20191223NAB_Foundation-3870

Maddie Schroeder Maddie Schroeder/JamesDeCamp.com

The Klodell family poses for a portrait outside of New Albany Primary School Monday, December 23, 2019 in New Albany, Ohio. (© Maddie Schroeder for James DeCamp Photography | http://JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366)

Civic action is a hallmark of New Albany

New Albany donors are giving back

by

National Philanthropy Day is Nov. 15, a day set aside to celebrate charitable activities and those who make an altruistic impact on society.

Since its inception 25 years ago, the New Albany Community Foundation has served to help its donors make the type of meaningful difference in their community that National Philanthropy Day is meant to recognize.

The foundation’s donors come from varied backgrounds and circumstances, but they share a common goal of helping build an extraordinary community in New Albany. Over the past 25 years, the foundation and its donors have established a community culture of giving, and that spirit is contagious.

Helping to set the tone early on with one of the foundation’s first major efforts were Jonathan and Marcy Schaffir.

“Our involvement began with the fundraising efforts to build a branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library in New Albany,” Jonathan Schaffir says. “We were new to the area and strongly supported the town’s effort to have its own public library. We sensed that New Albany had the potential to develop a top-notch educational environment, and we were eager to contribute to that goal.”

This same sentiment is shared by longtime donors Herb and Janice Wolman. The Wolmans cite the New Albany Lecture Series and the support of both the food pantry and Healthy New Albany as some of these most impactful foundation led improvements.

“Our involvement goes back to the early days, and we were motivated by wanting to do anything that would improve the quality of the community where we chose to live, and the foundation seemed to be an important part of doing that,” Herb Wolman says.

In some instances, the donors take the form of an organization rather than an individual or family. The New Albany Women’s Network worked through the foundation in 2004 to help launch, with the support of Key-Bank, New Albany Safety Town. Each summer, rising kindergarteners and first-graders partake in this safety focused educational camp. What started as a grassroots effort among a small group of passionate community members has now seen nearly 5,500 kids receive lessons from local police officers, firefighters and certified teachers before graduating from the program.

Searching for a unique way to honor the memory of his late wife Alexandria Loew Klodell, Alan Klodell and the couple’s children created a fund with the help of family and friends to support reading and writing initiatives at the New Albany Primary School. Creating a fund through the foundation seemed like a perfect fit.

“Alexandria was very involved in the community as one of the founding members of the New Albany Women’s Network and through various other volunteer endeavors including some that were associated with the foundation,” Klodell says.

Before her sudden passing in 2018, Alexandria Klodell worked as an administrative assistant in the school’s front office, touching the lives of countless children and parents every day.

“I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to pay tribute to her as, after her family, supporting the local schools, especially the children at the primary school, was a life passion of hers,” Klodell says.

While the Wolmans and the Schaffirs helped put things in motion for the foundation, newer donors such as Jennifer and Adam Zochowski, and Sara and Christopher Zochowski, Adam’s brother, are helping to keep that momentum going.

When Jennifer and Adam Zochowski began donating to the foundation in 2016, they were motivated to become donors as a way to help them truly feel a part of the community.

“It was important to us that we give back because we feel it’s important to improve the lives of others if the means to do so are available,” Jennifer Zochowski says. “It was also a way to educate our son on the importance of charitable contributions.”

After living in cities all across Ohio, Sara and Christopher Zochowski landed in New Albany in spring of 2015.

“We fell in love with New Albany due to the feel of a small, close-knit community and the master planning of the town,” Christopher Zochowski says. “We knew that this was our home for good, and it was at this time that we decided to make our town a bit better than we found it by establishing a charitable fund.”

As the foundation looks back across its first 25 years and forward to its future, its donors and the culture of giving they have created together are a lasting legacy on our extraordinary community.

Bob Valasek is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.