Rotary Club of Fort Wayne Spin for May 9, 2016

 

Annually, the Fort Wayne Rotary club recognizes people who have made significant contributions of their time, talents, and resources to our community. The Community Service Award builds on Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self.” Members of the Rotary club were invited to nominate individuals who met the following guidelines:

        ___  professional (physician, lawyer, minister, etc)

        ___  not-for-profit/social service

        ___  business/industry

        ___  education (public/private and community/university)

        ___  public service/government

 

Four community leaders/volunteers will be recognized at the Rotary meeting at noon on Monday, May 2, 2015 (Parkview Field’s dining area on the 2^nd floor behind home plate). The four honorees are:

               

Ben Eisbart is recognized for a life time of service to Allen County.  He has lent his talents, passion, and leadership to many civic, fine arts, and social welfare agencies.  His civic involvement has been non-stop since he moved to Fort Wayne 45 years ago.  He presently serves on the boards of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Allen County Public Library, the Civic Theatre, and the AWS Foundation of which he was the founding board chair.  He was formerly president of The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and served as the Executive Director of the Jewish Federation.   As a public servant, Mr. Eisbart represented the fourth district for eight years on City Council.  He served four years on the Fort Wayne Community School Board.  He has been a member of Fort Wayne and County Redevelopment Commissions, the City Plan Commission, the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission, and Brightpoint.  He currently serves as Vice President of the Allen County Capital Improvement Board.  His reputation for leadership and evenhandedness has led him to be appointed by various mayors to serve on various task forces and think tanks.  Mr. Eisbart not only continues to lead and serve, but is generous with his time in mentoring the community’s next generation of leaders.

 

Tom Hayhurst practiced medicine in Fort Wayne for thirty-one years as a Pulmonary-Critical Care Specialist.  He currently serves as Medical Director of the Tuberculosis Control Division of Fort Wayne-Allen County Health Department’s Infectious Disease Center.  Dr. Hayhurst has served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine.  He is a member of the boards of Arts United, Arthritis Foundation, Indiana High Speed Rail Association, and Invent Tomorrow.  Prior to starting his practice in Fort Wayne, Dr. Hayhurst served as a Captain Major in the United States Air Force, as a general medical officer on active duty.  He is founding member of Veterans for Better Health Care.  He also helped found various health clinics throughout northeast Indiana including the Wolf Lake Free Health Clinic and the pulmonary clinic at Matthew 25.  For twelve years Dr. Hayhurst represented the fourth district on the Fort Wayne City Council.  Dr. Hayhurst is a dedicated community servant known for putting patients first.

 

Mark Hisey is honored for his commitment to helping persons with special needs.  As a family member of a child with special needs, Mark Hisey became a member of his local Arc Board of Directors.  He later served as president of Passages of Indiana, the local Arc organization.  When his leadership and passion as a volunteer were recognized, he was asked to serve on the state board of Arc of Indiana and later became its president.  Mr. Hisey collaborated with legislators working on a proposal to establish a statewide immersive vocational training program for adults with intellectual and development disability for a variety of jobs in the hotel, food service, and healthcare industries.  Mr. Hisey helped explore options of establishing an Arc training institute that would train Arc clients who would be immersed in a new hotel for the Muncie Horizon Convention Center.  A partnership was negotiated with a franchise of the Marriott courtyard to build a new 150-room hotel.  In December 2015, the new Courtyard was opened.  One month later the Erskine Green Training Institute, located adjacent to the Courtyard and the Horizon Convention Center, had its first class of adults with special needs training in the hotel.  The program plans to train 100 – 120 adults annually.  Mr. Hisey continues to be heavily committed to the institute.  He is the first president of the ARC Hotel Building Corporation, and secretary/treasurer of the foundation raising funds for the institute.  In addition to his volunteer efforts, Mr. Hisey is employed by Parkview Health as Vice President for Facilities Design and Construction. He will receive his award in June

 

Rachel Tobin-Smith applies boundless energy and passion advocating for the prevention of child abuse.  She has been ever vigilant in her fight to bring families together in their most vulnerable hour.  As Executive Director of SCAN, she has taken the agency from a staff size of one and a budget of $29,000 in 1984 to becoming a multi-faceted agency serving twenty-eight Indiana counties with more than 210 employees and a fourteen million dollar operating budget.  Ms. Tobin-Smith developed a multifaceted education program that reaches more than 2,700 children and adults in northern Indiana.  She is the manager of the out-of-school youth program called “Be SomeOne Now", which is an after-school outreach program.  She has founded many programs that people turn to during crisis.  She founded the Healthy Families Allen County collaboration and instituted the first Healthy Families program in the state of Indiana.  She is cofounder of the Not for Profit Association of Northeast Indiana and leads the local council for Prevent Child Abuse.  She has given her time and expertise to community boards including those off Park Center, Crossroad Child & Family Services, Indiana Children’s Coalition, and the Child Advocacy Center of Allen County.   She currently chairs the Allen County Step Ahead and Step Ahead Family Action Committee.  Ms. Tobin-Smith embodies Rotary’s value of “Service Above Self.”

 

As part of their “Community Service” recognition, each will be named as a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. To be a Paul Harris Fellow, a gift of $1000 has been made to the Rotary International Foundation from the trust established by long time past Fort Wayne Rotarian “Kap” Kilbourne. Paul Harris was the founder of Rotary in 1905 in Chicago. Gifts to the Rotary International Foundation provide funds for projects in health, education and community development in over 200 countries and territories where Rotary has members.