The Juneau Community Foundation held their annual Philanthropy recognition dinner on September 19, 2019. The event honors outstanding local individuals and businesses who demonstrate their commitment to community philanthropy and leadership. Laraine Derr received the Philanthropist of the Year award. Elgee Rehfeld, LLC accepted the Philanthropic Business award.
Long-time resident Laraine Derr exemplifies the spirit of philanthropy, consistently and enthusiastically giving back to her hometown for decades. We honored Laraine as Philanthropist of the Year for her generous giving of time, talent, and money to myriad local projects and programs – Food Bank, costume design for high school theater, Alaska Mental Health Trust, sharing her culinary skills for auctions, Juneau Women’s Network, the Whale Project… to name just a few. Laraine’s genuine willingness and comfort in giving and asking others to do likewise has helped build our community.
“Philanthropy is not just MONEY. It is generosity in all its many forms. It is time. It is talent, and it is treasury… all those T words that occur throughout life. The origin of the word, philanthropy is a Greek word ‘philanthropia’, meaning kindliness, humanity, benevolence and love for man-kind. So basically, you can be an everyday philanthropist no matter your financial station or stage in life. My challenge to you is to find a way to give back to the world, whether it be time, talent, or treasury. I feel like I’m preaching to the choir tonight as most of you in this room actually reflect and live the meaning of the word. So, my last letter T is to say Thank you to all of you who make Juneau such a great place to live. Keep up the good work.” — Laraine Derr
True to her nature, Laraine used the spotlight to inspire even more charitable giving. When asked what she wanted to raise funds for during the evening, Laraine chose the Foundation because her interests are broad, and supporting the Foundation’s growing and effective role in the community is important to her. To further honor Laraine, attendees were challenged to match $50,000 that had already been raised for that purpose from her friends prior to the event.
Elgee Rehfeld, LLC is renowned for their financial accounting expertise and their decades long, widespread support of Juneau. Serving the community by being generous with their time and money is in their personal and corporate DNA, they and their employees are active all over town on boards and Rotary, always contributing to the greater good. Never ones to draw attention to themselves, these pillars in our hometown – business leader, supporter of non-profits, model of community spirit – embody the notion that giving back to the community is good business, for all involved.
“We have been blessed with both the opportunity and capacity to help. In our beautiful small community, we have always believed it’s the right thing to do. We applaud all those in business and professions who follow suit. We share in this recognition.” — Bob Rehfeld. George Elgee and Gayle Starbard joined Bob in accepting the award on behalf of the firm.
The Foundation encourages all people to be philanthropic, to promote the welfare of others, especially by donating money and time to good causes.
