04-04-2025
Farm owned by central Ohio nonprofit named for shooting victim suffers severe storm damage
Several buildings owned by The Brian Muha Foundation — a charity that provides education and programming for children from disadvantaged backgrounds — sustained damage in Sunday's severe weather, the charity's director said Thursday.
The foundation's Run the Race Farm in Galloway had the aluminum roofs of two of its barns blown off by Sunday's storms, leaving them crumpled on the ground. As rain and more storms swept through this week, the foundation had to leave the damaged barns unprotected while it waited for an adjuster to visit and inspect the damage.
Director Rachel Muha said children at the foundation's day school could not visit the farm this week for science lessons and plant tending due to the damage.
More: Child hospitalized after tree smashes through Columbus home during Sunday storms
The charity's Run the Race Center was also damaged by Sunday's storms, ripping holes in its roof and sending water gushing into the building. When a roofer went to inspect the damage, he discovered four bullet holes in the roof, likely from people firing their guns in the air to celebrate the Fourth of July or the New Year, Muha said.
The foundation is named for Brian Muha, an 18-year-old Franciscan University of Steubenville student killed by two robbers who broke into his off-campus housing in 1999. His mother, Rachel Muha, 72, started the foundation in 1999 and continues as its director.
"Brian wanted to be a doctor. He wanted to help children. And we just thought that maybe the best thing to do in Brian's memory was something with children and something with inner-city children since the two that killed Brian were from the inner-city," Muha said.
The foundation's facilities have had its "ups and downs" over the years. It has had its vans and computers stolen and its buildings broken into, but this is the first time it's been damaged by a storm, Muha said.
And with a rainy and potentially stormy few days ahead, Muha is "very concerned" about more storm damage, she said.
More: Overnight storm leaves thousands without power in Ohio; more rain, flooding expected
"You're always concerned when you hear that we're going to get some rough weather, but now that I see the damage firsthand that a storm can do, I mean, you see it on TV, but it doesn't really hit you, you know?" she said.
She knows the foundation will have to pay at least $5,000 to cover its insurance deductible on top of the $25,000 a year it already pays for insurance.
"I just hope our insurance premium doesn't go up, but we'll see," she said.
Breaking and Trending News Reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@ and at @NathanRHart on X and at on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio severe weather rips roofs off Brian Muha Foundation farm buildings
