Annual Dinner

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 5:00pm

Annual Dinner

Williams Reinforces a System of Values

Clarence "Reggie" Williams shared his experiences with 200 people gathered for the Wayne County Community Foundation annual dinner on October 20, 2010 at the Pines Banquet Facility. Many will remember his outstanding athletic abilities that got him inducted into the sports halls of fame for Orrville High School, The College of Wooster, and Wayne County. Reggie was commissioned an officer in the United States Air Force and served proudly until his retirement as a Colonel; then became Senior Vice President of Information Systems Operations at USAA; and currently is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the San Antonio Area Foundation (SAAF). He serves as a trustee on many Boards, including The College of Wooster. "He is a generous person who believes deeply in giving back to the community," said J. C. Johnston III, Chairman of the WCCF Board. Speaking on "What I learned from Wayne County", Reggie focused on the positive influences of family, friends, and community. He reinforced the values taught to him by his "best friend", his mother, who passed away while he was still in school and how several people in the community helped him deal with that tragic loss. Keeping our promises, coupled with hard work, and reaching out to help others were key parts of her value systemÉ a system that earns respect, creates integrity, and provides happiness by doing something for someone else. His inspiring and memorable words touched the hearts of many of the attendees, who could easily relate to their own positive experiences growing up in this area. After the dinner, Reggie indicated that it was a high honor to be in the presence of so many caring people. "We were equally honored to have him share his roots with us," commented Ferenc M. Relle, Jr.

Annual Dinner Gets Skyped

Last year, we again awarded over 180 scholarships to area students and one of the highlights at our annual dinner is to hear from our scholarship recipients. Due to a student's class schedule and travel time, it can be challenging to have them attend the dinner. This year, we scheduled two students, Amanda Labuza, attending Rennsselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and Cierra Norris, attending Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio to share their goals and achievements via a SKYPE video internet connection.

Amanda received the Beulah Siegel Scholarship. This is a renewable "gap" scholarship, meaning that after a student deducts all financial aid and other scholarships, the scholarship fund picks up the gap left for tuition and can be renewed for up to 4 years. Cierra received a one-time $2,500 scholarship from the Sam Shapiro Scholarship for the Wooster Rotary Club. Both scholarships are awarded to excellent students with great financial need. Projected on two large screens, Amanda told us how much she appreciated the support from the WCCF, how much she loved the school, and her challenging classes in bio-chemistry. Her goal is to be part of the team that discovers a cure for Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. Unfortunately our connection with Cierra was not as successful, so we were unable to hear about her aspirations about getting into Yale University Law School. The use of this type of technology will permit us to get much closer to our grant recipients and their projects," said Relle. "We are already looking toward next year's annual dinner which may include a virtual tour of one of our community projects."

New Tagline Launched at Annual Dinner

The WCCF is a collection of 300 separate funds, each established with its own philanthropic goals toward helping the community. Each fund represents a donor, a life, a story, a commitment to sharing their gifts for a cause important to them. These donors may never meet the people that their generosity is serving. Consider the number of families being served by non-profit social and wellness agency funds, or the number of people being enriched by art and cultural funds, or the number of students being able to fulfill their dreams of going on to college from our 93 scholarship funds. That is the essence of our new tag line "Sharing Your Life With Someone You May Never Meet™". The cover of our Annual Report shows Roy Bates and Jenna Pew. Jenna never met Wayne County's legendary baseball and basketball coach, but he left his mark on her future. A Smithville High School 3-sport star and All-Ohioan, Jenna was awarded one of the Roy S. Bates Scholarships and was also named the Roy Bates Player of the Year for the county. Since its inception, the Bates Scholarship has awarded over $200,000 to approximately 120 student scholars from Roy's seed money and from proceeds of annual award banquets. Dean Chance, one of his athletes and the 1964 Cy Young winner, was able to leverage his fame to bring in featured speakers and guests to draw attendees to these fundraising banquets. All the net proceeds went toward the scholarship fund. In addition, Dr. Stan Totten, Professor Emeritus of Geology at Hanover University, another one of Roy's students, will soon be publishing a book on Coach Bates. We were honored to have both Dean and Stan attend our annual dinner this year.