By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A former St. Joseph health executive is giving St. Joseph students membership to the InspireU Children’s Discovery Center.
Lowell Kruse, the former CEO of Heartland Health, and his wife Leslie are helping to give over 700 families throughout the St. Joseph School District a yearlong membership to the museum in downtown St. Joseph.
Kruse says education is the foundation of everything we do, so providing this opportunity to students was a no brainer
“We’ve now been in St. Joseph about 40 years, and what’s clear is that our kids deserve every chance they can get to do well in life,” Kruse tells reporters. “And the schools are great at helping them along the way, but all of us have to do something, InspireU was designed to give kids an additional experience that helps in brain development, all those things are important from my perspective in how healthy they are long term.”
Mosaic LIfe Care Foundation President Julie Gaddie says it really is a special time.
“To see Lowell and Leslie Kruse come forward in our community to say that the children of this community are so important that they were willing to help over 700 families, kindergarten families in the school district, be able to the InspireU campus for an entire year with their whole family free of charge,” Gaddie says. “It really is something that is a moment in time that we won’t soon forget.”
Kruse says with the success that the discovery center has seen so far, and the support it received from the community, and says this is one of those times when it’s a good thing to pile on
“We need to pile on, be inspired by InspireU with what they’re trying to do with kids, partner with the school system, partner with the parents, whatever we can do in addition to InspireU, in addition to what we’re doing, anything we can do to help kids have a good successful life,” Kruse explains.
Kruse says what he learned along the way in his career is that 90% of our brain development happens within the first four to five years of our lives
“90% of our brain development, and so this is a crucial time, and we just can’t invest enough in our kids,” Kruse says.
The membership will give district kindergartners membership starting today, through September 14th of next year.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
