in assets and administers 64 funds.

Eleanor G. Hamblin
A mother and a teacher honored . . .

When Eleanor Hamblin died in 2006 at age 84, her daughter Jane kept thinking that she must find a way to honor her mom’s memory—maybe a scholarship since her mom had loved learning so much. As is often the case after someone dear dies, Jane was paralyzed about what to do. Two years went by, and then the Starke County Community Foundation helped her get moving—but fast! Late in 2008, Jane was invited to a Community Foundation luncheon and learned how easy it would be to honor her mom. She wouldn’t have to contact university officials at her mother’s alma mater to start a scholarship. She wouldn’t have to hire a lawyer. She wouldn’t have to sock away thousands and thousands of dollars and jump through hoops.

All she would need to do is start a fund in the Community Foundation and the rest would fall into place. In just a few weeks, Jane signed the fund agreement, wrote a check for $5,000, the minimum to establish a fund, and in four months’ time, the first Hamblin Scholarship in honor of Eleanor G. Hamblin was presented!

“My mom was the original multi-tasker,” says Jane. “It was amazing how much she got done in a day as full-time teacher and full-time wife, mother, and daughter to aging parents. So, she would really have appreciated the efficiency of the Community Foundation in helping me set up the Hamblin Fund,” says Jane. “What’s more, she would have been grateful that the staff of the Community Foundation listened to me and valued my wish to honor her. They were kind listeners!”

Eleanor Hamblin participated in the life of Starke County for more than 50 years. Dedicated to the profession of teaching, she taught English, business studies, shorthand, typing, accounting, and secretarial practice to three generations of students in the Knox Schools. She was the sponsor to many Knox High classes and advisor to nearly every student club at one time or another over her 36-year teaching career. She even wrote the words to the Knox High School alma mater. Upon her retirement from the Knox Community School Corporation in 1982, she received a governor’s commendation and was also made a Sagamore of the Wabash.

“I could go on and on about my mom. But I don’t need to, because through the Hamblin Fund, I have a tangible way of showing how important she was to me and my family and to the Knox Schools,” Jane reasons. “I am very satisfied that my mother’s memory will live on forever. The Community Foundation will make sure of that. Now, I can worry about something else!”

Starke County Community Foundation Awards Grants

December 2009

The Starke County Community Foundation (SCCF) kicked off the holiday season by presenting joy and cheer in the form of grants to community organizations during its 2009 Grants Luncheon. Over $19,000 was awarded on Thursday December 10 at the Knox Community Center.

The grants come from the Community Foundation’s Unrestricted Funds, which allow the Community Foundation to help meet the greatest needs in Starke County. The funds that make it possible for these grants to be awarded are The Freedom Fund, the Stewart Lain Memorial Fund, the Ann R. Nichols Memorial Fund, the Schuyler Family Endowment Fund, the Starke County General Unrestricted Fund, the Starke County Tribute Fund and the Arlowa S. Vorm Memorial Fund.

Organizations that received funding are:

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