Theater hosts fundraiser to support family of Miamisburg varsity baseball coach who died

MIAMISBURG — Miamisburg lost two of its own in September to COVID-19. Since then the community has rallied it’s support of the families and the school district.

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The Plaza Theatre is putting on a special two day fundraiser for Steve Kurtz’s family.

Monday and Tuesday, October 11th and 12th the theater is showing baseball movies in honor of Kurtz, who was the baseball coach at Miamisburg.

“I think it just really showed how the community of Miamisburg really stepped up,” Jonathan Wade, a Miamisburg assistant baseball coach, said. “They care about their people, it’s always been a tight knit kind of place and we were totally caught off guard by it so I just thought it was an awesome gesture.”

Wade has known Kurtz for 15 years. The movies will be at 5:00pm and 7:30pm each of the two days. The Plaza is showing Field of Dreams, The Natural, The Sandlot, and Pride of the Yankees to share Steve’s passion for baseball with the community. The movies are free to anyone.

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Instead of admission cost donations for the Kurtz family will be collected at the door. A portion of the concessions will also be donated to Steve’s family.

“The big thing I think is just it’s an awesome opportunity to get back to what really matters and that’s your family and your friends,” Wade said. “It’s giving people an opportunity to come down together, some is just teammates that might be going down tonight, hopefully a lot of the families are able to show up and bring their kids. But to me that’s what it means more than anything is kind of try to put back the pieces and move on and be around the people you care about the most.”

Steve’s legacy isn’t about wins or losses but rather who he was as a person. He had a smile and a light that couldn’t be denied.

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“It was very evident in the service that he was one of those people that everybody liked. He just had a huge heart and a way about him that many people don’t,” Wade said. “When you have people to go up there to talking about how this guy was one of their best friends. That’s pretty amazing. He wasn’t a local guy, he was from Camden, moved over and it was like he was one of us ever since the first day he was here. He was awesome, he’s going to be irreplaceable.”

The theater has 292 seats and each movie will be shown on a first come, first serve basis.

The Plaza will also hold a fundraiser for Lori Flory’s family on October 19th, showing Twister and Ghost.

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