Couple at Westminster creates scholarship fund to help employees

Glea and Larry Kreider want to give back to the community and help employees at the Westminster at Lake Ridge retirement community go to school.

The Kreider’s have established the Kreider Professional Development Endowment Fund as a permanent scholarship fund for full and part time employees at Westminster.

The couple, who are in their early 90s, have lived at Westminster for almost 22 years.

Larry Kreider, who was an economics professor at Indiana University, and an economist for the Federal Reserve and the American Banker’s Association, stated that his career has taught him to give back and help others.

“I had wonderful training in economics…I’ve lucked out and had a very rewarding career,” said Kreider.

The program will give selected employees scholarships for $1,000 or $500 dollars.

Kreider stated that in order to keep quality employees at Westminster, it’s important that the community help fund some of their education.

“We observed other retirement communities had this employee scholarship program, and they were very successful. And also Westminster and our two sister communities are moving forward – all the time we have to improve to meet the competition…we’ve observed over four decades, each time there’s a change to something bigger, and better there’s also a need for higher employee talent. So this program fits into that movement…We’ve gained a lot of respect for several of our employees here – many of them come from less privileged backgrounds, but they’re striving to be better. And you can’t help but be impressed by people such as that,” said Kreider.

The first round of scholarship recipients is currently being selected.