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$2 Million Grant Mark Reached
Community Foundation reaches $2 million mark
by Diane Nemitz - Daily News Staff Writer
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The Community Foundation for Mason County has provided $2 million in grants to the community and members celebrated that fact during the foundation’s annual awards dinner Wednesday evening at Lincoln Hills Golf Club.
“It took 18 years to reach $1 million in giving back to the community and in the last two years we have reached $2 million,” said the Rev. Wayne Buskirk, foundation vice president.
Following an invocation by Buskirk, a DVD made by David Gibbs was shown. Gibbs was vacationing at his family’s vacation home in New York so he made the DVD to welcome members and guests and get the group thinking about the many contributions they’ve made working together. He pointed to four different personality types, calling them circles, squares, triangles and squiggles, and how they interact with each other and how they live up to the foundation’s motto, “For good. For ever.”
The Foundation for Mason County is part of the Muskegon Community Foundation with affiliates in Oceana and Manistee counties. Buskirk introduced the Muskegon foundation members and said the Mason County foundation has benefited greatly from its membership in the larger group since 1996. Buskirk briefly outlined the Mason County foundation’s accomplishments over the past year, which included establishment of eight new funds, awarding of 82 grants and the beginning of the Legacy Society.
According to the brochure given to the dinner guests, the society was begun “following a significant bequest from (the late) Shirley Smedley. The Legacy Society will celebrate those individuals and families who choose the Community Foundation for Mason County as a way to improve and enhance the community for future generations through an estate plan bequest or other planned gifts to the Foundation.”
Another significant recent accomplishment was the Youth Advisory Council’s “Kids Against Hunger” project, which resulted in 15,000 nutritious meals packed for the hungry.
The Waterfront Park Sculpture Fund helped to erect the “Hooked on Hamlin” sculpture this year, and next year the park’s final sculpture is planned. It will be dedicated to farming.
Former Chamber of Commerce President Alberta Muzzin presented special recognition awards to Sid and Carol McKnight and Budde Reed for their service to the foundation and the community.
“So many members of the community give back to the community,” she said. “Most of the time they do it very quietly and behind the scenes.”
She then listed Sid McKnight’s many accomplishments as a community volunteer and added “When Carole (his wife) gave me the information for Sid she said ‘this would be an unexpected surprise’. Well, Carole, I know you will be unexpectedly surprised to hear that you are also being honored this evening.” She then presented a plaque to the McKnights as Fund Holders of the Year.
Carole not only helps Sid with his duties as a charter member of the Sable Point Power Squadron, through which he teaches boating safety courses, but as a resident of Epworth Heights she has been very active in Vacation Bible School and the Women’s Bible Study group.
Sid McKnight has summered at Epworth for 50 years and lives in Kansas the rest of the year. He said Mason County is his second home, and now that he is retired and able to spend more time here it is almost becoming his first home because he concentrates all his volunteering here. The McKnights and Buskirk then got together to give a “Jayhawks whoop” because they are Kansas graduates.
Budde Reed, well known in the community for his many volunteer activities, was also presented with a special recognition award, which was accepted in his absence by his wife, Sheryl. Buskirk mentioned that Reed was most recently instrumental in starting the Mason County Veterans Fund during the past year.
