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FeedThe Activists
For people touched by disease and death, tragedy often leads to triumph. Meet a few who have dedicated themselves to helping others.
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It wasn’t until months after his wife Kelly Heinz-Grundner had died of brain cancer in 2004 that Chris Grundner first realized he needed a logo for the foundation he had begun in Kelly’s name and memory.
“I remember thinking, ‘I have a new foundation, but I don’t have a logo,’” says Grundner, executive director of The Kelly Heinz-Grundner Brain Tumor Foundation in Wilmington. “It was then I looked up at the ceiling and saw a dragonfly buzzing around near the ceiling fan.” A dragonfly’s wings are green and blue, Kelly’s favorite colors. A graphic identity, now tied to a new foundation, had taken flight above him.
Grundner’s way of honoring his late wife is the same tribute of tireless dedication seen throughout Delaware, where a growing contingent of families, couples and individuals are taking their private struggle with illnesses and, in an effort to help others, making their stories known to everyone.
“These are people who have a passion to correct the wrong that’s been done to their families, so they go out and try to educate and support other families,” says Fred C. Sears II, president and CEO for the Delaware Community Foundation. “When you’ve lost another one that close, the loss can be devastating. By bringing their story to others, they’re saying, ‘Yes, it is overwhelming, but we’re here to help others through it.’”
Now in its 20th year, Delaware Community Foundation manages nearly 900 charitable funds and makes grants to organizations across the First State, including health organizations. Sears can count many families and individuals in the community who have gone to the foundation in search of ideas for establishing scholarships and endowments in honor of loved ones who struggle with illness or who have passed on.
“They want to carry on what those who they’ve lost would have done,” Sears says. “They see the fight and spirit within their family member, and they inherit that same fight and spirit. Whether their loved one regains health or not, their passion doesn’t die.”
Page 2: Whatever It Takes | Chris Grunder
