Sinclair Foundation donates another $10K to Bellaire Public Library
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BELLAIRE - The Sinclair Foundation has further reinforced its love of the Bellaire Public Library with another major donation.
On Thursday co-founders Donn and Kristin Sinclair met with the library’s interim director Chad Webb to present him with a $10,000 check that will go towards the library's upcoming Innovation Center, which is part of our 2026-28 strategic plan that is revising the format of the library.
The plan will see the library move its children's library from the basement and turn 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.
"There is going to be a maker space that's going to have equipment that the public can come and use. Entrepreneurs and students who are working on an assignment for school can come in and use items such as a 3D printer, updated Cricut items, and other objects like that," Webb said. "We will also have a gaming center, and we are working to make that into an E- Sports arena that's going to be specifically aimed at teens and young adults. We’re going to make that the new Spark area, and all of the teen collection and early adult. Some of that collection will be downstairs as well."
He added that the Spark area is the name that the library has given to the teen and young adults area.
Thursday's donation is the Sinclairs’ fourth, and those funds now total $26,000. The two live in Rock Hill, South Carolina, but both grew up in Belmont County. Donn Sinclair was raised in Bellaire, while Kristin Sinclair was raised in Barnesville.
They have recently invested significantly into the Bellaire community by creating a beautification project to build five new one-story homes in the Rose Hill neighborhood this past spring. Since the couple have to travel to Bellaire for various reasons related to the project, they use the library as their makeshift office when they’re in town.
"We are not alone,” Donn Sinclair said. “There’s another Bellaire native who now lives in Phoenix, and when we were in here yesterday working on things, he was in here. He’s back to help to visit with his mother but when he needs to take care of business, he comes down to the library, which is why the innovation center makes so much sense,
“This is the best place, not just in Bellaire, but in the entire Ohio Valley to work," he added.
He said that it was a no-brainer to use the library as an office because he loved visiting it while growing up.
"I have really fond memories of being here with my sister Evelyn,” he said. “We would come here in the morning in the summer, and read. She would read Nancy Drew, and I would read the Hardy Boys until about 12 o’clock, and then it was time to go home and have lunch, and then go to the swimming pool. Then, during the school year, if you had a research project, this is where you'd come."
Kristin Sinclair said another reason she loves the library is because it offers free lunches to every child under 18 years old and free snacks to everyone.
"I mean, what a wonderful gift for the community," she said.