The Central Texas Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals each year recognizes some of the individuals and businesses that make the area better through their volunteer efforts. The luncheon honoring the 2011 National Philanthropy Day award recipients will be Nov. 3 at Ridgewood Country Club.

PHILANTHROPISTS OF THE YEAR

Gordon and Susan Swanson

Susan and Gordon Swanson

The Swansons have been loyal supporters of Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center dating back to the 1980s. Designated as Ambassadors of Philanthropy by the medical center for their generous giving and fundraising, the Swansons are currently focusing their efforts in fundraising for the new comprehensive Cancer Center at the Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center campus on Interstate 35. 

Susan explains her passion for the new Cancer Center, which stems from a painful personal experience. “When my mother was diagnosed with cancer in the spring of 2009, I started on a journey that no one wants to go on. Hand in hand with Mom, I learned just how difficult this journey would be. I also met so many others facing this very life-changing disease. 

“When Mom passed away in November of that same year, I vowed to do whatever I could to help others who are dealing with cancer. I joined the committee to raise funds for a state-of-the-art Cancer Center right here in our community. The Cancer Center at Hillcrest will be such a blessing to those seeking the very best care while staying close to home. I’m so excited to be a part of working to reach our goal of breaking ground in January of 2012.”

Gordon, a former chair of the Hillcrest Health System Board and still a member, has served on multiple boards, often simultaneously, during the past 12 years, including serving as former chair of the Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center and the Hillcrest Health Foundation boards. Susan is a past president of Hillcrest Auxiliary.

 Together, the Swansons served as co-chairs for the Vision of Excellence campaign in early 2000s and pledged the campaign’s lead gift, funding major expansion to the emergency department, including the cardiac observation area, as well as improvements to Hillcrest’s comprehensive rehabilitation unit. Through their encouragement and dedicated leadership, they helped inspire greater Waco to exceed the campaign’s $4.5 million goal by $800,000. Gordon also was instrumental in the selection of the new I-35 Hillcrest campus. 

The Swansons are stalwart supporters of many local and national charities, including the Vanguard College Preparatory School gymnasium, Meals on Wheels, Talitha Koum, The Advocacy Center, Boy Scouts of America and Fuzzy Friends, of which Susan is a past board member.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Bernard Rapoport

Bernard Rapoport

The Central Texas area is blessed with many individuals who have devoted their lives to philanthropic service and giving. Few exemplify this tradition more perfectly than Bernard Rapoport. 

Born in 1917 to a poor Jewish immigrant family in San Antonio, His father spent years in a Siberian concentration camp before escaping. Though afterward his father made a meager living selling blankets from a pushcart, Rapoport learned the difference between being poor and living in poverty.

A full-time job eventually enabled Rapoport to attend the University of Texas at Austin, achieving a degree in economics in 1939. Twelve years later, he founded American Income Life Insurance Company in Waco after meeting the love of his life, Audre, in the town.

“B is the most extraordinary person I have ever known,” says close friend of more than 40 years Bill Nesbitt, chairman and CEO of Central National Bank. “He loves others from his heart, with no ulterior motive. He actually believes that powerless people are important. He’s a man who believes strongly in capitalism as a way to accumulate wealth, yet he believes just as strongly in reaching out to those who simply would not be able to achieve the American dream without a helping hand.” 

Nesbitt feels strongly that Rapoport’s drive to help others is what keeps him going now, even at age 94.

Rapoport’s civic activities are numerous and varied, a reflection of his inclination to help those from all walks of life. He was chairman of the University of Texas board of regents from 1993 to 1997. The Rapoports established various professorships and chairs at UT as well as the Rapoport Scholars program. 

They created the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation in Waco to enhance and organize their philanthropic involvement.

The Rapoport Foundation has contributed in excess of $1.5 million to McLennan Community College in the last few years, most recently establishing the Bernard and Audre Rapoport McLennan Community College First Generation Program. 

“I don’t think there’s anyone more deserving than B,” says Tom Stanton of the Rapoport Foundation. “The hardships B dealt with forged his character, his belief in social justice issues, in giving back.” 

Rapoport’s interests and support have reached far outside of Waco and Texas, including nonprofit interests in Israel. The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation’s total committed giving through mid-2011 stood at more than $47 million, not including personal giving.

OUTSTANDING VOLUNTEER FUNDRAISER

Betsy Robinson

Betsy Robinson

“Fuzzy Friends is truly my passion, my ministry,” says Betsy Robinson of the no-kill shelter she founded in 1997. “I have always loved animals, but at that time God burdened my heart with the plight of helpless animals.”

Describing herself as a child who always had a “critter” of some sort — cats, dogs and even lizards numbered among her pets — it was Robinson’s volunteer work with animals as an adult that inspired her to create Fuzzy Friends, a nonprofit haven of shelter, food, medical treatment and love for unwanted or abandoned animals. Pets at the facility may serve as calming therapy animals, even helping young children who have difficulty reading.

Fuzzy Friends finds homes for animals not only in Greater Waco, but, thanks to petfinder.com, even out of state. “You won’t believe this, but I once had a lady fly from California to get a Chihuahua,” Robinson says, laughing. “Her application was impeccable, but I couldn’t help wondering what motivated her to come all that way.”

Friends share what Robinson does not: the endless hours she worked initially, often on her own, to get the shelter off the ground through not only fundraising but cleaning kennels, giving baths and vaccination shots and finding homes for hundreds, then thousands, of animals. Volunteer support has grown through the years to a more extensive staff today, but it is still a rare day that does not find Robinson on-site helping with the 150 to 200 animals there — this in addition to continual fundraising efforts, meeting with staff, picking up daily needs like cleaning supplies, and planning the annual Barkin’ Ball, a holiday fundraiser that Fuzzy Friends depends upon to meet nearly 65 percent of its annual budgetary needs.

Robinson shared the greatest surprise she’s discovered in her work for Fuzzy Friends. “I can honestly say we’ve touched a great many more human lives even than the thousands of animal lives that have been saved here at Fuzzy Friends. To see a child’s eyes light up when they hold the puppy or kitten they’re going to take home ... I cannot imagine being a child without the unconditional, nonjudgmental love of a pet. Your pet isn’t upset at you because you didn’t do well on a test; your pet doesn’t bully you on the playground. Animals are incredibly forgiving; they just want to love you.”

OUTSTANDING YOUTH IN PHILANTHROPY

Christopher Daughters

Christopher Daughters

Lisa Saxenian, assistant principal at Waco High School, sums up her feelings about Waco High senior Chris Daughters: “When I think of an outstanding youth in philanthropy, I think of Chris Daughters immediately. From the classroom to the community, he is truly a leader, giving 110 percent.”

Saxenian notes than in addition to being top of his class, Daughters has volunteered a staggering 465 hours to the Greater Waco community over the past three years. “He is definitely a goal-oriented philanthropist at school and throughout the community. He continues to give from the goodness of his heart. The whole community is lucky to have him. And he has a younger sister, Amy, who’s just like him.”

Daughters is in many activities and organizations at Waco High, including Mock Trial, National Honor Society, Challenge Team, student council, theater and basketball. He is the recipient of the National Society of High School Scholars Award.

Now an Eagle Scout, Daughters has been a member of Boy Scouts of America since the first grade. The focus of his Eagle Scout project was renovating the playground at the Family Abuse Center. He worked out an agreement with Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center to hav ebookshelves donated to the facility, and collected children’s books from businesses and friends.

Daughters also is passionate about Cameron Park Zoo and has given more than 300 hours assisting with camps, classes, maintenance and animal care. He belongs to the youth group at First Presbyterian Church and has been elected to serve on the youth planning team. Daughters also participated in “Shattered Dreams,” a program designed to promote awareness of the dangers of alcohol and drugs, at China Spring High School and University High.

“Chris is just extraordinary,” Saxenian says. “He is a person who seeks to promote the welfare and happiness of others.”

OUTSTANDING PHILANTHROPIC BUSINESS

Wilsonart

Community service is a core value at Wilsonart. Employee suggestions resulted in company trucks carrying emergency supplies to New Orleans during Katrina and to Joplin, Mo., after this year’s tornado.

Bill DiGaetano, president of Wilsonart International, North America, describes the company’s mission succinctly. “Our mission statement at Wilsonart has three parts: serve the customer, serve the company and serve the people,” he said. “Community service is a core part of that third ‘serve.’ If we take care of our people — and our community — they take care of us. From our beginnings, our founder Ralph Wilson instilled that giving back was part of our culture. Whether it was the annual scholarship drive, helping out the youth club, or donating product to any of a number of cultural facilities around town, it was just the right thing to do.”

Wilsonart in Temple has been a major contributor to Scott & White Healthcare the past 25 years, with major gifts to several special projects that include cancer research, Designs of Hope, Children’s Miracle Network as well as several capital campaigns, most notably the neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Glenda Tanner Vasicek Cancer Treatment Center and, this year, the new Children’s Hospital.

Employee donations are eligible for a 3-for-1 match by Wilsonart’s parent company, Illinois Tool Works, Wilsonart provided in-kind gifts of all the products it manufactures for use in the GTV Cancer Treatment Center and the new Children’s Hospital. 

Since 2001, Wilsonart’s annual employee campaign for United Way has been and continues to be the single largest employee contribution for United Way of Central Texas. Wilsonart also uses its corporate jet as part of the Corporate Angel Network, an American nonprofit charitable organization that arranges free air travel for cancer patients to treatment centers. 

Wilsonart trucks took supplies, food and water to New Orleans during Katrina and to Joplin, Mo., after this year’s tornado. Nearly all of those projects started with individual employee suggestions. 

“In some ways,” DiGaetano said, “this honor is for the hundreds of individual Wilsonart employees who give every day to the things that matter to them. We’re just glad to be able to give them the ability to do that.”

OUTSTANDING FOUNDATION

HEDCO

David Harwell

David Harwell, president of Central Texas Iron Works, says HEDCO Foundation support is essential to many good works in Greater Waco.

“As a result of a local presence, we at CTIW have initiated the requests for funds from the foundation to be distributed to several worthy projects in our community,” Harwell said. “CTIW matched funds provided by HEDCO to make our most recent funding become a reality. It was for the Salvation Army’s Community Kitchen, which we are delighted to see now serving many families and individuals in our community.”

Central Texas Iron Works is one of the divisions of The Herrick Corporation, whose original owners established the HEDCO Foundation.

The Community Kitchen renovation began in 2010 when the HEDCO Foundation matched $162,250 funding from Central Texas Iron Works as part of the company’s celebration of its 100-year anniversary in Waco. This made possible the Salvation Army renovation project of the Community Kitchen and Red Shield Men’s Lodge. The renovation project allows the Community Kitchen to prepare and serve three meals a day, 365 days a year, averaging over 40,000 meals served annually. The renovated men’s shelter is now able to provide up to 40 beds for both emergency and extended stay need.

In 2005, the foundation provided more than $68,000 to purchase a direct digital panoramic X-ray machine for the Family Health Center’s first dental facility in South Waco in 2005. In 2007, the Family Health Center requested assistance in buying a prescription-filling robot for its pharmacy. The HEDCO Foundation provided more than $185,000 for that purchase. The pharmacy dispenses between 650 and 700 prescriptions per day and is helped greatly by the robot, which processes 55 percent of the prescriptions.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE

Trudy Woodson

Trudy Woodson

Trudy Woodson’s energy, resourcefulness, leadership and organizational skills have been invaluable in her fundraising career, with her successes in fundraising celebrated within and beyond Waco and Texas.

“I’m so honored, I’m almost embarrassed,” Woodson says of the honor. “I just think the Association of Fundraising Professionals is such a wonderful group, and I love my work with them. They do so much to promote and help the work of fundraising professionals all over the world. Members sign a code of ethics, abide by a bill of rights and can even certify through special courses. They’re so good at mentoring new fundraisers. They’re passionate about the mission of helping others, and I plan to stay involved.”

Woodson, who recently retired from her 22-year role as director of development for Planned Parenthood of Central Texas, is a graduate of Trinity University of San Antonio and grew up in Louisiana as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. She has spent her adult life in Waco, staying actively involved in numerous volunteer endeavors and in her professional career. In 2001, Woodson was the first recipient of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Development Officers Council Fundraiser of the Year award.

Woodson is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Waco and has served on numerous boards. She is a longtime member of Central Christian Church, where she has held many leadership roles. She has been an active member of the Central Texas Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals for 14 years, serving as president in 2000. 

Trudy and her husband, Mike, have four daughters, one son and 13 grandchildren.