LeRoy churches are still counting their blessings this Easter after receiving one of the nicest gifts they could have imagined last year from a former resident.

When Loren Krueger passed away on March 11, 2009, no one knew his will included a donation of almost $3 million dollars to the community. He’d been known around town as a good man and a landowner of several farms in the area. When he died, he left hundreds of thousands of dollars to four of LeRoy’s five churches, as well as the fire department, the ambulance service, and the town’s senior center.

His story, first reported in the Herald, gained national recognition in December after the town was featured on “NBC Nightly News,” “The Today Show” and CNN.com.

Just a few months later, Krueger’s generosity is still felt in the community he lived in.

“It was a gift to us, and we tried to make it a gift that keeps on giving,” said Paul Hamlin, council president for LeRoy Lutheran Church.

LeRoy Lutheran fixed a leaky roof over their bell tower and added handicap accessible features like enclosing a ramp from the weather and replacing two lifts they currently have with a better lift. Hamlin said church members will replace the church’s basement floor along with other repairs to the parsonage. In addition, they’ve given donations to a variety of groups and organizations and even set up a scholarship fund for their graduating high school seniors, a tradition they started last year.

There was one church not specified in Krueger’s will, as it hadn’t yet formed when Krueger made it. Grace Christian Church is the newest congregation in town, with the oldest church according to Pastor Brian Thiel. The other area churches donated part of the money they received to Grace Christian, which has added a handicap-accessible wheelchair lift to the former First Baptist Church building, which was built in the 1800s.

First Presbyterian Church fixed its roof as well, along with buying a new organ according to Harlo Wheeler, a member of First Presbyterian’s council. Council members are looking into other landscaping projects as well, all thanks to Krueger’s contributions.

“It’s kind of nice for, at the end of someone’s life to give his money away like that, it’s nice to put it back to work,” Wheeler said.

All of the area churches donated to Wildwood Grove Nursing Home’s new stainless steel kitchen, a much-needed addition according to Mary Harrington, housing manager.

The LeRoy churches are collaborating on a present for the community as well. Pastors and priests from every parsonage are going to put together an endowment fund to be used for Good Samaritan acts around town. Churches will work with local businesses to set up vouchers for goods and services to help people down on their luck from time to time, according to Hamlin.

All this was made possible by the generosity of one man.

“It all ties back to Loren,” Hamlin said. “I think Loren would be proud knowing that what he did, his gift, is still working.”