Lutheran Schools to Raise Money for Scholarships, Schools

LESA’s “A Night for Kids” to Raise Money for Scholarships, Schools

Evening will include a tribute to founding board member David Binder, and the presentation of LESA’s first-ever “Student Christian Leadership Award”

(ST. LOUIS, MO) March 27, 2013 – The St. Louis-based Lutheran Elementary School Association will host its largest and most important fundraiser of the year, “A Night for Kids,” Friday, April 12, 2013, from 5 to 10 p.m., at the Royale Orleans Banquet Center, 2801 Telegraph Rd., in south St. Louis County. The 9th annual dinner-auction will benefit Lutheran scholarship and school programs in the St. Louis area.

Since 2004, LESA has awarded 8,739 scholarships totaling nearly $6 million dollars to children of all faiths in the St. Louis area. “The need for high-quality, Christian education at the elementary school level is more important than ever,” said Crestwood resident David Binder, a founding board member and the evening’s honoree. “LESA has created a relationship among schools and families that allows us to share that gift with children all over St. Louis.”

CW 11 anchor Dan Gray will co-host the evening, which will include the presentation of LESA’s first-ever “Student Christian Leadership Award” to Mackenzie Scott, a seventh-grader at Zion Lutheran School in Belleville who created the charity Fire Truck O' Toys to deliver Christmas gifts to hospitalized children in the St. Louis area.

Tickets for this year’s dinner-auction are $55 per person for tables of eight. Special events include spoken and silent auctions, a Lollipop Pull, a Wine & Dine, and a drawing for an iPad mini. For tickets, contact Katherine Auble, LESA’s Director of Fund Development and Marketing, at (314) 26-1525. Guests can view the auction catalogue at www.lesastl.org. Donations will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, by the Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis.

More than 7,000 students attend LESA member schools in the St. Louis Metro Area. A Recognized Service Organization of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, LESA represents 30 elementary schools, early childhood centers, four high schools and six related agencies.

Our Honorees:

David Binder has devoted his personal and professional life to serving others through Christ. In 2004, Binder became a founding board member of the Lutheran Elementary School Association, which was created to help those who teach and those who learn in Lutheran elementary schools in St. Louis.  In addition to his work with LESA, Binder has served on the boards of the Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis, Lutheran Alentheim, Camp Penuel, and in various positions at Messiah Lutheran Church in south St. Louis. In his professional life, Binder served as partner and CEO of Binder & Son Lumber Co. (1960-1993) a position that took him to Venezuela to install a sawmill to help the Wardow Indian tribe. After closing the business, Binder became a senior-level computer consultant to the lumber industry. Retired since 2004, he currently serves as president of the Christ for Youth Foundation, Inc, a non-profit organization set up by the Binder family to help churches and other organizations bring Christ into the lives of children.  Binder and his late wife, Carole, raised and educated three children in Lutheran schools in St. Louis. Recently remarried, he and his wife, Joyce, live in Crestwood, Missouri and are members of Trinity Lutheran Church in Soulard.

Mackenzie Scott came up with the idea for Fire Truck O' Toys in 2011 while undergoing treatment for Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease, a degenerative bone disease she was diagnosed with at age of four.  After seeing other children miss out on Christmas due to illness, she recruited a professional Santa and a neighbor who owns a vintage fire truck to help deliver more than 600 toys to patients at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Now in its third year, the group plans to serve four hospitals this Christmas: Mercy Medical Center, SSM Cardinal Glennon, Shriner’s Hospital for Children, and St. Louis Children’s.  The organization accepts toy and monetary donations through its website, www.firetruckotoys.com. 

Mackenzie, a 2012 Ambassador for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals of Greater St. Louis, is a member of the Junior Youth Council and the bell choir at Zion Lutheran Church in Belleville. She regularly speaks to groups in the St. Louis area about her inspiration and motivation.

About LESA:
Founded in 2004, LESA is a distinctively Lutheran, Christ-centered resource for those who teach and those who learn in Lutheran elementary schools in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Because of LESA’s resources, students in Lutheran elementary schools will be empowered academically and spiritually to become productive citizens who share Christ in their respective communities through Christian testimony and service. To learn more about our services and schools, visit www.lesastl.org.

# # #