Gym renovation a tribute to Bearson

by Frank Lee

operations@thenewsleaders.com

Tom Bearson’s face can once again be seen at St. Francis Xavier School in Sartell after a recent renovation of the gymnasium where the slain university student often played basketball.

Granite plaques adorn the gymnasium’s wall, including one intended as a tribute to Tom Bearson, while two others recognize by name some of the more significant donors to the project.

“This gym is used by many people and organizations in our community,” said Greg Bearson, a Sartell resident, whose son’s unsolved murder was behind the creation of the community-minded foundation.

The Tom Bearson Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated in the 18-year-old’s memory, paid for the entire cost of the gym renovation project, which was more than $80,000, Bearson said.

The Catholic school’s gym was more than 20 years old, so a new, multi-purpose floor, new glass backboards and new modern, energy-efficient LED lighting was installed during the renovation.

“Essentially the gym, as you look at it now, looks almost brand new, compared to what it was previously,” Bearson said of the gym’s renovation, which was completed in late June.

Some of the biggest users of St. Francis Xavier School’s gym include the Sartell Area Youth Basketball Association and the Boy Scouts, Bearson said.

“While it’s a gymnasium for sports and basketball and those kinds of things, it’s used by so many people for so many things,” Bearson said.

The Bearson family said on the foundation’s website, www.tombearson.org, that the gym renovation was “a great gift to our wonderful parish community of Sartell.”

“Both our children attended St. Francis . . . and Debbie has been a teacher at St. Francis for 18 years, and she’s currently teaching second grade,” Bearson said of his children and wife.

Other users of the private school’s gymnasium include organizations such as the Cub Scouts, Knights of Columbus, Lions Club and more, Bearson said.

The renovation “helped fulfill the mission of our foundation and create a fitting and beneficial community memorial for our brother, son and friend,” the foundation’s website says.

“Tom played countless hours of basketball in that gym, and that’s where Tom practiced on evenings and weekends,” Bearson said. “One of Tom’s big loves in his life was basketball.”

The granite plaque intended as a tribute to the teen and now hanging on a wall of the renovated gymnasium reads: “Find what you love and make it your passion.”

The second annual Tom Bearson Foundation’s Golf Outing and Bean-Bag Tournament took place July 23 at Blackberry Ridge Golf Course in Sartell. It was a fundraising event.

“There was previously raised money from our foundation golf outing last year, so the foundation did allocate money toward the goal of raising the $80,000 for the gym,” Bearson said.

“We also reached out to people in the community who we thought would have an interest in wanting to donate to this meaningful project, so we actually had a wine-tasting event in downtown St. Cloud, and a lot of people came and pledged and donated money.”

Tom Bearson was murdered in the Fargo-Moorhead area in fall of 2014. The killing of the North Dakota State University student has not yet been solved.

“The investigation is still very, very active,” Bearson said. “We have been in continuous communication with law-enforcement agencies, and our family remains very confident there will be a resolution to the case.”