Everlasting:

Artwork Honors Community Memories

THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION HOLDS MORE THAN FUNDS – we also hold the memories of our community. Each contribution to the Foundation and each fund established holds the intent of the donor. The Community Foundation carries that intent forward, generation after generation, creating an everlasting resource of charitable dollars for Muncie and Delaware County.

Last year, we shared the story of our new home – a building where we could create new memories for the community. Throughout our office space, we honor the community through local photography and contemporary artwork by local artists. We also wanted to embrace opportunities to ensure the past would be remembered. To honor our past, and two of the Foundation’s earliest champions, David Sursa and Edmund Ball, we commissioned Everlasting. The sculpture, installed in the building vestibule and lobby but visible even from outside the building, reuses glass removed from Minnetrista’s Catalyst sculpture.

Everlasting features a stainless-steel tree with dichroic glass leaves. The tree and its deep roots represent the permanency of The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County. The leaves change color from different angles like our community changes over time. The Community Foundation is everlasting – here to benefit our community today, tomorrow, and always.

David Sursa and Edmund Ball envisioned a community foundation’s impact on Delaware County. They encouraged others to see the vision when the first seeds were planted for The Community Foundation nearly 40 years ago. It’s only fitting that we honor their shared contribution within our walls.

Mr. Ball receives credit for issuing the challenge to community leaders to start The Community Foundation. He even offered a matching gift from the Ball Family for the first $1 million raised. Catalyst was commissioned in 2003 by Virginia B. Ball to honor her late husband, Edmund. The couple served as a catalyst for great things in our community. In 2019, Catalyst underwent restoration, including replacement of the glass. Minnetrista offered the original glass for artistic purposes and to celebrate our shared history.

Mr. Sursa was the Foundation’s founding president, championing the power of endowment in the community. He was a visionary leader and driving force behind the foundation we have become today. Together, he and his wife Mary Jane invested in The Community Foundation.

They established funds to benefit the causes that mattered most to them. Their everlasting support inspired their children and grandchildren to embrace philanthropy. They have created a multi-generational family legacy.

In fact, the Sursa children and grandchildren partnered with The Community Foundation to bring Everlasting from a concept to a beautiful piece of art. The family funded the project in honor of their parents and grandparents.

Through Everlasting, The Community Foundation honors the memory of our earliest champions. Through our service in Muncie and Delaware County, we hold the memories of so many others, too.

Everlasting

This story was featured in Everlasting, the Foundation’s 2023 Annual Report. Read the full report to hear about how we’ve built upon the work of the leaders before us to be representative, responsive, and relevant today. We tell stories of impactful grantmaking, generous donors, and more.

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