By Jordan Studer
news@wbcowqel.com
The sixth class of Crawford Unlimited Leadership (CU Lead) graduated from the program on June 15.
CU Lead is a part of The Crawford County Partnership and Crawford: 20/20 Vision. It originated from an idea had by Jim Kennedy, former president of Ohio Mutual Insurance Group. Kennedy realized that leadership is how change is brought about and he wanted to create a program that could help develop leadership within the community.
Since its beginning, CU Lead has grown and helped to develop close to 100 community members who have learned how to optimize their leadership skills. By learning how to lead well, CU Lead cohorts have also learned how a small group of people can transform a community.
This year, 20 graduates made up the cohort. The instructor of the cohort for the year was Steve Mohr, who is a John Maxwell certified instructor. He used leadership and engagement skills grounded on material from John Maxwell as part of the program.
Mohr is also helping bring leadership skills to the younger generation as well. According to Gary Frankhouse, Executive Director of the Crawford Partnership, Mohr has been instrumental in the Leader in Me program that is currently in the Wynford, Bucyrus, and Galion schools for grades K-5.
CU Lead brings in community members from the entire county. This helps to optimize the amount of businesses and volunteer opportunities able to be reached.
Frankhouse, a big proponent of CU Lead, explains why he and the Partnership are so passionate about promoting CU Lead.
“CU Lead is an opportunity for individuals in the community to find their harmonic gate where passion and leadership style are connect with the works and needs to make Crawford County great,” Frankhouse said.
“They come from industry all over the county,” he added. “We do it nine months, once a month, it’s an all-day event… we teach leadership we try to show them opportunities for involvement in the community and introduce them to businesses in the community so people are more aware.”
Members and alumni of the CU Lead cohorts are active in the community and trying everything they can to help Crawford County thrive. Many community programs and events have been organized by CU Lead members, such as the Senior Citizen Extravaganza that was held in May.
The biggest goal CU Lead members have aligns directly with the Crawford: 20/20 Vision. The goal is to improve the quality of life within their communities and positively transform Crawford County as a whole. The leadership skills and hard work are beginning to set a precedent within Crawford County that goes to show that change cannot come about without leadership.
The graduating members of the sixth cohort, and their respective businesses are listed below.
Sara Hill of ACS Title & Closing Services
Celina Adkins of Bucyrus Precision Technology
Josh Fleck of Bucyrus Precision Technology
Sherry Seiler of the Bucyrus Public Library
Michelle Horsley of the Crawford County Board of Developmental Disabilities
Michelle Failor of the Crawford Partnership
Erin Stine of the Crawford Partnership
Jennifer Allerding of Galion City Schools
Nick Evans of Galion LLC
Amanda Webb of Galion LLC
Jeremiah Bertsch of Hord Livestock
Douglas Schwartz of Hord Livestock
Jenny Lynne Pfeifer of Mark’s Homemade Ice Cream
Susan Montgomery of Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging
Sarah Milheim of Ohio Mutual Insurance Group
Steve Lust of Ohio Mutual Insurance Group
Mindy Sipes of Parr Insurance
Jolene Young of Pioneer Career & Technology Center
Rick Rinehart of Tramec Sloan
Josh Noblet from United Way of Crawford County.
For more information on CU Lead, Crawford: 20/20 Vision, and The Crawford County Project, visit: http://crawford2020.com/index.php.