YOU ARE INVITED!
Please join the PBF at the HS wrestling meet on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at the Northern HS gym to hear first-hand about Brady’s impact!
Hello, Northern Supporters!
I’m excited to introduce you to the Polar Bear Foundation’s Brady Minich Fund, which provides need-based grants to Kindergarten through 12th-grade Northern York County School students to remove financial barriers to participate, engage, and succeed in school, sports, and other extracurricular activities!
But before I discuss what the fund can do for students, I want to tell you about 1999 Northern graduate Brady Minich.
ABOUT BRADY MINICH
Growing up in Dillsburg in the 80’s and 90’s, Brady Minich was always on the go, always involved and surrounded by friends. He was well known in the community for his leadership on the football field, his moves on the wrestling match, and as a favorite Big Buddy to younger Polar Bears like Danika Foster. “It was my great honor to know Brady as my Big Buddy when I was in 3rd grade. Our whole class adored him and looked up to him, but what sticks with me is his soft-spoken strength. Strength in general is the perfect attribute for Brady and what a treasure that he was both on the football team and hanging out with the next generation of 8-year-olds. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect role model than Brady,” remembers Foster.
Brady was treasured as a son, brother, and friend. “He was loved in return by everyone who knew him,” says his sister Angie (Minich) Burge. Marcie Frey, a teacher at Wellsville Elementary, was a close friend of Brady’s in high school. We had a friend group of 12 throughout middle school and high school—all 1999 graduates. This is what that friend group said about Brady. “His love for his friends and family was truly unconditional.” Many have remarked over the years that he was like a giant teddy bear, “I think because when he hugged you, you could feel his love through his embrace and just felt safer in his arms. Brady was the type of person that everyone was friends with, he had a gift of making you feel seen and special.”
Football coach and guidance counselor Marty Green remembers Brady as “…a good athlete who made himself a better athlete by who he was and how hard he worked. He was naturally an outstanding leader. He didn’t try to be a leader, but he was the one people turned to and the one who pulled people together… Brady was the representation of what we wanted Dillsburg kids to do and be.”
After graduating from Northern High School in 1999, Brady attended Susquehanna University in Lewisburg, PA. In June of 2003, after earning his diploma from Susquehanna University, Brady was visiting New York State and spent the day hiking. Driving home, Brady’s car was struck by another vehicle and he tragically died at just 22 years old. After this devastating loss, Brady’s mother, Sherie Minich, and sister, Angie (Minich) Burge, made it their mission to see good come from Brady’s untimely passing and created the Brady Minich Fund through the Foundation for Enhancing Communities (TFEC). Their goal was to allow Brady’s legacy of giving and caring to live on through scholarships and various other projects within his beloved communities.
ABOUT THE BRADY MINICH FUND
In August 2024, Brady’s family approached the Polar Bear Foundation and asked the PBF to take this giving and caring one step further by redefining the Fund’s purpose: to provide need-based grants to Kindergarten through 12th-grade Northern York County School students to remove financial barriers to participate, engage, and succeed in school, sports, and other extracurricular activities!
Examples include covering the cost of:
- Equipment costs or rental, from cleats to uniforms to band equipment
- Sports/band/academic camp fees
- Sports/band/academic participation fees
- Tutors
- Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts
- Testing fees/SAT fees
- Fees for certifications for Vo-Tech students
When Marty Green heard about the BMF being offered to Northern students, he said, “This is reaching the people that Brady would want to reach. This represents who Brady was, someone who was giving and caring.”
These need-based grants require NYCSD administrators, principals, teachers and/or staff, coaches or booster club leaders, or NYCSD-based Scout leaders or youth sports coaches to apply on behalf of the student. If you are a parent/guardian who believes your child(ren) would benefit from the Brady Minich Fund, please contact one of the people listed to begin the process.
Brady’s quiet strength remembered by Foster and the love and loyalty remembered by his friends will move through our district in the access that his legacy provides. The PBF is grateful to the Minich Family and to the friends and family who donated previously to make this current fund a reality.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Director of Operations, Natalie Slothower, at Natalie@PolarBearFoundation.net.
YOU ARE INVITED!
Please join the PBF at the HS wrestling meet on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at the Northern HS gym to hear first-hand about Brady’s impact!
HOW TO APPLY FOR THE BRADY MINICH FUND
These need-based grants require NYCSD Booster club leaders, administrators, principals, teachers and/or staff, or NYCSD-based Scout Leaders to apply on behalf of the student. If you are a parent/guardian/friend/religious leader, etc., of the student, please contact the student’s principal to discuss submitting the student’s name.
Until next time,
Shannon Hemauer
