Scholarship to honor memory of Mill Creek Park employee

By Denise Dick

YOUNGSTOWN — A new scholarship memorializes a late Mill Creek MetroParks employee, her love of nature and her passion for sharing it with others.

Mindy Henning, 45, manager of interpretive services at MetroParks’ Ford Nature Center, died May 25, after suffering a brain aneurysm.

The park is establishing a memorial scholarship in her name, to be awarded to a student of environmental or outdoor education.

“It started after a letter to the editor suggested it,” said David Imbrogno, park executive director.

He sent the letter to Henning’s parents, Robert Jr. and Shirley Schrader Henning, of Michigan, and they agreed it was a fitting way to honor their daughter’s memory.

“We’ve had a number of contributions,” Imbrogno said.

Henning was hired in 1991 as an assistant manager of interpretive services and appointed manager in 2000. She previously worked for Pittsburgh City Parks.

She met her fianc, Tom Bresko, park recreation director, after coming to Mill Creek. The two were a couple for 10 years and planned to marry next year.

“We were soulmates,” Bresko said.

The two traveled together to 28 countries with many of the trips planned around a love of nature.

They visited the Amazon and Nicaragua, walked in the Andes Mountains and went bird-watching in Ecuador.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.