An area church entrusted by a late parishioner to help the community is giving to the children.

Trinity Lutheran Church in Lehighton, which oversees the Diehl Memorial Fund in honor of the late Warren Diehl of Lehighton, recently presented Blue Mountain Health System with a $20,000 grant.The money will be used to help cover maintenance and repair costs of the Blue Mountain Health System Healthy Smiles, Happy Kids mobile dental van. The van serves approximately 1,500 low-income children throughout the county annually.Joseph Guardiani, vice president of development at the hospital, said this grant is exactly what is needed."The money is specifically for maintenance and repairs of the equipment and van itself," he said. "Many of the grants we receive don't allow us to use the money for this purpose, so this is really a shot in the arm for us to be able to get some of the little things done that the van needs."Guardiani, who was on the initiative committee, said the van was in operation since 2007 and is making a difference."After being on the road and having patients in the van for seven years, we're doing more preventive work than restorative work, which is a good thing," he said. "This is the goal of the project, to get preventive dentistry to children so going forward they have a good shot."He said the van is staffed by a board certified dentist, a hygienist and a dental assistant/driver.Andrew Harris, president and CEO of Blue Mountain Health System, was thrilled by the news."It's great," he said. "It is showing how the community and the hospital partner together to better serve the community."Dr. Sheila Smith, the dentist for the van, was grateful for the help.She pointed out that the step leading into the van is rusting and hopes to be able to replace it as well as the door and maybe do maintenance on the generators with the funds.Barbara Belon, chairwoman of the special gifts committee for the fund at Trinity Lutheran Church, said that this is what the memorial fund is all about."Mr. Diehl was very clear in his will with how he wanted the money spent," Belon said, noting that it was only to be used for mission work, and only the interest accrued was to be used in the donations. "The dental van was one of those projects that serves a lot of children in the area and does a lot of good in the world."She said the church is always looking for organizations that need help with projects that help the community.To find out more about the Diehl Memorial Fund, call the church office at 610-377-4303 and ask to leave a message for Belon or send a letter to the church, attention to the special gifts fund, with information about the program.