HOW TO GO
What: The Community Foundation of West Chester/Liberty’s Annual Dinner Celebration
Where: Cincinnati Marriott North, 6189 Muhlhauser Road, West Chester Twp.
When: 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday
On display: some of the more than 170 charitable funds held at the Foundation, highlighting the work they are doing in West Chester and Liberty townships.
Lakota Educators of Excellence Award: Aaron Nunley, seventh grade advanced mathematics teacher at Lakota Plains Jr. School and Judith Ebbing, sixth grade science teacher at Freedom Elementary.
Food: cocktails, heavy hors d’oeuvres
Entertainment: strolling magician
Cost: $50 per person
RSVP: 513-874-5450. More info: www.wclfoundation.com and
Patti Alderson, the leader of the Community Foundation of West Chester/Liberty since its inception 15 years ago, is stepping down from the role.
Alderson’s legacy of accomplishment will be celebrated Thursday at the Foundation’s Annual Dinner Celebration at the Cincinnati Marriott North.
“Patti has been instrumental to the success of the Community Foundation,” said Lindsay Wiseman, president of the Foundation, which works to encourage, support and facilitate philanthropy and improve the quality of life in the West Chester/Liberty area. “We would not be where we are today if it wasn’t for her vision, dedication and passion for our community.”
As the non-profit’s founder, Alderson “was involved in it all, one way or another,” Wiseman said.
That includes helping grow the Foundation to more than $11 million in assets and, with the help of a generous donor, implementing the Kids 2 Kamp program, which sends Lakota students to a 1-week summer camp, she said.
Alderson also started the Community Cares Program to provide free dental screenings to first-grade Lakota students and the Youth in Philanthropy program to introduce high school kids to philanthropy and community engagement, Wiseman said.
She also started the Angel Fund, Heroes Fund and Power of the Purse, which are board-designated funds held at the Foundation, as well as the Forever Fund, which is an operations endowment for the Foundation to help secure its future.
Alderson also started the Community Grants Endowment, which will help secure the future of the Foundation’s Community Grants program, which give grants to local non-profit organizations three times a year at about $100,000 a year, Wiseman said.
“She’s able to get things done because she does her homework,” said Foundation co-founder Debbie Boehner, the wife of U.S. House Speaker and West Chester Twp. Republican John Boehner. “She is a brilliant businesswoman. Patti’s always had her hands in something that’s a change factor.”
Boehner, who has been friends with Alderson for more than 35 years, said she is amazed with how much of her time and her talent she has given to this community, including spearheading the recent effort to form a Boys & Girls Club of West Chester/Liberty.
“I don’t think that anybody comes any closer,” Boehner said. “We ought to call it Aldersonville instead of West Chester.”
Foundation co-chair Jonathan Theders, who has known Alderson for the past 11 years, said she provided not only the leadership but the vision to launch the Foundation.
“She talked to 30 people and said, ‘I know what this can be,’ and got (them) to donate $25,000 (each) at the very beginning to be that original founding $750,000 of funds to start granting and giving back to area non-profits,” Theders said. “I was one of those early founding families and never regretted that decision. It’s paid forward so much.”
From there, Alderson worked to draw founding businesses into the fold to take the Foundation to its next level.
“That’s when things started to really grow,” Theders said. “What’s interesting about most community foundations is they’re started by very large corporations or a very wealthy family that’s usually been very successful in some form of business, and they start their foundation with millions upon millions of dollars of seed money. The Community Foundation, fortunately and unfortunately, never had those millions of start-up dollars that one person gave.”
The Foundation did, however, receive its first $1 million gift via an anonymous donor in late 2012, Theders said. That was one of the factors that helped the Foundation grow the size of its assets from about $7 million just a few years ago to its current more than $11 million in assets.
“It’s really been a grassroots effort and Patti’s been the leader,” he said. “It started as her cluster of friends and friends of friends who believed in her vision and I think our average gift is a couple of hundred dollars. It’s not the mega-dollars, it’s really a community-wide effort.”
Although Alderson is term-limited out from the board, she will “always have a place at the Foundation” as its founder.
“What Patti has set the stage for is a very solid, well-run organization,” Theders said. “The way that the Foundation is established and the way that we’re structured, that literally can continue to help non-profits and people within West Chester, Liberty and the area beyond forever.”
Boehner said she expects Alderson to continue her efforts in some form, as she simply doesn’t like to see others go without.
“You would think somebody of her means could just sail off into the sunset … but she’s not going out easy,” Boehner said. “She’s going to be around for a long time.”
Longtime West Chester resident Dan Benhase, a former Huntington Bank executive, will be assuming the role of board chair, Wiseman said.
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