Barbara Kreider Named Moorestown FEP Co-Chair

MOORESTOWN, NJ — After nearly 30 years in existence, the Friends of Enrichment Program (FEP) of Moorestown has a new co-chair, the group announced this week.

Moorestown Meeting member Barbara Kreider has been appointed co-chair of FEP. She is serving alongside Monique Begg, who has chaired the program since its inception in 1997. The FEP Working Group, which oversees FEP activities under the leadership of Les Hopton, approved the appointment.

“Kreider’s appointment is aimed at securing the future of a faith-in-action program whose mission is to reach out to financially disadvantaged, underserved Moorestown children with a message of love and inclusion and scholarships to attend summer camp, enroll in art classes or sports clinics, take music lessons, or participate in other life-enriching activities at no cost to their parents,” Begg said.

Kreider is the treasurer of Moorestown Meeting and a member of the Meeting’s Anti-Racism Working Group, which was created in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

She also taught chemistry at Moorestown Friends School and chaired the school’s science department. When she retired at the end of the 2015-16 school year, it was noted that she had “helped a generation of MFS students connect with science.”

“As FEP co-chair, she has the unique opportunity to help a generation of FEP scholarship recipients achieve better outcomes than they otherwise would in a world where racism and prejudice are rampant,” Begg said.

One of the first decisions the co-chairs made was the initiation of the FEP’s 2020 Fall Fundraiser, for which FEP Working Group member Daniel Begg designed a flyer. The goal was to raise $500 in small donations.

The proceeds totaled $660, which Begg said was more than enough to make up for the money FEP didn’t raise last spring when the Empty Bowl Dinner and the Music and Dance Medley fundraisers had to be canceled.

Trusting that future fundraisers will continue to bring in money for the support of a program that was a recipient of the Church Women United Human Rights Award in 2006 and the NAACP Community Service Award in 2017, FEP used the fundraiser’s proceeds to springboard an expansion of its yearly investment in fall scholarships.

To the two musically inclined children who took private music lessons at Perkins Center for the Arts in recent years, three were added. To support these additional scholarships, more money will have to be raised in 2021 than had been anticipated. The additional money FEP plans to spend is an investment in the future of children who need our help more than they ever did.

Since its inception, FEP has issued a total of 1,087 scholarships to 469 children, with many of the recipients benefiting from the program year after year.

FEP also runs a Sunday-afternoon, school-year program of children’s activities, which is currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For more information about FEP, call Monique Begg at 856-235-3963.