Coming together to #RaiseUpShiawassee

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We are stronger when we come together to improve our community.  This November 27, on #GivingTuesday, Shiawassee County residents have an opportunity to help support 17 community organizations.  This collaborative effort, working under the hashtag #RaiseUpShiawassee, provides a connection to each nonprofit  so a citizen can make a donation or find volunteer opportunities.  To find a list of these community nonprofits, along with links, go to our #GivingTuesday web page.

All of the organizations involved have made it easy to give online, although checks and cash are also accepted. The Cook Family Foundation is offering a challenge grant of $500 to each nonprofit, and several of the organizations have secured other pledges to match donations.  So, your small gift may become bigger when matched and in combination with others.

Volunteers are needed as much as money, and each of the 17 organizations has defined some specific volunteer opportunities for Giving Tuesday.  You can find them online, or at community event on November 13.  On that day all of the nonprofits will be at The Armory on Water Street in downtown Owosso.  You can meet with someone in person, learn more about the organization, and find specific volunteer opportunities.  Also, you can look online at the United Way’s Shiawassee Serves website and sign up to volunteer.

Also, on November 27, Giving Tuesday itself, there will be a number of places to volunteer, take a giving action, or learn more about each organization.  Look for the Raise Up Shiawassee sign in front of a nonprofit, or visit their website or Facebook page for details.  Each of the nonprofits will be active on Facebook and other social media.  You can visit our Facebook page, find us on Twitter @ShiaNPCB, or search for the hashtag #RaiseUpShiawassee to find specific ways you can help out.

Thank you to Representative Ben Frederick and to our partners in this effort: The Shiawassee Community Foundation, Genesee (Shiawassee) United Way, the Shiawassee Regional Chamber of Commerce, the 17 local nonprofits who are part of #raiseUPshiawassee and you, the donors and contributors to a stronger community.

Serving Students, Serving the Community

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Recently, the University of Michigan produced this report on the work of the Cook Family Foundation to support students from Shiawassee County to attend UofM.  In one important case, serving a student also served our community.  Here is the story:

 

After nearly 40 years of giving support and scholarships, the Cook family has made it possible for hundreds of students from rural Shiawassee County to attend the University of Michigan and other state colleges.  It’s an accomplishment many of the teens-turned-Cook-Scholars doubted would ever come or never saw for themselves.

“People grow up in outstate Michigan. They’re first-generation college students. … They have no idea what their opportunities in life might turn out to be. It’s our job to help them reach that potential,” said Bruce Cook, U-M alumnus and president of The Cook Family Foundation. He is the son of Donald Cook, also a U-M graduate and founder of the foundation.

The Cook Family Foundation provides that help by identifying promising high school students, exposing them to college options, walking them through the application and decision process, and awarding scholarships and assistance in accessing financial aid.

Because several Cook family members are U-M grads, they urge students to strongly consider their alma mater. Many go on to attend U-M. Others don’t. But they all are brought to U-M’s campus each year—usually a batch of 20-25 high school seniors—for an overnight visit. They get an up-close look and an explanation of what they’ll find at U-M.

Besides the scholars program, the foundation is behind several projects meant to improve economic conditions and lives of residents of the mid-Michigan community. Shiawassee’s economy is fed by a mix of farming and industry, and is becoming more diversified. The county is on an economic upswing after many years of struggles and lack of opportunities. Still, less than 17 percent of Shiawassee County residents hold a bachelor’s degree. That also is changing.

Justin Horvath was a Cook Scholar in the 1990s. He chose U-M. He earned a degree in economics and went on to obtain two master’s degrees. He also chose to put his education to use in his hometown and to support it as the Cooks do. He is president and CEO of the Shiawassee Economic Development Partnership.

“Not that I couldn’t be successful in a career somewhere else, but knowing that you can help your hometown, your home community, the people you know, the people you love, to help support them, to grow the local economy and give them a better place, a better quality of life is really, really important to me,” Horvath said. He returned to Shiawassee in 2003 after graduating from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, where he had also interned.

He is grateful to Bruce Cook and for his experience as a Cook Scholar and to be back contributing to the betterment of Shiawassee County. He said he wants other Cook Scholars to consider doing the same. “We have so much to offer…my hope and my focus is they consider coming back home when they graduate,” Horvath said.

Bruce & Jackie Cook Scholarship Nominees Announced

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The Shiawassee County region’s top academically accomplished high school seniors have been nominated for scholarships to the University of Michigan by the Cook Family Foundation.  One of these students will be selected to receive a four-year, full-tuition scholarship from Bruce and Jacqueline Cook.

In order to assist them with their college selection, thirty-two of the nominees recently attended an overnight trip to the University of Michigan where they met with admission officers, took a tour of the campus and stadium, attended a class, and had the opportunity to spend time with students from the Shiawassee County area presently enrolled at the University of Michigan.

“We want to make sure the leaders and the best among local high school students seriously consider the University of Michigan for the next level of education,” said Foundation President Bruce Cook.  “We are committed to the academic success of local students, and are committed to building partnerships with our public schools and our oldest public university.”

Each of the nominees will receive at least a $3,000 scholarship to the University of Michigan from the Cook Family Foundation.  In addition to these nominees, the Cook Family Foundation provides a scholarship to every local student who applies to the University of Michigan, is admitted, and then enrolls.  

If they apply and are admitted to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the following students will be considered for the Bruce and Jacqueline Cook scholarship: from Byron: Samantha Franzmeier, Lillian Keesler, TJ Marvin, and Danielle Wolanin; from Chesaning:  Katelyn Ferry, Jordan Goward, Brooke Miller, and Weston Wendling; from Corunna: Charlie Bruckman, Katelyn Feldpausch, Jacquelyn Giordano, Ben Jacobs, Jacob Johnson, Ryan Lavery, and Aiden McMaster; from Durand: Carolyn Fairchild and Jessica Fureigh; from Laingsburg:  Malinda Barbario, Olivia Graham, Zach Koonter, and Autumn Zwiernik; from Morrice: Robert London and Rhianna Lucas; from New Lothrop: Garrett Birchmeier, Katie Bitterman, Caitlyn Bruff, Janelle Kline, Abigail Lange, and Charles Weber; from Ovid-Elsie: Conner Brown, Henry Gruber, Haley Hilgendorf, Jakob Loynes, and Anna Wilkinson; from Owosso:  Abby Christian, Morgan Louch, and Lucy Popovitch; and from Perry: Emma Fisher.

Past recipients of the Bruce and Jackie Cook Scholarship have included Tyson Moore from Corunna in 2018, Elizabeth Hoornstra from Chesaning in 2017, Mitchell Lawrence from Byron in 2016, Nick Miller from Laingsburg in 2015, Nolan Wendling from New Lothrop in 2014, Emily Feuka from Perry in 2013, Sam Whaley from Perry in 2012, Adam Stewart from Laingsburg in 2011, Valerie Foster from Byron in 2010, Adam Dingens from Corunna in 2009, Randy Piper from Owosso in 2008, Dan Frechtling from Perry in 2007 and Kendra Frye of Owosso in 2006.