Boys & Girls Club Leaders Recognized at Kiwanis Honors Dinner
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kiwanis Club of Lawrence hosted its fourth annual honors dinner and fundraiser to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence, sharing the spotlight with Kiwanis’s 100-year anniversary. Two staff members and a board member were recognized for their service to the organization in the areas of leadership, administration and volunteerism.
For the fourth-consecutive year, Kiwanis concluded the awards ceremony with Kiwanian – and Boys & Girls Club board president – Matt Llewellyn presenting the Club with a generous $5,000 donation. That marks quite a thoughtful gift to give to another organization on your own Club’s birthday.
“This event continues to be great year after year,” said Alissa Bauer, BGCLK Director of Marketing. “Matt, Janet Prestoy, Rusty Thomas and the whole Kiwanis Club puts on such a nice event to honor the Boys & Girls Club – they really go above and beyond. Especially considering they were celebrating us during their 100th birthday, that just proves how much they value helping others over themselves.”
Laura Wagner (Director of Operations, Elementary Programs), Haley Glover (AmeriCorps member) and Pat McCandless (Board of Directors) were selected as the Boys & Girls Club award recipients for 2019. Voice of the Jayhawks, Brian Hanni, served as the emcee for the awards portion of the evening.
Interim CEO Monica Dittmer was unable to attend, but she made her presence known with a heartfelt video introduction of the first honoree, Laura Wagner. The two grew up together in the Boys & Girls Club, as each joined the Movement in 2002. Both started their careers as part-time group leaders before advancing to program managers, supervisors, senior program managers and multiple Director of Operations roles. In that time, Wagner has gone on to manage more and more staff, growing them into role models who impact the lives of Club kids on a daily basis. Due to a staffing restructure late last year, Wagner took over as the Director of Operations for all 14 elementary sites.
“When you think about the majority of the 3,000 youth that we serve on an annual basis, and most of that falls under her with every single elementary program’s issues and successes, that’s a lot,” Dittmer said. ”I don’t know that too many people – myself included – could really succeed in that, but man, she sure has.”
Wagner was joined – and surprised – at the event by her parents, Dave and Kathy Wagner.
Scharla Paryzek, Area Director at the Hillcrest and Sunset Hill Elementary sites, introduced the second honoree, Haley Glover. ‘Ms. Haley’ is in her third year at the Boys & Girls Club and currently serves as the Social-Emotional Learning AmeriCorps member at Hillcrest. While introducing her, Paryzek admitted that Glover is known to ask a lot of questions, but she knows that at the heart of each question is a real willingness to know more and do more for her kids, for her classroom teachers and for her supervisors.
“I try to hire part-time staff who have a positive attitude, a healthy sense of humor, and a strong sense of responsibility toward the Club members they serve,” Paryzek said. “Haley certainly embodies each of these qualities. She deserves recognition, not only for the time and energy she’s dedicated to Boys & Girls Club, but for her success in showing our Club members what a safe, positive environment should look like.”
Glover was joined by Hillcrest Site Coordinator, Diana Fraire, her coworkers, friends and her boyfriend.
Last but not least, Hanni brought up a special duo to introduce Pat McCandless, the final honoree of the evening. Jayhawk legend Bud Stallworth and his Emmy-winning wife, Robin, took to the podium to banter about the differences between scoring 100 points in a game and achieving 100 years of success, the way Kiwanis has. Then, they turned their attention to reciting the long list of successes that McCandless has already achieved since joining the Boys & Girls Club board. Those of which include his boost to the capital campaign that helped the BGCLK steering committee hit the fundraising goal for the Center for Great Futures.
“I can’t think of a more important thing in this world right now than to support our kids,” McCandless said. “If you’ve not been out to the teen center to see the wonderful facility, I encourage you to do so. Most importantly, it’s about the team that is there, that is doing unbelievable and amazing things with our kids. I’m humbled to be part of this organization.”
McCandless was accompanied by his wife, Debra.