Mount Pleasant Area Community Foundation welcomes new trustees
A Central Michigan University faculty member and an alumnus have both been selected to be members of the Mount Pleasant Area Community Foundation.
Associate Dean of the Communication and Fine Arts Department Shelly Hinck, and Chairperson of the Union Township Zoning Board of Appeals Al Kaufmann, have been placed on the foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Shelly Hinck has been an active community member and volunteer since coming to Mount Pleasant in 1988.
Since that time, Hinck has been part of groups such as the Mount Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education, the Listening Ear Crisis Center Board, and is serving as vice chairwoman of the Mount Pleasant Housing Commission.
“I used to teach interpersonal and gender communication, and I also studied presidential debates,” Hinck said.
Al Kaufmann worked at the Department of Human Services for 30 years in middle management, and was very involved with community service, which Kaufmann himself described as “civic action.”
He served on the Mount Pleasant City Commission for 10 years and the Housing Commission for eight years.
Kaufmann said he hopes to continue to serve on committees, only now as a trustee.
“Being a member formalizes things," Kaufmann said. "It puts me on the inside rather than the outside, now I can better carry out assignments."
Hinck said she is honored to be a new member of the MPACF.
“I hope to be a good steward of the dollars placed in the core of the community foundation,” Hinck said. “We’ll have money we can pass out for community grants and scholarships.”
MPACF Executive Director Amanda Schafer said the foundation supports Isabella County and attracts permanent endowment funds.
“We hold about $11 million to the community. After investing that money, we use a percentage of the earnings to make grants out to non-profits, and to schools for community focused projects,” Schafer said.
Schafer said Hinck and Kaufmann were selected as trustees for similar reasons.
“Both were very familiar with the foundation, and are both donors,” Schafer said. “Typically, we look for those who have served on our committees in the past, which they have both done.”
They have a passion for philanthropy in our community, she said.
The two new trustees began their terms on Jan. 1. One term lasts for three years, and trustees may serve for three terms.
