For immediate release
Louisville, Kentucky (June 18, 2014) – The Leadership Louisville Center is announcing the six nonprofits that will benefit from a team of young professionals through the 2014 Yum! IGNITES Louisville Challenge. The recently expanded Ignite Louisville program now offers two classes each year, doubling the impact of the challenge, the service learning component where teams undertake a project for a local nonprofit, gaining experience in community leadership, board involvement and teamwork. Participating nonprofits benefit from the expertise and energy of the Ignite Louisville teams, who each invest hundreds of hours with their nonprofit agency as they compete for donations made possible by the Yum! Brands Foundation. Ignite Louisville is presented by Norton Healthcare.
Each year, over 50 nonprofit agencies submit proposals hoping to work with an Ignite Louisville team through the challenge, sponsored by Yum! Brands, Inc. At the end of the program, a winning team will be selected to receive funds for their partner organization. Most recently, the team working with New Roots was selected as winner and YUM! Brands Foundation surprised the agency by matching the $1,500 contribution from the Leadership Louisville Center and awarding a second nonprofit, Volunteers of America, with a $1,500 contribution. GE Appliances also stepped up to make a $500 contribution to each of the other nonprofit agencies who worked with an Ignite Louisville team.
The nonprofits selected for the 2014 Yum! IGNITES Louisville Challenge and their Ignite Louisville teams include:
Down Syndrome of Louisville
Annessa Baker, Our Lady of Peace Hospital, KentuckyOne Health; Chris Brown, Norton Healthcare; Nicole Carl, Mercer; Lauren Jolly, Mountjoy Chilton Medley LLP; Dunmomi Owolabi, Brown-Forman Corporation; Taylor Trusty, Blackstone Media; and Christy Weikert, Louisville Water Company.
Friends of the Louisville Free Public Library
Bryan Alvey, Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation; Shari Baxter, Ph.D., Beam, Inc.; Todd Benson, Kentucky Employers’ Mutual Insurance; Matt Cecil, Chase; Bobbi Harned, RN, Flaget Cancer Center; Antoinette Konz, Courier-Journal; Charna Lockett, Seven Counties Services; and Robert Pieroni, Robert Pieroni Creative.
Kids Cancer Alliance
Jessica Clark, Humana Inc.; Gregory Dixon, Montessori School of Louisville, Christopher Johnson, Frost Brown Todd LLC; Kimberly Kraeszig, Louisville Metro Police Department; Aaron Matthews, Fifth Third Bank; Tandee Ogburn, Volunteers of America of Kentucky; Myra Rock, University of Phoenix; and Jason Wade, Papa John’s International, Inc.
Louisville Sports Commission
Alford Beck, Humana Inc.; Ryan Burt, Passport Health Plan; Mike Cook, Deming, Malone, Livesay & Ostroff CPAs; Eric Elwell, Eaton Corporation; Emily Lamb, Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP; Chris Teeley, Brown-Forman Corporation; April Van Epps, Seven Counties Services; and Stephanie Wesley, LEO Weekly.
New Legacy Reentry Corporation
Inga Arvin, Humana Inc.; April Andrews Combs, White Clay Consulting; Scott Gilmore, CBRE Louisville; Brian Jurich, Norton Healthcare; Sara Massey, Louisville Metro Government; Ing Mulkarat, Yum! Brands, Inc.; Ruth Trautwein, Stegner Investment Associates, Inc.; and Nick Wright.
St. George’s Community Center
John (Rolf) Eisinger, Louisville Metro Government; Kirsty Gaukel, Actors Theatre of Louisville; Jessica Holman, Transit Authority of River City (TARC); Terrance Hyland, Hyland, Block & Hyland, Inc.; Jennifer Lampton, Office of Vocational Rehabilitation; Anne McKune, ACLU of KY; Brandi West, CafePress Inc.; and David Whitney, Irving Materials, Inc.
More about the Yum! IGNITES Louisville Challenge:
Since its inception in 2004, Ignite Louisville participants have worked with 69 area nonprofits to plan, execute and sustain new strategies for success. The Ignite Louisville class that graduated in April 2014 invested over 3,500 hours in their partner organizations, averaging nearly 500 hours per team. In a recent survey, partner organizations stated that Ignite Louisville teams remarkably improved the productivity of operations, increased the organization’s outreach in the community and improved the strategic focus of the organization. The average value of each team’s work is over $35,000 in the most recent class and many Ignite Louisville graduates have joined the boards of directors of their adopted nonprofit, helping to accelerate a generational change in leadership. In 2013, Ignite Louisville’s challenge received a national award for “Excellence in Innovation” from the Association of Leadership Programs. In 2009, it was awarded the Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s Pyramid Award for the Art of Collaboration.
About Ignite Louisville:
Presented by Norton Healthcare, Ignite Louisville is a seven-month program that grows rising community leaders by developing the key components of leadership and graduates two classes per year. In addition to the core curriculum, the class participates in the Yum! IGNITES Louisville Challenge and takes on a project proposed by a local nonprofit to gain hands-on experience performing on a team and serving the community. Each class learns cutting-edge leadership concepts from program partners including Norton Healthcare, Yum! Brands, Inc., Brown-Forman Corporation, Northwestern Mutual, the U.S. Army and GE. Ignite Louisville was founded by the Leadership Louisville Center in 2003 in partnership with the Young Professionals Association of Louisville (YPAL) and the Louisville Urban League Young Professionals (LULYP).
About the Leadership Louisville Center:
Created in 1979, the Leadership Louisville Center is the region’s most valuable resource for leadership development and civic engagement. Its mission is to grow and connect a diverse network of leaders who serve as catalysts for a world-class community through dynamic programming and strong community connections. Over 6,000 community leaders have graduated from the Center’s programs that include Leadership Louisville, Focus Louisville, Ignite Louisville and Bingham Fellows. In 2011, the Leadership Louisville Center was recognized as one of the top seven community leadership programs in the U.S. in a benchmark study by the Center for Creative Leadership, the “gold standard” global provider of executive leadership education and research.
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For more information, contact:
Holly Prather
Vice President – Marketing
Direct: (502) 753-6503 Main: (502) 561-0458
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