Celebration of Community

Dani Esperanza • May 20, 2025

Celebrating Community, Values, and Vision:

A Night at Stuart’s Opera House

Three women standing together, smiling, and holding framed certificates and wooden awards.

On Wednesday, May 7, 2025, the Athens County Foundation welcomed friends and partners to Stuart’s Opera House for our annual Celebration of Community—a heartfelt evening recognizing the people and values that guide our collective efforts in Athens County.


This year’s event was filled with warmth, connection, and inspiration. We gathered not only to reflect on shared accomplishments but also to honor individuals whose contributions embody the Foundation’s core values of Trust, Hope, Collaboration, Inclusion, and Courage.


We proudly recognized:

  • Woman of the Year: Ginger Schmalenberg
  • Senior of the Year: Lee Gregg
  • Foster B. Cornwell Awardee: Tee Ford


Each honoree has made a lasting impact through service and leadership. Their work strengthens our county’s fabric and reflects the possibilities that emerge when we lead together.


The night’s energy echoed ACF’s mission: to build on the strengths of our community, advancing participation and collaboration to address longstanding challenges and pursue extraordinary opportunities. When our neighbors come together in shared purpose, progress becomes not only possible but inevitable.


Photos from the evening, captured by Rich-Joseph Facun, will be featured throughout the gallery below.

Stacy Strauss is ACF's new Director of Finance and Administration

By Emily Prince • September 1, 2026
Please join us in welcoming our new Director of Finance and Administration, Stacy Strauss. Stacy looks forward to using her skills to strengthen our community! She brings energy, creativity, and a thoughtful approach to her work, along with a genuine ability to bring people together around shared goals. Her experience spans financial management, fundraising and grant writing, program development, business strategy, and developing materials that tell a clear, compelling story.  Just as importantly, she enjoys helping others grow. She has experience leading and training teams, building collaborative cultures, developing recruitment strategies, and finding practical, creative solutions to complicated challenges. Whether working with colleagues, community partners, or other stakeholders, she builds relationships rooted in trust, communication, and a shared commitment to advancing good ideas.

Fall Grant Applications Open

By Shayne Lopez • August 28, 2026
Athens County's greatest asset is its people. Every day, neighbors, organizations, and local leaders bring skill, creativity, and deep knowledge of this place to the work of building a stronger community. Our grantmaking invests in those strengths, because the best solutions are already growing here, led by the people who call Athens County home. Our grantmaking builds on the strengths already here by investing in the initiatives, people and organizations, relationships, skills, and ideas working to address longstanding challenges and pursue extraordinary opportunities. 

Pull up a Chair: August Newsletter

By Emily Prince • August 12, 2026
Collaboration and Partnership