The Lee County Soup Kitchen, Meals on Wheels, Faith in Action and Hand & Hearts Montessori Preschool - Press releases and special events
Editorial: Sarah Owen merits Apex
25Nov2009 Filed under: General Info Author: mcreative
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200991124058
When she won the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce’s Apex Award Saturday, Sarah Owen said: “I am in shock and totally honored.”
We are not shocked, however, that Owen, CEO of Community Cooperative Ministries Inc., received this honor, given yearly to one exceptional female professional.
Owen was one of The News-Press’ People to Watch in 2009. We knew she would do great things. The Apex Award is well-deserved.
Owen leads a staff of 25 and a volunteer force of 1,200 to provide 75,000 meals to needy people.
This year, as a member of the Hunger Task Force of Southwest Florida, she was part of an effort to raise roughly $400,000 to feed needy children and families during the summer.
Owen carries herself confidently but is also warm and humble.
She has seen the need increase in this community as people lose their jobs, their homes and their ability to pay for basic needs.
The increase in need didn’t deter her. In the Dec. 31 People to Watch article, she said: “We didn’t want to stop what we were doing.” The key: “Innovation, innovation, innovation.”
CCMI re-examined the way food was distributed, using marketplace solutions, to continue delivering services and cut waste.
She said then about her leadership style: “I don’t want to lead for the sake of leading. I want to lead for the sake of serving.”
We wish her continued success. She will definitely require it as the problem of hunger is expected only to increase during our so-called “jobless recovery.”
Earlier this month the Obama administration reported that more than 500,000 families with children had experienced hunger numerous times during the year.
So Owen’s work is more important than ever.
We congratulate her as well the four other fine Apex Award finalists:
• Veronica Barber, mentoring coordinator, AFCAAM Catholic Center
• Tammy Hall, member, Board of Lee County Commissioners
• Dr. Mary Kay Peterson, director of women’s imaging, Radiology Regional Center
• Aysegul Timur, professor and vice chair of business administration, Hodges University
About CCMI
Community Cooperative Ministries (CCMI) was incorporated in 1984, and has long been a driving force in the Fort Myers community, providing food to homeless and nearly homeless, as well as emergency groceries and affordable childcare to the working poor. In July of 2006 the agency expanded its mission and outreach to Lee County by merging with agencies that had historically provided home delivered meals to the homebound hungry (Meals on Wheels), and transportation services to the frail elderly (Faith In Action) and The Soup Kitchen. This merger created an agency that is able to provide comprehensive, unduplicated services to the homeless, nearly homeless, homebound, seniors and children more effectively, more efficiently and with greater compassion than at any other time in the former agencies histories.