The Spirit of Giving

There's a new playing field for businesses in the state of Ohio and Crawford County.

On Sept. 6, 2011 at 5:30pm in the Youth Building at the Crawford County Fairgrounds, the Crawford: 20/20 Vision Business Success/Job Availability action team will host a panel of state leaders including Mary Taylor, Lieutenant Governor. During the event, leaders will discuss these new realities and how they impact businesses in Crawford County.

The Crawford: 20/20 Vision has officially launched the new leadership development program for Crawford County called Crawford Unlimited Leadership (CU Lead). This annual, 9-month long leadership training program has received major underwriting from the Ohio Mutual Insurance Group. In May, Jim Kennedy, President of Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, announced the creation of a $200,000 fund to help start and sustain the program.

Through the rest of this year, individuals age 70 ½ and older can transfer up to $100,000 from individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to charity without incurring federal income taxes today or estate and income taxes in the future. Gifts must be made by December 31, 2011.

The Bucyrus Area Community Foundation is pleased to announce the grant allocation for the first half of the year 2011 totaling more than $411,000. Each year, the BACF awards grants fromfour categories; Competitive Grants, Multi-Year Grants, School Endowment Grants and Designated Fund Grants. The Foundation also awards a total of five (5) scholarships annually to Bucyrus and Crawford County senior students.

Mrs. Corinne Boryczka believed in working hard and followed this principle her entire life of 101 years. Born in Bucyrus in 1900, Mrs. Boryczka, an elegant and petit lady, died in March of 2002 leaving generous donations to many service and professional agencies in the Bucyrus area, including the Bucyrus Area Community Foundation. Both she, and her husband Adam, whom she married in the 1920s, loved to work and developed the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum into a leading force in the community. Mr. Boryczka was the editor of the paper and Mrs. Boryczka was the manager.

Since 1999, the Wynford Local Schools have had “The Bug.” It’s not a disease or insect. It’s the WeatherBug station that you see every night on WBNS-TV. The station was first implemented by Mrs. Patti Gervais and Mrs. Cindy Eusey, both now retired junior high teachers. Lee Rowlinson, a science teacher at Wynford High School, has had an interest in the Weatherbug station and its practical use in his classroom.

Bucyrus natives Howard D. and Doris J. Elsasser were creative people who enjoyed doing for others.

As 2010 draws to a close, many people start to reflect on company performance, Top 10 lists, Best and Worst lists and a myriad of other topics.  The Bucyrus Area Community Foundation, since its beginning in 1984, has been very fortunate to continually provide support for Bucyrus and Crawford County charities.  We’re taking this opportunity to share with you our Top 5 list of things we’re thankful for this holiday season.

The Bucyrus Area Community Foundation (BACF) held its annual Match Day event November 17. On that day, any money raised by organizations that had endowment funds with the foundation was matched $0.50 for every dollar raised by that organization. Although the foundation’s goal of $50,000 was not met, $35,000 was considered a much needed boost to local non profits by BACF executive director, Janet Pry.

No matter the size or location, local charities and non-profit organizations across America are struggling in today’s rough economy, and although the desired outcomes of each may be slightly different, the main challenges and obstacles each organization faces seems to be the same. Several questions arise, such as how do we provide funding when the finances just aren’t there to work with anymore or how do we let people know we’re still here? Unfortunately, Crawford County is not exempt from the current, unfortunate economic situation and is finding that more and more local groups are presented with the same challenges (as those on a global scale) and are being forced to sit down and examine the same types of difficult questions.