Waynesburg man, university to be honored at Chamber banquet
A Waynesburg man and Greene County’s university will receive honors during the Greene County Chamber of Commerce’s 30th annual Membership Banquet on Saturday, Oct. 21 on the Waynesburg University Campus in the Benedum Dining Hall.
The banquet will feature the presentation of the 2017 Distinguished Service Award to Chuck Baily of Waynesburg and the 2017 McCracken Legacy Award to Waynesburg University.
The public is welcome to attend the banquet and may purchase tickets at the Chamber office prior to Monday, Oct. 16. For more information, call 724-627-5926 or info@greenechamber.org.
The individual Distinguished Service Award is bestowed based on lasting contributions to community welfare, participation in civic organizations, evidence of leadership ability, success in vocation, personal and/or business progress, and cooperation with other individuals and organizations.
The award has no relation to work performed for the Chamber of Commerce. Jack McCracken was the first individual recipient. Special awards have been presented from time to time over the years as well as posthumous awards. The Organizational Distinguished Service Award was presented from 2004 to 2015.
In 2016, the McCracken Legacy Award was presented for the first time to First Federal Savings and Loan of Greene County.
The McCracken Legacy Award is awarded to a business or organization, having an operating presence in Greene County who has demonstrated ambition, profitability, growth, sound business planning, customer satisfaction and management of people; a commitment to social responsibility and exemplary community involvement; and demonstrated a positive social and/or economic impact on the community and exemplary civic community leadership.
Chuck Baily
When “Waynesburg Prosperous and Beautiful” was published in 1907, the Randolph and Baily Agency (page 120) had been providing insurance and real estate services for 27 years, having been founded in 1880. Rather than being business owners, Chuck Baily was taught that his family’s role was more of a stewardship – not only for their family, staff and clients’ assets, but also for the welfare of the community.
Not much has changed in four generations. Chuck Baily has served on several local advisory boards, including those for Children and Youth Services, United Way, Boy Scouts, Greene County Industrial Development, Greene ARC, Greene County Memorial Hospital, Greene County Tourism and SCI-Greene.
Baily has also worked in a number of capacities with “at -risk” young men.
In addition to these, he is a co-founder of Greene County Habitat for Humanity in 1984. Habitat has partnered with over 60 families in owning their first home. He also co-founded the EAL/Greene County College Opportunity Program in 1985, which ran for a decade and mentored over 70 high school students who wanted to be the first members of their families to go to college. Fifty of them achieved that goal.
Currently, he is president of Rocky Bleier’s Beating the Odds Foundation. To date, this organization has influenced over 300,000 junior high and high school students with an inspirational curriculum for their personal success. Four of the county’s school districts have had Bleier speak and are able to utilize the program.
Chuck and his wife Shirley have three sons and now assist with 14 grandchildren, who are their closest neighbors.
Wellness is an important family value and they are all very active. Chuck still participates in short triathlons and 5K runs.
They are actively involved at First Presbyterian Church, where he grew up.
Finally, he and Shirley feel strongly that one of the main reasons God put them on the planet was to mentor college students.
After college, in 1973, they worked at Waynesburg University for three years as residence hall directors as staff members of the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO), a college ministry based in Pittsburgh.
Sixty-five other CCO campus ministers have followed them here, almost all of whom were hired directly by the university. He continues reaching out to these students, and will continue to do so.
Waynesburg University
The university community contributes approximately 50,000 service learning and community/civic engagement hours each year. Those hours provide a total annual economic impact of approximately $1.2 million.
The university is one of only 21 Bonner Scholar schools in the country.
With support from the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, this unique scholarship program offers selected students financial assistance in return for a commitment to service while enrolled at Waynesburg.
Bonners contribute approximately 17,290 hours of service locally each year.
The Waynesburg University Bonner Program has developed meaningful, longstanding relationships with partner organizations in and around Greene County. Through this long-term approach, these local organizations benefit from ongoing weekly service contributed by students while students experience personal and professional growth.
With the numerous educational centers at the university, business partners and community members alike benefit from the university’s distinctive offerings. Examples include training exercises for law enforcement in the criminal justice facilities and monthly labs for homeschooled students.
Waynesburg University also has a long-standing history of supporting the local community.
The university has donated more than $500,000 in recent years to the Waynesburg-Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Company and Waynesburg Borough for the purchase of new police cars, improvements to borough infrastructure, downtown beautification projects, construction and fire safety equipment, as well as contributions to the Borough Master Plan, recreational fields and parks maintenance.