LGS names 2015 Distinguished Community Leader Award winners

SYRACUSE, N.Y. —  Leadership Greater Syracuse (LGS), a nonprofit offering a yearlong civic-engagement training program, announced it will recognize two individuals and one business at its Distinguished Community Leader Awards luncheon on April 29.  

This year’s winners of the annual Distinguished Community Leader Awards are:

·         Community Trustee Individual Award — Christine Kovar, executive director of Whole Me, Inc.

·         Community Trustee Business Award — St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center

·         LGS Alumni Achievement Award — Renee and Tim Duffy, LGS Class of 2007 and 2008, respectively

“As LGS celebrates its 25th anniversary, we are especially honored to recognize Christine Kovar, St. Joseph’s Hospital and the Duffys as they are committed to our community and are making it a better place to live and work,” Pam Brunet, LGS executive director, said in a news release.

Christine Kovar started the nonprofit Whole Me, Inc., because she saw the need for services in Central New York for deaf and hard-of-hearing children and their families.  As the executive director, she has created “life changing programs so that children and their families would have access and opportunities to understand, participate, and excel in a hearing world,” LGS said in the release.

As a community anchor organization, St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center “plays a vital role in lifting up its impoverished neighborhood and has become an economic engine for growth in the neighborhoods where it has facilities — specifically on the Near West Side and North side.”

Following their graduation from LGS, Renee and Tim Duffy have taken an active role in the community. Most notably, they have used their entrepreneurial spirit to develop Philanthropic Foodies, an annual event featuring local chefs where proceeds from participants are donated to local nonprofits, the release stated.

LGS established the Distinguished Community Leader Awards in 2008 to honor and recognize “exceptional civic leadership. The award recipients are men and women and organizations who exemplify the LGS mission,” according to the release. 

The awards luncheon takes place at the Holiday Inn Syracuse/Liverpool on Electronics Parkway on April 29. Registration is at 11:30 a.m., with the lunch and program to begin at about noon. Tickets are $70 each. For more information about the event, call (315) 422-5471 or visit the LGS website.

LGS says it is a collaboration of the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, Onondaga Community College, and CenterState CEO, with major support from Honeywell, Inc., United Radio, Inc., The Hayner Hoyt Corporation, and Lockheed Martin.

LGS media partners include the Business Journal News Network, Time Warner Cable News, and Syracuse.com.

Contact The Business Journal News Network at news@cnybj.com