Cook Family Foundation

As part of the Foundation’s extended commitment to the Shiawassee River, we are proud to help sponsor the State of the Bay Conference on September 27.  The Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network (WIN) — of which the Cook Family Foundation is a long-time member — is convening the event.  To register go to www.stateofthebay2017.org

The Shiawassee River forms the southern border of the the Saginaw Bay watershed, the largest watershed in the State of Michigan. It covers 8,700 acres in all or part of 22 counties and is home to 1.4 million people.  The Shiawassee River connects to four other rivers in and around the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge to form the Saginaw River.  The health of the land and the streams and rivers that drain them determine the health of Saginaw Bay, historically important as a fishery and as home to diverse and migrating wildlife.

The State of the Bay Conference brings together people and organizations that work to conserve and restore Saginaw Bay and the lands that make up its watershed.  Attendees will have the chance to learn what communities throughout the watershed are doing to encourage public access, economic development, environmental education and watershed management.  After the conference, there will be an opportunity for a trip on the BaySail’s Appledore schooner.

Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network (WIN) brings together foundations, governments, businesses, environmental organizations, and other partners to improve the quality of life in the area and develop the region’s identity as a sustainable community. Expertise is shared to develop and fund on-the-ground projects in the areas of agriculture and pollution prevention, wildlife stewardship, water resources, land use, and environmental sustainability.  The Cook Family Foundation is one of WIN’s 11 funding partners and has contributed financial support since 1999.  Review the activities, studies, and recent grants of WIN at their website www.saginawbaywin.org 

Water quality and agricultural run-off has long been a focus of the Cook Family Foundation grants.  In addition to support for Saginaw Bay WIN, grants have been provided to the Friends of the Shiawassee River, Shiawassee Conservation District, The Nature Conservancy, and other local partners.  You can read about our most recent work in the Shiawassee River in our 2017 Newsletter (click here).

Saginaw Bay Watershed. No till field and barn. Photo credit: © Michael D-L Jordan

The most significant grants of the Foundation in the last few years have been to The Nature Conservancy to support their innovative work with the agricultural community in parts of Saginaw Bay.  This effort is powered by significant federal funding through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) authorized in the Farm Bill.  The project has helped farmers put in place conservation practices to reduce soil erosion and polluted run-off.  It brings new technology, in-field scientific assessments, and the opportunity to work with crop advisors and conservation districts.  The Cook Family Foundation has provided funding to conduct research into how agricultural providers and practitioners make decisions; the results will help conservation groups know how best to reach and work with farmers.  You can watch a video and learn more about the project from The Nature Conservancy (click here).

Where and how fast water flows is fundamental knowledge for farmers, developers, and conservationists trying to build a sustainable economy.  The most recent grant commitment from the Cook Family Foundation is to help The Nature Conservancy study how water on the land can be better managed by Drain Commissioners, the masters of water flow in Michigan. The Foundation is helping provide matching funds to a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) that will involve test projects in Saginaw and Monroe Counties.  The goal of the project is to recognize and incentivize the establishment of conservation practices that improve the function or reduce the maintenance cost of publicly managed drain systems.

The Shiawassee River gives its name to the County where the Cook Family Foundation works for change. The River also connects us to Saginaw Bay and the Great Lakes, and it gives us a connection and appreciation of nature. We know that if we protect nature, we have the basis for a sustainable regional economy, and will enhance the quality of life for the residents of our community.  But conservation cannot be a solo act and it takes a larger and long term view.  Our work with Saginaw Bay WIN and The Nature Conservancy give us both partners and perspective.

Executive Directors from Shiawassee-based nonprofits gather at Foster Coffee

The Cook Family Foundation believes that community change occurs when locally-based nonprofits have the motivation, the support, and the capacity to have an impact.  For several years we have worked with Shiawassee-based nonprofits to help improve their governance, strengthen their operations, and grow through strategic investments.  Ten of those nonprofits have been recognized as Partners for their commitment to capacity building (see a list of all the nonprofits we work with).

In order to help local nonprofits take the next step in their growth, the Cook Family Foundation announces the Innovation and Impact Grant program.  This intensive capacity building endeavor helps an organization take a stretch to realize a dream, review  internal structure, establish new partnerships, and invest in sustainable growth.  The grant process is competitive, and the first round of participants will be selected in April this year.

The NonProfit Capacity Building Program will continue to provide coaching, peer networking, and educational workshops for executive directors and board members.  Information and registration for upcoming sessions can be found on our Events Page.

If you are a board member of a local nonprofit, contact your executive director for information.  The requirements for organizational participation in the NonProfit Capacity Building Program are defined here.  For more information or assistance, please contact us.

Recently, the University of Michigan published a story about the outreach efforts of Bruce and Jacqueline Cook. The work of the Cook Family Foundation to support students from Shiawassee County serves as the basis for a larger statewide effort. The article from the Fall 2016 issue of the “Leaders and Best” is reprinted here with permission.

Shiawassee County students Sarah Rice and Mitchell Lawrence

As a high school senior, Sarah Rice (BS ’16) of Owosso, Michigan, was called to the principal’s office. She had worked hard to build a bright future, and this was not in her plans. What could be the problem? she wondered. There must be some mistake. What Sarah feared would be her end turned out to be a beginning. Inside the office was a familiar face. It was Bruce L. Cook (BBA ’50, MBA ’51), waiting to make Sarah a life-changing offer: the Donald Cook Scholarship, which at the time (2012) provided $10,000 a year for four years at U-M.

This was just one of numerous scholarships provided to U-M students from Sarah’s home region, thanks to the generosity of Bruce and Jacqueline Cook (BS ’52) and the Cook Family Foundation. They see to it that every student from greater Shiawassee County who applies to U-M and is admitted receives support to attend. In addition, a select student each year receives the Donald Cook Scholarship  (as Sarah did), and another receives the Bruce and Jacqueline Cook Scholarship—full tuition for four years.

Before the Cook Family Foundation developed their scholarship program, few students from Shiawassee County historically applied to U-M—let alone attended— in a typical year. In Sarah’s hometown, in fact—a mid-Michigan town about halfway between Flint and Lansing with a population of just under  15,000—only about 14 percent of residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Coming to U-M from an outstate county isn’t just good for the students who do so, Sarah said: “The unique perspectives students from those counties bring are important.” This fall, Sarah began an internship in the Office of Enrollment Services, where she will help administer a new program designed to expand the model of the Cook family and their foundation to other Michigan counties.

Counties where students are eligible for the Michigan Alumni Scholarship

The Michigan Alumni Scholarship, as it’s called, will provide financial support to students from areas that are geographically underrepresented at U-M. Bruce and Jacqueline Cook have contributed $1 million in support of the new program and hope other donors will follow their lead. Scholarships  like these make it possible for students from  outstate Michigan to choose U-M, Sarah said.

That is the case for Mitchell Lawrence, a freshman in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. A resident of the Living Arts community on North Campus, Mitchell came to U-M from Byron, Michigan (population: 565), as the Bruce  and Jacqueline Cook Scholar.

Mitchell’s parents landed in Byron in 1994 when Mitchell’s dad took the helm as camp director of  a family-friendly campground on Myers Lake. “It’s a very rural community,” Mitchell said. “There’s not a lot to do.” At the same time, he added, “Your environment doesn’t necessarily define you.”

In high school, Mitchell was student body president for three years, participated in drama club and band, and served as junior drum major and drum major. He ran cross country and track, and he taught himself graphic design by competing annually in a Business Professionals of America competition—eventually traveling to California to represent the state of Michigan. Mitchell also studied Japanese—first through online classes and later through a dual enrollment between his high school and Lansing Community College. He twice spent time in Japan.

Even with his many accomplishments, Mitchell was shocked to receive a phone call in the winter of his senior year of high school letting him know that he was a Top Five finalist for the Bruce and Jacqueline Cook Scholarship. “Getting that phone call was very surreal,” he said. “It was a really amazing moment.”        

Mitchell is the 11th recipient of the Bruce and Jacqueline Cook Scholarship. He and Sarah are just two out of hundreds of students who have come to U-M through the years with the support of scholarships funded by either Bruce and Jacqueline Cook or the Cook Family Foundation. The foundation’s primary benefactor was Bruce Cook’s father, the late Donald O. Cook (AB ’24) [1902–97].

A longtime resident of Shiawassee County, Donald Cook was a career sales representative for the Owosso-based Wolverine Sign Works and became  its sole owner in the early 1960s. His passions included both U-M and Shiawassee County,  and he delighted in bringing the two together.

The Cook Family Foundation does exactly that. Created by Bruce’s late parents, Donald and Florence-etta Cook, the foundation now involves two more generations. Bruce and Jacqueline’s son Thomas B. Cook serves as executive director, while board members include Bruce Cook as president; Tom Cook as secretary and treasurer; and Tom’s wife, Anna Owens, as a trustee. Jacqueline Cook and son Paul Cook (BSENE ’79) are also trustees, and Paul’s wife, Laurie Caszatt Cook (ABED ’81, TeachCert ’81, MBA ’83), is vice president.

Encouraging students from rural Michigan to apply to U-M is not always easy, Bruce Cook  said. U-M received about 55,000 applications for admission this year, including about 10,000 from state residents. Of those 10,000, most come from just seven of the state’s 83 counties, primarily in Southeast Michigan. “The rest of Michigan participates very, very lightly,” Cook said.

“The students are out there, and the potential is out there in these students,” Mitchell said, “but a lot of times, they don’t recognize it. They might never live up to it if they don’t see it in themselves.”

As a joint effort between the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Alumni Association of U-M, the Michigan Alumni Scholarship will enlist the participation of alumni in underrepresented counties. They will provide a personal connection to U-M, much as Bruce and Jacqueline Cook do in Shiawassee County. “It’s really using our experience here as a guide for what we’d like to do throughout the state,” Bruce Cook said.

“We’re not talking about changing our admission standards a bit for these kids,” Cook said. “They’ve gotta stack up with the best kids from anywhere.” If Sarah and Mitchell are any indication, they will.

Learn more (click here) about the Cook Family Foundation’s scholarship program in the greater Shiawassee County region.

Twenty-seven of the most academically accomplished high school seniors from the Shiawassee County region have been nominated for scholarships to the University of Michigan by the Cook Family Foundation.  One of the 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, a number 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.

The students from eight area school districts were nominated because of their high grade point average and test scores; all are outstanding students.  Based on their academic records, the promise of future academic success, and demonstrated leadership capabilities, one of these nominees will be selected to receive the Bruce and Jacqueline Cook Scholarship, which covers all tuition for an undergraduate education at the University of Michigan.

Each of the nominees will receive at least a $2,500 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.  

The Cook Family Foundation was started in 1978 by Donald and Florence-etta Cook.  Bruce and Jackie Cook of Owosso have followed the lead of Bruce’s parents by making a legacy gift to the University of Michigan to establish an annual scholarship for an academically talented student from Shiawassee County.  

2016 CFF UM Overnight Trip

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, Rachel Dvorak, Shane Geiser, Hannah Hooley, Amanda Magnan, and Madison Montgomery; from Chesaning, Jozalynn Boucher, Elizabeth Hoornstra, Sarah Minnis, and Noah Moeggenborg; from Corunna, Noah Aurand, Kaylynn Crawford, Kaylee Euler, Hunter Glew, Noah Jacobs, Courtney List and Tyler Quirk; from Laingsburg, Paden Graham; from New Lothrop, Paige Alkire, Natalie Delemeester, Brandon Kline, and Tyler Ruddy; from Ovid-Elsie, Kayla Duckert; from Owosso, Dalton Brown, Usman Kahn, Sarah Landes, and Olivia Reale; and from Perry, Bradley Cronk.

Past recipients of the Bruce and Jackie Cook Scholarship have included 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.

To learn more about our scholarship program, follow this link.

Manufacturing made Owosso, just like many towns in Michigan that were settled in the 19th century and boomed in the 20th century.  This important history is the subject of a current exhibit being put on by the Owosso Historical Commission and the Shiawassee Arts Council.  Major financial support for the exhibit comes from the Cook Family Foundation.

In four different venues along the Shiawassee River, the exhibit showcases photographs, historic documents, and actual products from a number of companies that made furniture, food stuffs, records, sleighs, printing supplies, automotive components, and a range of other goods.  Most of these items can be found in the Shiawassee Arts Center and Curwood Castle.  Comstock Cabin, an historic early structure, contains information about the people who participated in the founding of Owosso in 1836.  The Woodard Paymaster Building tells the story of Lyman Woodard, who established the furniture company that still bears the family name.

The exhibit will be on display and open to the public free of charge through September 16.  A series of events will be held throughout the summer that highlight the historical and cultural assets of several partner organizations.  A calendar, along with background information, can be found at the exhibit’s website www.madeinowosso.org

Many of the businesses that were started in the previous century are now gone from Owosso.  However, the influence they had on the design, growth, and development of Owosso are still felt.  So too, the charity of individuals and families that started businesses has shaped the lives of many in the community and has served as a legacy to these entrepreneurs.  Wolverine Sign Works, founded 100 years ago, generated the wealth that led to the creation of the Cook Family Foundation. We are proud to be part of the history, and future, of Owosso.  (Go here to see a video about the benefactor of the Foundation).