By Bruce McKenzie
One thing I’ve come to realize is that “quality of life” begins in our homes and starts with our families. It’s our parents, siblings, and children that typically shape our lives. In addition, it is our next-door neighbors, our extended family, our fellow churchgoers, our coworkers, and of course, our friends. These individuals are usually formative in the qualities we come to possess. From our homes, those qualities build out into the streets and carry over into our communities. It’s how we showcase that “quality” of life that makes our community the place to be. Perhaps that’s why we refer to the community we grew up in as our “hometown”: it brings both the home and the community together as a homogenous unit.
This same “quality” was the impetus behind the Bethel Community Fund, which was started in 2013 by the four children of Kenneth and Fairy Bowman. After their parents’ passing in 2010 and 2011, Sandra Bowman Dunham, Carl Bowman, Anita Bowman-Hamber and
JoAnn Bowman Moyer wanted to carry on their parents’ example of giving back to the community. Coming from a family of strong ideals, and looking to make a good community great, this fund honors their parents to this day.
Kenneth and Fairy worked diligently to help develop and grow the Bowman and Landes Turkey Farm on Ross Road in Bethel Township, which still bustles to this day. We’ve all come to know the place, most of us having visited it many times, especially at Thanksgiving. Besides being customers, many students from Bethel High School and countless members of the community had stints working there during the busy fall season. This is just one place where their determination to build the quality of community was a legacy in the making.
Kenneth served on the Bethel School Board for many years, investing his time in a community where he was born, graduated, and even drove a school bus his senior year. Both Ken and Fairy were dedicated to being involved in and supporting school activities with their children, each of whom graduated from Bethel High School
In addition, both Kenneth and Fairy shared in leadership roles and outreach activities with the West Charleston Church of the Brethren, a central hub of activities for the family. This even included bringing refugees to the United States after WWII and the war in Bosnia. They set a lifelong example of giving back, which was recognized by their children.
It was the giving of their time, talents, and resources to the Bethel community throughout the years that the children remember as forefront in their family: the care their parents held for the area in which they lived, and their participation in fostering that commitment in each of the children. It was through this lifetime of memories that the Bethel Community Fund was established. As a member at the time of the Tipp Foundation, it was Anita Bowman-Hamber who first proposed the idea to her siblings. With three of the Bowman children still living in Bethel Township, the idea was an epiphany, and to this day continues to build a stronger Bethel community. Mary Bowman, wife of Kenneth and Fairy’s son Carl, is honored to serve as a representative on the Tipp City Foundation, which oversees the fund, and advocate for the Bethel community. The purpose of the Bethel Community Fund is to support Bethel Schools, Bethel Hope, Child Care Choices, and any other worthy cause to strengthen the Bethel Community.
As we reflect on the people who have invested time into our lives—parents, grandparents, neighbors, schoolteachers, scoutmasters, pastors, and the list continues, may we hold close to our hearts how a great community is built on those we come in contact with on a regular basis. These women and men are rightly called our mentors, family, friends and neighbors. All of their labor and commitment might not be recorded in the annals of the local library, written on the walls of the community building, or highlighted in town in any shape or form, but one thing is for sure: there is no community history without them to look back upon. May we be the guiding force to foster a community where strong relationships like these continue to shape the future.