NEWS 2014
L-R: GPCF Chair Jim Pedranti, Honoree Barbara J. Buchanan, and Luzerne Foundation President & CEO Charles Barber.
Barbara J. Buchanan, center, celebrated this honor with family members.
Foundation Hosts First Barbara J. Buchanan Award Dinner
September 28, 2014
The first annual Barbara J. Buchanan Community Service Award dinner and ceremony was held at Skytop Lodge on September 26, 2014. This award will annually recognize and honor Pike County residents who exemplify the spirit of giving back to our community. Honorees will receive $1,000 to donate to the charity of their choice.
On Friday, September 26, more than 150 friends, family and elected officials gathered at Skytop Lodge for the first Annual Barbara J. Buchanan Community Service Award dinner. The award was named in her honor because of Barbara’s extraordinary commitment to public service and gift giving.
James Pedranti, Chairman of the Foundation’s Board, emceed the event including a video tribute to Barbara, proclamations from elected officials and the presentation of a $1,000 check, in Barbara’s name, to Julia Quinlan to support the Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice. Pedranti stated, “The Barbara J. Buchanan Community Service Award will be presented annually to recognize a Pike County resident who, like Barbara, exemplifies the spirit of giving back to our community. This award dinner will be the Foundation’s way of saying thanks.”
In her remarks accepting the award, Barbara emphasized the need to live up to one’s potential and encouraged future generations to follow her example. In short, Barbara concluded that she was overwhelmed by the honor.
The Greater Pike Community Foundation was established to provide a person and permanent way to give back to the region we love and have worked so hard to nurture and maintain. Barbara Buchanan embodies the Foundation’s mission. She (and her late husband Ted) settled in Milford in 1985 after years of volunteerism that spanned the globe.
Her time and treasure in the interest of Pike County is unprecedented. Her imprint is on organizations from the American Cancer Society to the united Way and the Center for the Developmentally Disabled, from the Milford Enhancement Committee to the Milford Garden Club, from Grey Towers to the Mount Laurel Center for the Performing Arts, from the Pike County Chamber of Commerce to the Pike County Historical Society. And the list goes on.
Because of her extraordinary commitment to public service and gift giving, the Greater Pike Community Foundation has established the Barbara J. Buchanan Community Service Award to annually recognize those Pike County residents who exemplify the spirit of giving back to our community. In addition to recognition, annual recipients will receive $1,000 for the charity of their choice.
Photos courtesy MilfordNow.
Watch a video about Barbara’s leadership in volunteering and philanthropic work in Pike County:
