Award Funds
Becky Darby Award Fund for Nonprofit Executives
Established 2000At Becky’s retirement in 2001, the Board of United Way of Williamson County looked for a way to honor her and to create something special that captured her leadership and dedication. The award recognizes and encourages outstanding nonprofit leadership in Williamson County through the annual award of a grant to support the personal development of one or more health and human service nonprofit executives.
George Fox Membership Award to Benefit the Kiwanis Club of Nashville Designated Fund
Established 2005Each year, in George’s memory, an award will be given to a Kiwanis Club member who does the most to recruit and retain members of the Club. George Fox was tireless in his efforts to grow the Kiwanis Club. He believed that in recruiting members he was sharing a wonderful gift with them: the ability to help others. The winner of the award will recommend that a gift from the Fund be made in his/her name to be given to his/her favorite nonprofit serving children.
Hume-Fogg High School Outstanding Teacher Award Endowment
Established 1998In 1998, in appreciation of the exceptional faculty at Hume-Fogg Academic High School, Kay and Keith Simmons created an award to recognize outstanding dedication both in and out of the classroom in one of Nashville's magnet high schools. The award is presented annually based soley on the vote of the Hume-Fogg senior class.
Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award Fund
Established 1993The Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award perpetuates the memory of a very special person who made Middle Tennessee a better place to live through his dedication to community, home and hearth and individuals in need. The committee who chooses the recipient is particularly interested in nominations of community leaders who, like Joe, sometimes function behind the scenes. The person(s) named as the recipient of this annual award receives the opportunity to recommend that grants from this Fund be distributed to charities in which he or she believes.
Previous Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award Honorees:
2007 Nelson Andrews2006 Martha Ingram
2005 Joel Gordon
2004 Ned Ray McWherter
2003 Jim Ayers
2002 Jamye and McDonald Williams
2001 The Founders of The Community Foundation
2000 Irwin Eskind and Noah Liff
1999 Monroe J. Carell, Jr.
1998 Pauline Gore
1997 Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley
1996 Mayor Phillip Bredesen and Andrea Conte
1995 Aubrey B. Harwell, Jr.
1994 Elizabeth Jacobs and Mary Jane Werthan
Lauren McCathren Translator Award Fund
Established 2006Lauren McCathren was drawn to the Spanish culture and traveled to Ecuador and other South and Central American countries. She loved the gentle spirit of the people she met and was especially moved by the gratitude and contentment she experienced in these people who seemingly had so little. Those close to Lauren weren’t surprised by this passion — her generous spirit and interest in people who had less than she shone through her actions. “She was fun-loving, adventuresome and giving, committed to volunteer work,” said Lauren’s mother, Holly McCathren. In honor of Lauren’s memory, this Fund is designated to help a Belmont University Spanish major travel to Ecuador each spring with other students on St. Augustine’s annual spring break trip to work in support of the Escuela Anne Stevens, which serves children in a town of more than 2,000 people. Dr. Bonnie Smith, an English professor at Belmont, loves how “Lauren’s spirit and commitment live on through the enormous and often underrated gift of translation.” Holly adds, “I hope the award recipients learn that when you give of yourself in this way, you gain so much more than you are giving. It is my hope they will develop a love of community service for the rest of their lives.”
Robert D. Tanner Award Fund
Established 2005Robert D. Tanner, emeritus and active professor at Vanderbilt University, has created the Robert D. Tanner Undergraduate Research Award in Chemical Engineering at Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering.
Tennessee Music Teachers Association/ Elizabeth Lovell Reed Memorial Scholarship
Established 1997Established in memory of a child who never had the opportunity to explore music or her musical potential, this Fund is to endow the Tennessee Music Teachers Association’s collegiate piano category of the aforementioned competitions.
Tennessee Music Teachers Association Scholarship Awards Endowment Fund
Established 1996Since 1991, 323 state winners of annual auditions have received awards from this Endowment Fund, created to assist students with the considerable expense of study, competition and travel required to achieve success in music. TMTA continues efforts to increase the amount of support given to these very talented students.
