It was a message during one of the Reverend Dr. Kathy Nelson’s sermons at the First Presbyterian Church in Dayton that stuck with Dorothy Hanle and inspired the creation of a foundation that has given many grants to health, educational, and spiritual causes.
“God gives us gifts, not only for our own good, but for the common good,” said Nelson about her message. Upon her retirement, Hanle decided to start an organization — the F.I.S.H Foundation — that would channel her significant assets from various commercial ventures toward carrying out that message.
In 2007, Hanle asked Nelson to take the next step in her ministry and join the F.I.S.H Foundation (Funding Individual Spiritual Health) as its president. In that role, she would manage the organization’s many donations to national and international causes.
After receiving approval to carry out her ministry at the head of the foundation, Nelson moved on from her 21-year tenure as the pastor and head of staff of the church to join Hanle and vice president Judith Cashmore at F.I.S.H.
Since then, the foundation has donated money to initiatives as far as South Africa and Israel, and as close to home as Plainsboro. In fact, the three women moved to Plainsboro and have found a home for their foundation on Market Street in Plainsboro’s Town Center.
“We wanted to be near Princeton, but we believed that because the hospital was coming into Plainsboro and because the Town Center was so well constructed” it was the perfect place, said Nelson. “We realized that the Plainsboro Library was going into the Town Center. We felt it would be a great investment in a perfect type of advancement for the community in terms of resources and educational opportunities for them.”
The library, in fact, was one of two local recipients of the foundation’s generosity. The other was Eden Services, which is constructing a new facility in Forrestal Village to provide services for individuals with autism.
“We’re very excited about the fact that Eden is able to move to a new facility soon,” said Nelson. “We’ve been very concerned about that area [autism] because there are so many people who are dealing with autism.”
Hanle and Cashmore were on hand for the groundbreaking of the new facility, and Hanle also attended the dedication of the new library earlier this month. Nelson said that the foundation thinks the new library is wonderful. “The township did a really great job seeing that library to completion,” she said. “We’re very thrilled with the appearance of the building.”
Nelson said the foundation was interested in the library because of its importance to education, and when library officials discussed the different areas of the new library, the most exciting part to the foundation was the science center on the third floor, to which the foundation donated money (the foundation declined to reveal the exact amount). “The exciting part was related to children and science, and we believed in the hands-on learning area,” she said.
In addition to local projects in Plainsboro, the foundation has already been recognized for its work in other areas of the world. In September, former President Bill Clinton recognized the foundation as part of the Clinton Global Initiative for providing over $600,000 in funding to the Mar Elias High School in Ibillin, Israel, with $100,000 more coming in October toward upgrading the school’s technology.
Nelson said the grant helps provide advanced equipment in the areas of biotech, physics, and computer laboratories. The equipment will help the graduates of the school advance to college. It will also help students who do not get admitted or admitted as quickly to a university to be able to use their skills in a technology field, explained Nelson. “That’s one of the great burgeoning areas in the nation of Israel right now,” she said.
The three members of the organization began their lives in three different states. Nelson grew up in North Dakota. Her father was a grain elevator manager in Minnesota. Prior to her 21-year tenure at the First Presbyterian Church in Dayton, she served as associate pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.
She moved to New Jersey to attend Princeton Theological Seminary, where she earned a doctor of ministry degree, along with a master of theology degree in pastoral theology, and a master of divinity degree. Her bachelor’s degree is from Jamestown College in Jamestown, North Dakota.
Recently, with Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, Nelson completed an advanced program in spiritual formation, and she hopes to help the foundation “focus on the growing need for spiritual health as it pertains to the well-being of individuals.”
Hanle grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to Long Island as a young adult before marrying and moving to North Brunswick. She formerly was president and CEO of Dayton Auto Center and proprietor of Whitlock Tavern in Dayton. Prior to getting married, she spent 13 years as a nurse.
Cashmore grew up in New Jersey. Her father was an engineer. She has 41 years of experience as an elementary school teacher. She earned her bachelor’s degree in teaching from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and a master’s with specialization in reading from Kean University.
The foundation gives gifts to work that involves the support of healthy lives. “This might mean working to decrease hunger, or to assist in the support of medical needs like treatment for AIDS, or to prevent malaria, or to champion specific medical procedures that improve people’s quality of life,” states its website.
“In today’s world of burgeoning wealth, too many are left behind educationally, which heightens the gap between the wealthiest people and the poorest,” the website states. “The F.I.S.H. Foundation seeks to address the need for school-based grants that improve the quality of education and the need for individual grants that improve people’s chances for personal access to education.”
For more information, visit www.fishfoundationinc.org.
