Jenifer R. Powers-Fruit grew up understanding something that too many people forget: that education isn’t just preparation for life — it is life. As a teacher, Jen lit up classrooms. As a mentor, she changed trajectories. As a member of the Steel Valley community, she invested her energy in the people and places she loved.

 Jen believed in the power of young people. She believed in STEM. She believed that if you gave students the tools, the encouragement, and the chance to build something with their own hands, they would build a future worth living in.

 When Jen passed away in 2016, her family faced the grief that only those who have lost someone irreplaceable truly understand. But from that grief came purpose. In 2017, the Jenifer R Powers Fruit Memorial Fund was established — a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to funding STEM education and robotics programs in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

 The same year, the first Jen + Tonic Polo Event was held at what would become the Paul J. Powers Memorial Polo Field in East Palestine. What started as a small community gathering has grown into one of the most unique annual fundraising events in the region — a day where polo, robotics, community, and memory converge on a green field in the Steel Valley.

 Nine years later, more than $75,000 has been granted to 18+ scholastic robotics teams. Students who might never have had the resources to compete, to build, or to imagine themselves as engineers now have those opportunities — because of Jen.

 The Jen + Tonic isn’t just a fundraiser. It’s a declaration. That this community remembers its best people. That we invest in our children’s futures. That Jen’s belief in education lives on — every year, on a polo field, in every robot a student builds.

 Come be part of it.