Stories

The Warminster Rotary Club has been serving its community for 59 years and celebrated this milestone at their Charter Luncheon on Sunday, April 11, 2021, on the porch at Giuseppe’s Restaurant. It was a great time spent celebrating the Club’s accomplishments over the past year – a very different and difficult year!   In light of the COVID pandemic, the Club had to completely re-think meetings, fundraising and ways to stay connected.   Despite the odds, the Club was incredibly successful in identifying two new, very successful fundraising events (Eagles football pool and 1^st Annual Golf Outing) and recruiting new members!    At the Charter Luncheon, the Club also updated members on the journey of Rosemarie, a child they have sponsored through Pearl S. Buck International for many years, who has just graduated from high school.   The Club will continue to fund her education as she begins college to fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher.   Due to the fact that the Club cannot hold a Scholarship Luncheon for the first time in many years, it was decided to post lawn signs at the homes of our scholarship winners – the signs were displayed at the luncheon.

A number of members and the Executive Board received Certificates of Appreciation for their tireless efforts on behalf of the club.  Seven members received Paul Harris Fellowship Awards for their work. 

 

BENSON-CAMPBELL MEMORIAL FUND ESTABLISHED TO HELP LOCAL FOOD BANKS, DISADVANTAGED YOUTH

 

A reward fund created in 1993 to help catch the person(s) responsible for murdering two young Warminster men that year is being repurposed to help local food banks and disadvantaged youth, a request made by the victims’ families who said they want to see the money help the community that helped them in their time of need.

Last week, the Warminster Rotary Club Foundation accepted $61,545.86 from the Benson-Campbell Reward Fund, which had been sitting dormant since it was created to help catch the killers of Bryan Benson and Seann Campbell, both 20 and from Warminster.

Benson and Campbell were best friends and working together at the West Coast Video in Rosemore Shopping Center when they were brutally murdered on Nov. 10, 1993.

Their killings remain unsolved.

At the time, Benson’s parents, Janice and Gary Benson, and Campbell’s parents, Bonnie and Greg Youngers, helped establish the Benson-Campbell Reward Fund, and residents of Warminster and surrounding communities donated more than $52,000.

The money was placed into an account, and no disbursements of the reward money were ever made, but as time passed and with bank consolidations, the identity of the custodian of the Benson-Campbell Reward Fund became lost.

Recently, Attorney Sean Corr, representing Campbell’s parents, with the assistance of Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub and the office’s Victim Witness Coordinator Itzamir Pagan, was able to determine the ownership and origins of the reward fund.

Corr, a past member of the Warminster Rotary Club, met with both families and the Board of the Warminster Rotary Foundation.

Both families said they were touched by the support of the community over the last 28 years and, in consultation with Corr and District Attorney Weintraub, determined the money, now found, should be used to better the community.

While they have not lost faith that someone will help provide information that would bring the parties responsible for the murder of their sons to justice, both families felt the money should be reinvested locally.

“Brian and Sean deserve justice,” District Attorney Matt Weintraub said. “But I take some solace by helping to their parents’ wishes that something good could be done in our community with the reward fund once we were able to help recover this money for them.”

The families said their hope was to see the funds managed by an organization with local roots, a strong leadership team that will focus efforts to improve the community who generated the funds and an organization that could continue to keep Bryan and Seann’s memory alive in the community.

The Benson family said they wanted to see the money used to support local food pantries and the Youngers Family wished to help organizations that support youth with disadvantages.

Last week, on Jan. 13, the Warminster Rotary Foundation Board of Directors voted to establish the Bryan Benson and Seann Campbell Memorial Fund with the $61,545.86, which is separate from their operating fund.

The first distributions were made to the following organizations: $2,500 to the Warminster Food Bank, Warminster, PA; $2,500 to the Lehman Methodist Church Food Pantry, Hatboro, PA; $2,500 to the St. John Lutheran Church Food Pantry, Hatboro, PA; and $2,500 to the Hopes and Dreams Foundation, Southampton, PA. Checks were dispersed on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021.

Every distributed check will include how the fund was established and the wishes of the family to have their sons remembered.

For more information, contact Kevin Crail, President, Warminster Rotary Foundation at crailsrunning@gmail.com or 215-359-7368 or Manuel Gamiz Jr., Director of Communications, Bucks County District Attorney’s Office at mgamiz@buckscounty.org or 215-348-6298.

Anyone with information on the killings of Bryan Benson and Seann Campbell, please contact Warminster Township police at 215-443-5000 or Bucks County detectives at www.bucksda.org.