Bellaire Public library Program & Community Services Manager Chad Webb, from left, Sinclair Foundation co-founders Kristin and Donn Sinclair celebrate a $5,000 check being presented by the foundation to the library.

BELLAIRE – Only a day after the Sinclair Foundation announced a beautification project to build five new one-story homes in the Rose Hill neighborhood, it donated $5,000 to the Bellaire Public Library.

Co-founders Donn and Kristin Sinclair are using the wealth they’ve accumulated throughout the years to help improve communities that positively impacted them throughout their lives.

Now living in Rock Hill, South Carolina, the Sinclairs both grew up in Belmont County. Donn was raised in Bellaire while Kristin was raised in Barnesville.

“When we come to town, the library is our office, so they’ve been great about allowing us to use their space,” Kristin said. “I asked somebody about where the children are, and they said, ‘Oh, well, the children are downstairs, but we’re actually going to be making some changes.’ And they walked us down so I could see, and I saw this wonderful outdoor area they had. And I just envisioned teen kids having fun and hanging out.”

Kristen Sinclair then met with the library’s Program & Community Services Manager Chad Webb, who told the couple about the library’s fundraising initiative.

“Donn and Kristin Sinclair have been diligently working to improve the community, and they approached me last year and asked the library if we had any needs that they could possibly fund,” Webb said. “Initially they donated $500 to our home school learning club for the remainder of this academic year, and then they did an additional $5,000 aimed at our upcoming Innovation Center, which is part of our 2026 through 2028 strategic plan, that is us revisioning the format of our library.”

He added that the library will move its children’s library up from the basement and turning that area into the Innovation Center. The new center will include an e-sports space with computers, gaming, and other activities for teens and young adults.

“We are also adding a maker space to the library in that same location, which is an area and several libraries that have items that the public can come in and use, like Cricut machines, laser printing, 3-D printers, and other things like that,” Webb said. “We’re just very thankful for the Sinclair foundation. They’re doing a lot of really impactful work here in BelAir, and we are just thankful and grateful that the library is included in their vision.”

Webb said the Sinclair Foundation would donate an additional $5,000 once the library reached a $40,000 fundraising mark for the program. Webb said that the goal was able to be reached through various grants from the AEP Ohio Foundation and EQT Foundation.

On Wednesday, the Sinclair Foundation presented a $5,000 check to the library to complete its $45,000 completion goal.

Kristin said that from the day she met Webb she knew that her and Donn were going to try and help the library achieve its goal.

“That day, we knew we were going to give him money, when he said all of the different things they were going to be doing for the kids. We decided we were definitely going to support them,” Kristin said.

Donn Sinclair said he was inspired to help improve Bellaire when he was watching television in Rock Hill and saw a “Welcome Home Ohio” commercial that was imploring residents to move to Ohio.

“They portrayed the nice neighborhoods that we remember growing up, but the neighborhood that I grew up in, in my mind, was like what they were showing just 50 or 60 years ago, but it’s not like that today,” Donn said. “We just decided that we were going to change it, and that’s when we started looking into buying distressed and blighted housing.”

He added that both the beautification project and library donation are their way of trying to give back to Bellaire.

Donn Sinclair said that the foundation is aggressively trying to complete their vision because they want to ensure it is completed before they die.

“Our sons, they live in North Carolina and Virginia, they have no connection to this area. The only thing we ask of them, should we get vaporized by space aliens or hit by a Pepsi truck, is that they tie up any loose ends,” Donn Sinclair said. “We’re trying to accomplish as much as possible in the shortest period of time, because we know we’re not kids. So any help, and we appreciate what the village is doing to help us to get things done, and any help we can get from the county to get things done faster, is important to us, and we may seem impatient at times, but we just know that the months are falling off the calendar.”

Webb said that the project should be completed by 2028 and in 2029 the goal will be to become a community hub for the village.

“Our goal is to not just be a library, but to be a community hub for Bellaire,” Webb said. “We already have a community center here in the library, but we really just want it to be a place that individuals know that they can come to to use materials and items and resources and not just check out books.”