FarmHouse International Fraternity Builder of Men since 1905.
** For Immediate Release **
Contact: Chad E. Harris, CAE Executive Director chad@farmhouse.org (816) 891-9445
FarmHouse Receives 2011 Associations Advance Kansas City Award
Kansas City, Mo. September 23, 2011
FarmHouse International Fraternity is the proud recipient of the 2011 Associations Advance Kansas Award from the Kansas City Society of Association Executives (KCSAE). The award recognizes the valuable contributions of a Kansas City-based association whose members and organization has had a positive impact on the Kansas City community through service and contributions to the area. FarmHouse International Fraternity was honored with this award during the KCSAE Annual Dinner on September 22, for its annual Promise of Service project as part of the organization’s Leadership Academy held in Kansas City each January.
Since its inception in 2003, through the Promise of Service project FarmHouse undergraduate officers and alumni volunteers have donated over 3,800 hours of community service to inner-city Kansas City through partnerships with the City Union Mission and Hillcrest Transitional Housing of Mid-America and through donor drives and registration with the organization’s national philanthropy, Be the Match National Bone Marrow Registry.
In announcing the award, KCSAE President and the executive director of Alpha Phi Omega, Bob London, CAE, remarked, “Many associations have philanthropy built into their programming and KCSAE recognizes those members that truly make a difference in our community through the Associations Advance Kansas City Award. However, in the 30 years this award has existed only 10 Associations have had programs that have had a large enough impact on our community to be recognized. FarmHouse is now one of those organizations. Their work in the community with Be the Match, food pantries and homeless shelters has had a meaningful impact on the lives of thousands of people in Kansas City. FarmHouse Fraternity’s effort to improve Kansas City is an example for all Associations to follow.”
Presenting the award to FarmHouse was past KCSAE President and former FarmHouse executive director, Jim Griffith (MO ’91), CAE, who said, “I’m proud to have been involved with this program, for I know first-hand the impact it has had on young men and on the individuals the service project has helped.” Griffith began the Promise of Service project during his tenure as executive director of the Fraternity from 1996 to 2007. He currently serves as the executive director of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine based in Leawood, Kan.
Accepting the award on behalf of the International Fraternity, executive director Chad E. Harris (IA ’98), CAE, said, “FarmHouse has proudly called the greater Kansas City-area our headquarters home for over 40 years. We are pleased to give back to our home community in a way that is beneficial to not only those in need of assistance locally, but in a way that allows our members to personally grow as young men. This initiative helps further instill in them our commitment, as FarmHouse men, to provide service to our fellow men and to the world.”
FarmHouse International Headquarters * 7306 NW Tiffany Springs Parkway, Suite 210 * Kansas City, MO 64153 Phone (816) 891-9445 * Fax (816) 891-0838 * [email protected] * www.FarmHouse.org
The service-learning experience has had a valuable impact of FarmHouse men from across North America; many of whom have not previously been exposed to some of the harsh realities those living in homelessness or in poverty face. Service projects over the years have included working in soup kitchens, youth development programs, overnight shelters, helping with building projects for temporary housing facilities, stocking food pantry shelves and in 2011, 79 men registered as donors with the National Bone Marrow Registry during the Leadership Academy.
What began as the President’s Leadership Conference in 1991, has today grown into an intensive four-day academy for four chapter officers from every FarmHouse chapter to attend. Now in its fourteenth year as an Academy, since its founding as an officer training program, the Leadership Academy, and its predecessor, have graduated over 1,900 FarmHouse men. The educational program is fully funded by grants received from the FarmHouse Foundation.
FarmHouse International Fraternity is a men’s agriculturally-related social fraternity with 1,500 undergraduate members and 30,000 lifetime initiates. Founded in 1905 at the University of Missouri, the Fraternity works to build men physically, socially, spiritually and intellectually, who are committed to a promise of service to their fellow men and to the world and has installed 45 chapters on campuses across North America in its history. The organization maintains its International headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. More information about the International Fraternity is available online at www.farmhouse.org.
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