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By Sandra Baer, Contributing Writer 11:35 AM Thursday, May 28, 2009

Lois Fink, 55, of Sugarcreek Twp. has a passion for life that becomes readily apparent as she talks about her interests and volunteer experiences.

In addition to being president of the Bellbrook Garden Club, Fink also is active in the New Neighbors League Club of Dayton.

“It is a wonderful group,” Fink said of the group she joined to meet other people and become familiar with the area after moving to Sugarcreek Twp. from the Washington, D.C., area. “It was the place to meet people and find out where to have your hair done, or your car fixed. It’s networking for life skills.”

Fink grew up on a farm in Millville, Pa., a rural borough located in central Pennsylvania founded in 1774 by Fink’s ancestors, the Eves family.

“It was like Bellbrook where everybody knew everybody but most of us were related in Millville,” Fink said, whose lawyer father lived in the 1870 farm house, but leased the surrounding land to local farmers. “I graduated in 1971 from the George School, a college prep Quaker boarding school in Newtown, a suburb of Philadelphia.”

While in high school, Fink enjoyed science and math and while reading some Cherry Ames nursing books, decided to study nursing at the University of Boston. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science of Nursing, Fink became a pediatric registered nurse working at Children’s Hospital in Boston.

A job change took her to Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, Dr. Robert J. Fink, a pediatric pulmonologist, when the two worked together in an outpatient clinic.

“He’s a wonderful doctor,” Fink said, whose husband is currently working at the Children’s Medical Center of Dayton. “We got married in 1984. I had three children in four years, so I quit working to stay home with them. We always had lots of animals around the house, because of our little vet daughter. From the time Laura was six, we had dogs, cats, gerbils and guinea pigs.”

After having her final and fourth child, Fink became a school volunteer working as a playground aid, a tutor, assisting teachers in the classroom and in the clinic.

The Finks’ oldest daughter, Shannon, is an attorney living in Virginia. Laura Fink Davis remained behind in Maryland after her parents moved to Sugarcreek Twp. so that she could finish her senior year of high school. She attended the Ohio State University, where she met her husband, Dan Davis of Maryland.

Daughter Laura is studying to be a veterinarian at OSU while her husband, Dan, works for IBM.

For more information about the New Neighbors League, visit www.new neighborsdayton.com.

Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.

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