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Community Foundation Executive Director Retiring

Randy Sweeney at the entrance of the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, located at 418 Spring St. Sweeney is retiring after serving 20 years as the executive director for the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

You can discover a lot about a community by speaking to the right person.

For Jamestown and the Chautauqua region, Randy Sweeney is someone with a wealth of knowledge about the community. Sweeney didn’t necessarily learn about the community through conventional means like a history book.

He was educated through conversation with local residents who wanted to give back to the community by creating a scholarship or fund at the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation. With more than 300 scholarships and nearly 700 funds, Sweeney has story after story about individuals who have made a difference in the community.

Earlier this week, the foundation’s board announced Sweeney would be retiring as executive director after 20 years of service. Sweeney’s charitable contributions to the community started before becoming executive director for the Community Foundation. He said it started when he was the vice president of sales with the former Quality Markets.

”During my time there, I positioned Quality more in the community,” he said. ”I wanted to give back to the community more than they had previously.”

Sweeney said through community fundraisers to support the Babe Ruth World Series and the World Series of Cars, to name a few, he learned about charitable causes in the community. He said his work in the community continued by working with Russell Diethrick Jr., former city parks manager, on the DARE program to educate children about the dangers of drugs.

When Quality Markets started having financial problems in the late 1990s, Sweeney’s position as the company’s executive vice president was being eliminated. For 27 years he worked for the grocery business, starting as a stock boy. Luckily for Sweeney and the community, the executive director position for the Community Foundation became available at the same time.

”I entered my name into the process,” Sweeney said about applying for the executive director position.

For more than 20 years, Sweeney has met many people in the community, usually under very trying times.

”We meet people who are going through a variety of emotions,” he said. ”Unfortunately, we meet people during times of tragedy. Like when people in their 20s die unexpectedly. We meet families during these situations.”

These difficult times have involved fallen soldiers who served in the Middle East with funds being created for Charles Cooper Jr., J.C. Matteson, Aaron Swanson and Darren Manzella-Lapeira. There is also a fund for Amy King, the Southwestern Central School graduate who was a flight attendant for United Airlines Flight 175 when it hit the World Trade Center’s south tower on Sept. 11, 2001.

”Being able to be a part to keep their names alive gives us chills,” Sweeney said.

Sweeney can also tell you about people like Paul Johnson. Sweeney said he became friends with Johnson by talking to him over the phone from Arizona. Never meeting face-to-face, Sweeney helped Johnson, who retired out west, establish the Paul A. Johnson Trade School Fund to assist local students who wanted to continue their education at a vocational school.

”He helped young people pursue careers in the area. There are a lot of manufacturing jobs here,” Sweeney said.

David Blossom is another who has given back to the area in numerous ways. Sweeney said he was a local attorney who moved here from New York City in the 1970s. He had served in the Air Force and was instrumental in creating the Lucile M. Wright Air Museum. Sweeney said Blossom was a huge believer in someone continuing their education throughout their life. That is why Blossom helped to create a fund at the Community Foundation to fund education for all ages. Sweeney said the fund especially provides support to libraries.

There is also a scholarship in the name of Juliet Anderson Rosch to help well-rounded Falconer Central School students and a fund for Gladys Peterson, which supports activities at Hillcrest Baptist Church.

”These were individuals who loved the area,” Sweeney said. ”While they were here and after they were gone, they wanted to give back.”

Sweeney said there are also funds started to help raise money for local parks for new playground equipment.

”We have moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas who wanted to raise money, but needed a place to keep it,” Sweeney said.

The Community Foundation is also invested in the city’s urban forest. Sweeney said following the restructuring of the organization’s strategic plan, they started donating funds toward purchasing trees for the city. He said the Community Foundation has donated around $70,000 and helped to plant 650 new trees in the city since 2005.

The foundation has also given funds toward creating several community activity centers like the Northwest Arena; Robert H. Jackson Center; the Lawson Center boat museum in Bemus Point; and the moving of the Veterans Memorial Park from near Jamestown High School to Third Street near Logan Avenue.

Donations also go toward improving Chautauqua Lake; creating organizations like the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation for urban and neighborhood design plans; hiring addiction recovery coaches at the Mental Health Association of Chautauqua County; to the Health Care Action Team for physician recruitment; and to local arts organizations like Infinity Visual & Performing Arts, Lucille Ball Little Theater and Reg Lenna Center for Arts.

As the foundation’s executive director, Sweeney said he has also enjoyed honoring individuals with the Axel W. Carlson Unsong Hero Award and the John D. Hamilton Community Service Award.

Sweeney said the foundation wouldn’t be able to provide the support they do without volunteers. He said the foundation’s board members volunteer their time to meetings and community engagements. Also, there are 50 volunteers who give their time to look at scholarship and grant funding applications.

”I’ve been able to meet so many wonderfully kind, charitable people. By far that is one of the highlights,” Sweeney said. ”I cannot thank the community enough for the opportunity to serve them.”

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