Announcing the Mearig Match for the Extraordinary Give!

The Occupational Development Center has been a part of the Lancaster County Community Foundation‘s Extraordinary Give event every year since its inception. The highest amount we have raised during this annual one-day online giving event is $14,450 back in 2021.

This year we are pleased to announce that we already expect to shatter that amount, thanks to a generous anonymous donation being given in honor of the Mearig Family. This donor is donating a matching fund of $20,000 to encourage others to give to the ODC. That means that if we match that amount on Friday November 22 at this year’s #ExtraGive, we will have raised well more than double than our previous best total!

Please join us on Friday, 11/22 and consider a donation to make this match a reality, as we seek to raise a total of $40,000!

Also, please join us downtown at our ODC ExtraGive Party at Hempfield Apothetique, 100 W. Walnut Street in Lancaster. Great food, beer, activities, and more!

We love that the Mearig family is being recognized in this way, as they were longtime members of the ODC family.

Herbert “Bud” Mearig, and his wife Doris, became involved with us back in the early 1950’s when we, as the Child Development Center, were just getting started. They only had one child, Herbert “Herbie” Mearig, Jr., who was born with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a result, he was one of the many children who came to the CDC for schooling. In 1958, when we became more focused on providing occupational training, Herbie stayed on, and was here at the ODC for more than 50 years.

While Herbie was one of our participants, his parents were regularly involved in our day to day operations. From the 1950s, all the way into the 1980s, Bud served on our board, and for a time was board president. His wife, Doris Klopp Mearig, also served on the ODC board as secretary and was active in our Parents Group and the ODC Auxiliary for many years.

Both Bud and Doris were born and raised right here in Lancaster and attended Upper Leacock High School together. Bud served in the U.S. Navy in WWII, and owned an office equipment and business machines company, and was also a business consultant.

With Herbie working here at the ODC, Bud and Doris continued to be involved, and were very generous with both their time and money.

Herbie passed away at the age of 63 in 2009, shortly after his retirement from the ODC. Doris passed away in 2011 at the age of 93, while Bud passed in 2016 at the age of 99.

We are so grateful for the Mearigs and how they made the ODC a central part of their lives for more than half a century. And we are grateful for their friends who have decided to honor them in this way.

Please consider a donation to the ODC as part of the Extraordinary Give on Friday, November 22, 2024.