Wauseon: Organizations make plans for Biddle bequest
2/9/2005WAUSEON - Wauseon Public Library might use its share of the Dorothy Biddle bequest for a larger children's room and more convenient genealogy area.
Wauseon Rotary almost certainly will put its share toward the planned park bearing Mrs. Biddle's name.
The 4-H Camp Palmer near Fayette will put the money Mrs. Biddle willed it toward its long-term campaign to renovate the camp, which was organized in 1946 with the help of Mrs. Biddle and her late husband, Clark.
Each of those organizations are to receive $50,000 from the estate of Mrs. Biddle, who died last month at age 106. Her will directs more than $1.4 million to charity, making it the largest charitable donation from a Fulton County estate in memory.
The largest chunk - $500,000 - is directed to Sara's Garden, a planned hyperbaric treatment center in Wauseon. Numerous schools are to get scholarship funds, including, Wauseon Exempted Village School District which is to receive $150,000.
Several of the organizations - including Wauseon Public Library and Camp Palmer - are considering naming a part of their operation after Mrs. Biddle. "It would be nice to honor her in some way," library director Jody Pershing said.
At Camp Palmer, the bequest will be added to $1.7 million in the capital campaign started eight years ago. Its goal is $2 million.
Mrs. Biddle, who was a long-time donor to the camp, enjoyed telling about how she and her husband, Clark, were there at the camp's beginning. It serves 11 counties in northwest Ohio, as far east as Lucas County and as far south as Auglaize County.
Wauseon Rotary Club is expected to put the $50,000 it is to receive toward the park to which she had donated her Exxon Mobil stock in 2003, club leader Jeffrey Robinson said. The club sold it this winter for $1.7 million.
Receiving $25,000 are: United Way of Fulton County, Fulton County Chapter of the American Cancer Society, Fulton County Radiothon, Fulton County Senior Center, Wauseon Volunteer Firefighters Association, and Piney Woods Country Life School in Piney Woods, Miss.
Receiving $10,000 are: Wauseon High School music department for equipment purchases; Fulton County Chapter of the American Red Cross; Wauseon Post of the American Legion; Wauseon Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; Fulton County Democratic Women's Club, Lakeside Association in Lakeside, Ohio; Disabled American Veterans; Salvation Army; Holy Land Christian Missions in Kansas City; Foundation for Evangelism of the United Methodist Church in North Carolina; Lovely Lane Restoration in Baltimore; and Crossmore School in North Carolina.
Receiving $5,000 are: Fulton Manor Nursing Home in Wauseon, Fulton County Historical Society, Fulton County Order of the Eastern Star, Wauseon Masonic Lodge, Oral Roberts Evangelistic Organization in Tulsa, Okla.; and Brother's Brother Foundation in Pittsburgh.
Receiving $1,000 are: Fulton County Men's Garden Club, Wauseon Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, American Diabetes Association, and March of Dimes.