As a grantee of The Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis, I read [reporter Kathleen McLaughlin’s March 21] article with great interest.

Some of the words used to describe the foundation were quite accurate: aggressive, unflinching, unusual. Their aggressive, unflinching support of persons living with HIV when few cared, to schoolchildren who otherwise would have little or no access to health care, to the necessity of health education and public health is unmatched.

It is misleading that your article chose to paint the Health Foundation as irresponsible because it has chosen to fund worthy causes rather than to hoard its money. As one of the co-executive directors of Step-Up Inc., I am pleased to report that, because of the Health Foundation’s generosity, thousands of high-risk youth and adult women have received life-saving health education.

We stand with our colleague, Tom Bartenbach of the Damien Center, when he said, “We don’t know what we would do without them.” I must admit that the pie charts in the article made me smile. They compared the Health Foundation to the “average foundation.” There is nothing average about Betty Wilson or the Health Foundation. Their integrity and dedication to our community is beyond reproach and far above average.

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Paula French
Co-executive director, Step-Up Inc.