CFNEG’s longtime board member, David Seago, was recently honored as Citizen of the Year by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. The award is designed to recognize a person whose contributions exceed well-beyond their professional services and benefit the community as a whole.  David certainly exemplifies that. Seago has been an engaged and active member of the Gwinnett community for many years. But no matter the involvement, one thing has always been very consistent with this citizen – his dependability and his friendship.

The son of a Junkyard owner, David spent a good majority of his time learning how to fix, build and tinker with cars. However, his dad was adamant about his need for a college education. So, he put on his “Yellow Jacket” and went off to Georgia Tech – the first member of his family to attend college. Working through college on the Georgia Power co-op program, Seago started his career with the company very early and graduated from Georgia Tech with an Industrial Engineering degree. He then began working fulltime for Georgia Power and led marketing engineering in the Atlanta area.

Around this time, he met his wife – now of 37 years. After they married, they chose Gwinnett in which to raise and send their children to school.

In 1994, Seago elevated his career taking a regional manager role with Georgia Power covering the Gwinnett District. Since then, the role expanded to cover other Northeast Atlanta communities like Greater North Fulton, DeKalb and Forsyth Counties. He has been involved in numerous external organizations like the Community Foundation for  Northeast Georgia Board , Georgia Gwinnett College Board, and Gwinnett Chamber Board,  and the Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful Board – to name a few.

“I’ve been very fortunate to be involved in lots and lots of things,” Seago said. “This is the most humbling award I’ve ever received. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever been involved in.”

Although he’s “officially” retired, he’s spent the last month working hard finding and training his replacement as a manager over a region that includes north Fulton, Forsyth, north DeKalb and Gwinnett counties, and figures to do so for about another month.  He said he will likely stay involved as a board member with the CFNEG Foundation. Further down the line, he said he’d like to look into teaching at the technical college level.

 We are proud to extend hardy Congratulations to David.

Hudgens Center Childcare Tuition Assistance Grants:
Successfully Breaking Generational Cycles of Poverty

Nationally, fewer than 10% of childcare centers are accredited. Gwinnett Technical College’s (GTC’s) on campus Hudgens Early Childhood Education Center soon hopes to be among this elite group representing the very best in early childhood education for children ages 6 months to 8 years. The Center is actively pursuing accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and plans to accomplish this goal within the next few years. Located in one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the state, the Hudgens Center is well positioned to set standards of excellence for other centers in the area and provide leadership in dealing with both racial and cultural diversity in Gwinnett County.

As a technical college, Gwinnett Tech attracts a variety of student populations and its low cost and workforce directed curriculum and high job placement rate has special appeal for low income and nontraditional students and families. One of the ways GTC serves low income children and their student parents is by offering Hudgens Center childcare tuition assistance grants.   Because over 86% of GTC’s students receive some type of financial assistance with almost 50% qualifying for the Federal Pell Grant Program which provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduate students, the Hudgens Center has a waiting list of families and children desiring to participate. 

A lack of funding is often the only barrier preventing more low income children from the many benefits of quality early childhood education. Because the childcare tuition assistance grants are renewable for a period of up to three years, low income children may enter the program as infants and benefit during their critical early years while simultaneously their parent(s) are given an opportunity to complete an associate’s degree if desired. Since its inception in 2007, the Hudgens Tuition Assistance Grant program has helped 83 families.

To find out more about Gwinnett Technical College’s D. Scott Hudgens Early Education Center visit their website at (http://www.gwinnetttech.edu/hudgens/index.htm).

 
Judy Waters: Guest Reader
GW TECH Week of the Young Child

Many advisors face a delicate dilemma. They want to discuss charitable giving with their clients, but they need to avoid appearing to encourage their clients to select any specific charity. 

CFNEG is a single, convenient vehicle. You can talk to your clients about giving through the Community Foundation because we are a means to their charitable ends… a single, convenient vehicle for meeting a variety of charitable interests.

When you're helping your clients with financial and estate planning, you will want to ask about their charitable interests. They will want to know the most satisfying and effective way to accomplish their philanthropy.

These tips will help you to start conversations about charitable giving with your clients.

Introduce the topic to new clients

• Discuss your client’s feelings and habits regarding charity during the discovery process. Talking about philanthropy at this stage will let you know whether it’s something that should be included in the client’s financial plan. 
• Ask about the client’s involvement in community organizations and what issues are important to them.
• Talking about what are the person’s values and interests outside of his immediate work and family.
• And if the new client hadn’t yet considered charitable giving, bringing up the topic now will get them thinking about it. 

 
Discuss charitable giving with existing clients

• Use a client’s success as a starting point to begin discussing charitable donations as a part of his or her financial plan.
• Clients who have been successful in their businesses and investments often feel obliged to give back to their communities.
• If they’ve been very successful and made all their money in the community, it can be very gratifying for them to help by giving to a charity of their choice.

Include the family

• Engage clients by including their families in discussions on philanthropic goals as a part of a financial strategy.
• It’s a way for a client’s children to learn how to be good stewards of the family wealth as well as to understand how the money is to be distributed.

Discuss the benefits

• Explain to the client the personal and financial benefits of including charitable donations as part of a plan.
• Frame the conversation with the lasting impact their donations will have in the community and the positive effect it can have on their tax bill.

The Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia is proud to announce the launch of our new website and corporate identity. For this project, we partnered with Veugeler Design Group, who worked meticulously with us to create an easy to navigate, user-friendly site with enhanced features and powerful imagery. They created a new look for our organization that helps reflect what drives the work that we do, "connecting people who care with causes that matter." Please visit our new site at www.CFNEG.org. 

Thank You Veugeler Team!