Thank you for your support.

St. Mark’s Nursery School and Kindergarten General Fund

You can share in our commitment to design indoor and outdoor classrooms, and community spaces as learning environments where children and their families feel free to be themselves, to make choices, to try new ideas and to delight in their discoveries and abilities. Our school budget is funded through tuition, fundraisers, grants and donations. It covers salaries, supplies, continuing education for our teaching staff and capital improvements to our facility and play yards.

The Mary Jane Van Hook and Trina Mescher Scholarship Fund
Your donation to The Mary Jane Van Hook and Trina Mescher Scholarship Fund enables us to offer scholarships to families in need. While every attempt is made to keep tuition as affordable as possible, for some families and children, tuition payments remain out of reach. Our hope is that all interested families can be supported in accessing our programming.

In Loving Memory

  • Mary Jane joined the staff of St. Mark's Nursery School in 1971, and discovered her passion for working with young children. Under her tenure as director the program blossomed.

    Like Fred Rogers and Bev Boss, she was a fierce believer in advocating for child-centered programming and was an early supporter of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. In 1990 the school became NAEYC accredited, which it remains today. Her strong belief in supporting the youngest in our community led to the creation of many events such as Getting Ready for Christmas, Young at Art, BubbleFest, and Science Alive. She also inspired and collaborated with others on the development of an early childhood area for WonderLab.

    Mary Jane facilitated many lab schools, parent outreach programs, and taught early childhood students at Indiana University. But she would say her greatest achievement was getting to watch so many children grow and discover the world.

    Making St. Mark’s Nursery School and Kindergarten available to all was of the upmost importance to Mary Jane. To support this vision, she created the scholarship fund, which was renamed in her honor upon her death in 2018.

  • Trina joined the staff of St. Mark's Nursery School in 1992, and served as a teacher here for 27 years, before retiring in 2017. She was a graduate of Otterbein College, where she earned a degree in Early Childhood Education. Later she pursued postgraduate work in children’s reading development at Ohio State University.

    Trina embraced the philosophy and practice of play-based early childhood education. She nurtured children in developing relationships, exploring areas of interest, and discovering the world around them. It was common to find Trina cooking with children in the kitchen, and joining them close to the ground as they learned about the natural world by looking closely at plants, insects, rabbits, worms and other visitors to the play yards. Trina coordinated trips off-site, from outdoor adventures to museums at IU.

    Trina embraced and celebrated the diversity of families and children. She, too, wanted St. Mark’s Nursery School and Kindergarten to be available to all families. Sadly, in January of 2021, Trina died suddenly of a heart attack. As a way to honor her and celebrate her life, Trina’s family asked that memorial gifts go to the St. Mark’s Nursery School and Kindergarten Scholarship Fund.

If you wish to hand deliver or mail in a donation, please make checks payable to: St. Mark’s Nursery School and Kindergarten

St. Mark’s Nursery School and Kindergarten is a not-for-profit ministry of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church and is a tax-exempt charity (tax ID number 35-1066653). Contributions are tax deductible.

Legacy Gift

If you are considering a Legacy Gift, please call our school office at 812-333-4007 and ask to speak with the director, Kate Morris. We appreciate your generous intentions and look forward to sharing more about how to make this arrangement.