The Susan Willbanks Theatre Fund for “The Best Kids in the World”

Our community is quieter this summer. On June 20, 2025, we lost Susan Marie (Wilson) Willbanks—counselor, educator, director, mentor, and friend to thousands. “Banx,” as generations of Twin Lakes students called her, spent nearly four decades coaxing courage out of timid freshmen, polishing the prose of nervous seniors, and in 82 joyful productions, filling the newly named Weaver & Willbanks Family Theatre with laughter, music, and possibility.

Even as the curtain falls on Susan’s earthly life, a new light rises in her honor. The Community Foundation of White County is humbled to announce the creation of The Susan Willbanks Theatre Fund for “The Best Kids in the World.” This permanent endowment, established with love by her family, friends, and former students, will provide lasting support to the Twin Lakes High School Theatre Department, carrying forward the legacy she built with so much care.

Susan was a brilliant writer who believed that words could build bridges and change lives. Yet her greatest paragraphs were the young people she guided from the wings into the world. Whether in English class, the counseling office, or auditorium, her message never wavered: you belong, you matter, and you are capable of more than you know. She proved it by showing up through triumphs and treatments alike. She championed inclusion long before it was customary, welcoming athletes, musicians, tech wizards, and shy booklovers onto one stage. Under her direction, student-led productions at Twin Lakes became models of artistic excellence and collaborative leadership, earning the affectionate nickname she gave her cast and crew: “The Best Kids in the World.”

In her final months, Susan often spoke about keeping “her kids” dreaming big. She knew the realities of running a theatre program—sets age, lights dim, royalties rise, and costs climb. A stable and permanent source of funding ensures that the program she poured her soul into can keep saying yes to imagination: replacing microphones so every voice is heard, covering licensing fees for new shows, and opening the doors wider for those who might not otherwise be able to participate. Earnings from the endowment will flow to the Theatre Department every year—forever—so that future directors can focus on nurturing talent, not fundraising. In that way, Susan’s steady presence will remain in every cue, every curtain call, every first nervous line spoken under the lights.

I had the privilege of watching Susan transform raw teenage energy into art that left audiences breathless. She saw gifts in all of us before we recognized them ourselves, then gently (and sometimes stubbornly) insisted we use those gifts to bless the world. This fund is a collective thank-you for the confidence she stirred, the safe haven she built, and the belief she planted that nothing can separate us from love, not even death.

Gifts of any size may be made to The Susan Willbanks Theatre Fund at the Community Foundation of White County. Contributions are tax-deductible. You can give online at cfwhitecounty.org by noting “Willbanks Theatre Fund,” by mailing a check payable to CFWC with “Willbanks Theatre Fund” in the memo line, or by visiting the Foundation office in person. We would love to hear your favorite Banx story.

Susan often ended rehearsals with a charge: “The show is yours.” Through this fund, we can answer her final cue. By sustaining the theatre she loved, we keep opening night jitters, thunderous applause, and lifelong friendships alive for the next cast of “The Best Kids in the World.” The curtain may have closed on her performance, but because of this fund, her encore will echo for generations.