Helen Fleischmann was a teacher who grew up in Springfield but lived most of her life in other places but always regarded Springfield as her home. Miss Fleischmann returned home to care for her mother and upon her passing kept the family home and lived there in retirement. Helen shared her gifts, totaling more than $500,000, with many organizations in the community while she was alive and upon her death, just shy of her 101st birthday in 2009. Helen was inspired by the gifts provided to the community by Norma Rothenburg’s gifts to the city which paved the way for the development of a campground named in Norma’s honor in Springfield’s Riverside Park.

“All that we have is not ours. It belongs to the Lord. It’s a gift to us from the Lord.” Helen said in 2007, borrowing some words from a quotation that she read somewhere, a long time ago. “I don’t’ remember who said it, but it is what I believe.”