For the family and friends of Buchanan’s Janet Racht, the year ended with loss when Racht, 61, died Christmas Day after a long-time illness.

Just one month later, however, a committee of friends, neighbors and former co-workers have put together a benefit dinner to remember their dear friend and establish a way for her generosity to live on forever.

A benefit dinner for Janet Racht will be held Sunday at the New Buchanan Senior Center, 810 Rynearson Rd., Buchanan from noon to 4 p.m.

The dinner is intended to be a celebration of Racht’s life.

“Basically she was one of those people where anybody who met her she touched their lives in a positive way,” said long-time friend Jack McClellan.

Racht taught English at Buchanan High School and went on to work at Crowe Horwath in South Bend, where she devoted much of her time to the “Women and Leadership” program.

She was a member of the Buchanan Community Schools school board for 12 years and served on the Committee for Friends of the Trail as well as on the board of the YWCA in South Bend.

“She was basically just a terrific volunteer,” McClellan said, and helped anyone in any way she could.

“Whether she could help somebody locally or around the world, that was her focus,” he said. “She was just one of those people who gave of herself tirelessly. And she was memorable to everyone who had ever come across her in life.”

The benefit dinner will serve a dual purpose, McClellan explained. Planning for the event began prior to Racht’s death at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor so a portion of the proceeds will go toward helping Racht’s family with medical costs.

“We are also establishing a scholarship in her name through the Michigan Gateway Community Foundation,” McClellan said. “As a legacy to her.”

The scholarship will be offered as an endowment “annually and forever,” McClellan said, to a graduating student of Buchanan High School. The scholarship will be based on academic performance as well as leadership and community involvement.

Tickets are available for a donation at the door, and committee members are also selling them in the Niles and Buchanan area, McClellan said.

The dinner will include a 50/50 raffle and gift basket raffle of about 25 to 30 gift baskets made by friends and loved ones.

“If people wanted to support the scholarship fund,” McClellan said, “the best thing to do would be to send a check to the Michigan Gateway Community Foundation.

“I knew her for most of my life,” McClellan said. “But even those who knew her a short while were impacted in a positive way by their experiences with her.”

To donate, send a check to the attention of the “Janet Funk Racht Memorial Scholarship Fund” to the Michigan Gateway Community Foundation, 111 Days Ave., Buchanan MI 49107.