|
Five Local Leaders receive Foster B. Cornwell Award at Athens Foundation Meeting
The Athens Foundation Foster B. Cornell Awards are named for the local attorney who was instrumental in the growth of the Foundation and philanthropy in Athens County. His bold gifts to six local organizations demonstrated his vision and care in providing for many generations to come. Each year the Foundation recognizes individuals with similar vision and dedication to the Athens County Community.
This year’s awardees include Mike Brooks, Don and Mary Ann Flournoy, Tom Kostohryz and Kate McGuckin.
Kate McGuckin spent the last twenty six and 1/2 years building My Sister’s place into a model rural women’s shelter program. As a young journalist, McGuckin witnessed the women’s movement’s impact first-hand. McGuckin went on to pursue a master’s degree in counseling and worked at the women’s center at Northern Illinois University. She returned to Athens in 1982 began working at My Sister’s Place in 1984. Founded in May of 1977 as a two bedroom, 1600 square foot facility, My Sister’s Place was the 1st shelter in the state and the 3rd agency in the state to attain mental health licensure.. In 1992, MSP recognized by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence as a model rural program.
 Tom Kostohryz came to Athens from northern Ohio in 1969 to attend OU and play football. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Ohio University. He met his wife, Barb, at the university and they raised their 3 children here in Athens. After teaching junior and senior high school science at Logan City Schools, Tom entered the business world and has become one of Athens business success stories.
Tom and his wife Barb have developed a strong philanthropic philosophy and have introduced their children to the importance of living their values with the establishment of their Kostohryz Family Fund at the Athens Foundation.
In addition to their local support, Tom and his family are involved in an Orphanage in Haiti, as well as Charitable Work in Allenspark Colorado. His passions include both Ohio University and the community of Athens. Tom currently serves on the Ohio Bobcat Club Advisory Board and the Ohio University Athletic Hall of Fame Committee. In the Athens community Tom has served on the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce Membership Committee as well as being active in several past O’Bleness Hospital fundraising initiatives. He sits on the Athens Foundation Board
But the culmination of Tom’s organizing abilities, charity and conviction to improve the overall health of our Appalachian community is in his work with Live Healthy Appalachia.
LHA is a grassroots community-university partnership to improve the health and wellness of Appalachia. Presently LHA is running several programs to bring about a more conscious effort to improve the health and well-being of individuals in our community.
 Don and Mary Anne Flournoy came to Athens in 1971, and have been donors to local community organizations as Rural Action, Good Works, United Campus Ministry, WOUB, Planned Parenthood and the Athens Foundation. Mary Anne was a founding member of the Athens Foundation Women’s Fund. While living on their Sugar Bush Farm and working at the university, they modeled to their children how to be good citizens of the community and conscientious stewards of the environment.
Blessed by a profitable investment in a family business, and animated by a desire to give back, the Flournoys established the Sugar Bush Foundation as a supporting organization of the Ohio University Foundation in 2005. The Sugar Bush Foundation’s goals are to improve the quality of life in Appalachian Ohio by encouraging civic engagement and by fostering sustainable environmental, socio-economic, and human development through equal partnerships between Ohio University and community nonprofits An additional but unstated purpose was to impart the values of charitable giving to future generations of family members.
Mary Anne, an OU retiree, who worked for 18 years as associate director of the Center for International Studies and a grandmother of four, has a long-standing history of philanthropy. As president of the Sugar Bush Foundation, previous chair of Rural Action and a trained volunteer for the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium of the Pachamama Alliance, she has inspired others to foster sustainable living.
Don was a founding member of the Ohio Premium Pine Cooperative and is an avid planter of trees on their farm. A professor of Media Arts and Studies at OU, he has extended his professional interests into the community through participation in the Governor’s Connect Ohio Broadband Council and leading workshops on models for Intelligent Communities. He and Mary Anne are also both involved in the promotion of new businesses in Southeast Ohio through the East Central Ohio Tech Angel Fund. Mary Anne is on the board of the Appalachian Ohio Alliance, a land-trust organization which holds conservation easements on their farm. They are also members of the Athens Conservancy. Her work with the Zienzele Foundation helps to empower AIDS orphans and their caregivers in rural Zimbabwe through self-reliance and education.
Mary Anne stresses the need to make conscious decisions about causes you’d like to support by discovering what you’re passionate about and where there is a need for assistance. She also advises to step out of your comfort zone when pursuing philanthropic efforts.
The Pachamama Alliance is her current passion. Both she and Don went to Ecuador through the auspices of the Pachamama Alliance to learn more about the holistic response of indigenous people to the destruction of their ecosystems by forces in the developed world. They have spent much of their professional and personal lives being involved with international affairs and international students.
One has to spend just a few minutes talking with Mike Brooks to know how fully committed he is to the betterment of the people and the communities that make up Southeastern Ohio and, at the same time, one is impressed by his humility – despite his extremely successful business career. Since 1975, when he joined his father in business at FM Brooks in Nelsonville, and where he continues to guide the business as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rocky Brands, Inc., he has worked tirelessly to build a globally renowned business that has positively impacted literally thousands of families in the region.
Stuarts Opera House, The Foundation of Appalachian Ohio, the Nelsonville York School District, and The Nelsonville Swimming Pool are just a few of the local organizations that he has supported in the past by giving his time and financial resources. Never one to shy away from complex and daunting issues, he recently was elected as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Hocking College where positive changes are already underway under his leadership and dogged persistence.
Nationally, Mike has been recognized for his service on the Executive Board of the American Apparel and Footwear Association and his support as a Board Member and major contributor to the 210 Foundation, a philanthropic organization helping displaced workers and their families as the footwear industry has consolidated over the last thirty years. |
