BRASHER FALLS — The Dr. D. Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund, a charitable fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation, has been established through a bequest from a St. Lawrence County resident and retired physician who passed away in September 2018 at age 83.

Dr. Badenhausen believed in the strength of community and was a passionate supporter of the people and places in the region she loved and called home. This charitable fund forever continues her legacy of caring for others while perpetuating her interests and passions in responsible and thoughtful ways in a geographic specific focus.

“This incredibly generous and enduring gift will not only strengthen St. Lawrence County now, but for generations to come. As a community foundation, it can provide support that is both flexible and lasting with geographic specificity,” said Rande Richardson, Community Foundation executive director.

Grant funding will be awarded annually to qualified nonprofit organizations whose missions and efforts align with the fund’s objectives. The Community Foundation’s board of directors recently approved the following first-time grants:

• Canton College Foundation — $50,000 to purchase three “Nursing Anne Simulator” manikins designed to reflect real-life conditions in a controlled environment. SUNY Canton prepares future nursing professionals through its two-year Associate of Applied Science and four-year Bachelor of Science in nursing degrees.

• Helena Volunteer Fire Department — $50,000 for lifesaving equipment needed to safely respond to fires and hazardous situations. Grant support will also help recruit, train and retain first responders and an ice rescue team in the community. Funding will support replacement of eight Self-Contained Breathing

Apparatus and bottles, and other safety equipment.

• North Country Public Radio — $50,000 to replace critical broadcast equipment as part of a broadcast studio modernization project. This project will bolster reliability and service to the NCPR audience through high-quality local programming. Needed equipment also supports collaboration with local performing arts organizations and cultural events in the community.

• WPBS-TV — $50,000 for the creation of new content for television broadcast and digital distribution plus outreach and promotional efforts. New programming will include an artist profile series with premiere screening and student showcase, component educational materials, and virtual screenings.

About Dr. D. Susan Badenhausen

Following years of medical education and service as a research professional and physician, Dr. Badenhausen made the North Country her home in 1975, and quickly grew to cherish its people as friends, serving all to whom she provided medical care with dignity and respect. “Dr. Susan,” as she was known to her many patients and friends, grew up on Staten Island, New York, and graduated from Connecticut College, New London, in 1957. In 1971, she earned a Doctor of Medicine from the Boston University School of Medicine, after several years working as a research professional at Columbia University. Shortly after she settled in

St. Lawrence County, Dr. Badenhausen established a health care practice with her partner, Joann M. Spatafora.

In addition to her practice, she and Joann formed an organic farm in the Town of Brasher where the two enlisted the help of many agricultural interns from Cornell University. Joann passed in 2001 from complications of ALS.

Dr. Badenhausen’s was the physician director for the Potsdam Nursing Home; a physician for Sunmount Residential Center in Massena; school physician for Parishville-Hopkinton Central School; a public health officer for the towns of Brasher, Stockholm, Hopkinton, and Lawrence; served on the St. Lawrence County Board of Health; and a longtime member of the Canton-Potsdam Hospital medical staff.

Thanks to her gifts, doors opened in 2014 to the Badenhausen Branch of the Massena Public Library, Main Street, Brasher Falls, giving Tri-Town residents access to needed educational resources.

Dr. Badenhausen remained one of the few physicians anywhere who still made house calls, even in the middle of a North Country winter. Her black leather medical bag was always packed and ready in her Brasher Falls home.