MEET OUR DOING THE MOST GOOD AWARD WINNERS!
We are THRILLED to announce our eight winners for this year’s Salvation Army Midland Division Doing the Most Good awards and brunch, to be held May 14 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac! The event coincides with the 68th annual National Salvation Army Week, which lasts from May 8 to May 14.
Doing the Most Good is a lifestyle for our winners, who stand out in ways that The Salvation Army thanks for their contributions to our communities and services. They are leaders, who see the promise of tomorrow in the investments of today.
Doing the Most Good is one of The Salvation Army’s core principles. We believe that we all are called on to do the most good, set by the example of Jesus Christ.
We talked with our Doing the Most Good winners, who were selected by Salvation Army Midland Division staff and officers, about their drive for doing the most good and why they help The Salvation Army.
Please JOIN us at the Doing the Most Good Awards by visiting this website to purchase tickets:
https://centralusa.salvationarmy.org/midland/doingthemostgood2022/.
We will see you there!
The winners are:
- Alpha Kappa Alpha, Gamma Omega Chapter
- Greg Cartee
- Schnuck Markets, Inc.
- Jan Lundstrom
- Gordon and Margaret Finley
- Gretchen Luke
- Karen Helm
- Barbara Pearce
(Pictured: Lonita Blackman)
Alpha Kappa Alpha, Gamma Omega Chapter
Award: Community Partners
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. was founded at Howard University in Washington D.C. on January 15, 1908, by St. Louis native Ethel Hedgemon Lyle, who dreamed of creating a support network for negro women of like minds, talents, and strength. One hundred and fourteen years later, Alpha Kappa Alpha is comprised of over 1,000 chapters in 42 states, and other parts of the world such as the Bahamas, Germany, Japan, Dubai, South Africa and more.
The Gamma Omega Chapter, chartered in St. Louis on Dec. 2, 1920, and Ivy Alliance Foundation have been longstanding community partners with The Salvation Army. The partnership has included 10 years of supporting Veterans at the Veterans Apartment Building and Family Haven GPD program with the Salute to Veterans Sunday Supper. They have also supported Midtown Service and Treatment Center, this year adopting 16 individuals in residential treatment for Christmas and providing them with holiday gifts. They have worked at many Toy Town warehouse distributions, assisted the homeless, served meals at Family Haven on Thanksgiving, and annually donated $1,000 or more to support Salvation Army programs.
“Our inspiration to stay involved with the Salvation Army is just giving back,” Lonita Blackman, president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Gamma Omega chapter, said. “The perspective of AKA is to give back to the community and be of service to all mankind."
(Pictured: Greg Cartee)
Greg Cartee
Award: Volunteer Service: Corps
For years, Greg has volunteered with Emergency Disaster Services at Midland Divisional headquarters, working with feeding operations during the 2019 floods, serving as the deputy logistic chief during COVID in 2020, and conducting hydration runs for the unhoused.
Greg serves on the St. Charles County Advisory Council, as vice chairman, secretary, and property committee member. He helps organize our St. Charles County Advisory Council Bell Ring Challenge. Greg also volunteers at the O’Fallon Corps Food Pantry and has helped at the O’Fallon Toy Town for the past five years.
Besides spending most of his 35-year career at McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, managing product support, he is a Salvation Army financial supporter. His wise judgment has resulted in big savings for the St. Charles County Corps. St. Charles County Director of Development, Vicki White, said, “Greg Cartee gets the job done!”
Cartee said, "The reason I joined originally The Salvation Army is that I was a CASA, a court-appointed special advocate for kids who are under control of the state. The young man I was working with, he and his family had spent time at a shelter in O'Fallon. The whole family had great words to say about how that helped them along, to get their lives back together. The kid is doing great. The family survived their event. It took them a little while, but they got their legs together. They believe, as I did, The Salvation Army had a lot to do with the success."
(Pictured: Ted Schnuck)
Schnuck Markets, Inc.
Award: Corporate Support
Founded in St. Louis in 1939, Schnuck Markets, Inc. is a third and fourth generation, family-owned grocery retailer committed to nourishing people’s lives. Schnucks operates 112 stores in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and employs 12,000 people. The company annually donates more than $13 million to food pantries.
Several Schnuck family members have served as Chair of The Salvation Army's Tree of Lights campaign: Ed Schnuck in 1984, Don Schnuck in 1988, Craig Schnuck in 1995, and Scott Schnuck in 2007. Mark Schnuck served as Chair of The Salvation Army's Advisory Board from 1993 through 1995.
Schnucks is the lead corporate sponsor for the Tree of Lights campaign and, through their Round Up at the Register campaign, bellringing locations, and corporate contributions, raised more than $635,000 for The Salvation Army in 2021. Their strong partnership and the commitment to support our work in the community is beyond measure.
Executive Vice President of Supermarkets, Ted Schnuck, said, “Schnucks has a long partnership with The Salvation Army that has continued to evolve over the decades. This commitment extends from the corporate level to the store level and to many individual teammates throughout the company."
(Pictured: Jan Lundstrom)
Jan Lundstrom
Award: Volunteer Service: Service Extension
Jan has been a member of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary for more than 30 years. After retiring from a 45-year nursing career at Missouri Baptist Medical Center, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary. She has also been a liaison for the Granite City corps and the Jefferson County Service Extension.
Jan works weekly at the Arnold Salvation Army food pantry every Wednesday. Her church comes yearly to help assemble the toys for about 180 children. She and two others from her church come to help on distribution day.
Jan has three children, who have all volunteered in some way for the Salvation Army.
“The Women’s Auxiliary are remarkable women,” Lundstrom said. “They work hard to do much. It’s no holds barred when they want to try to do fundraisers for the corps that will help all of the different clients throughout the St. Louis/Illinois region. You can’t help but try to do your best."
(Pictured: Gordon and Margaret Finley)
Gordon and Margaret Finley
Award: Individual Support
Margaret’s mother told her from early childhood the help she received from The Salvation Army when her father, who suffered from mental health problems, was hospitalized. The Salvation Army provided financial and emotional help. Even when her family was on Social Security, her mother instilled in her to donate.
Gordon and Margaret actively volunteer, participating in CASA, Habitat for Humanity, Randy’s Rescue Ranch, multiple church programs, and The Salvation Army. Their involvement with The Salvation Army is primarily through donations, and Gordon has been a bellringer for years.
Gordon retired from the Air Force after almost 50 years as an active duty attorney and civil service attorney, finishing his career at Scott Air Force Base. Margaret retired after a career as a teacher, school counselor and, in private practice, licensed professional counselor. Their joint major accomplishment is being active and supportive in the lives of their family.
“As for me, doing the most good for the Salvation Army, I feel like I need to, if for no other reason than by the grace of God go I,” Margaret Finley said. “I’m lucky and privileged. One of the things about the Salvation Army is that the CEO doesn’t make millions of dollars. Everything goes to the needs."
(Pictured: Gretchen Luke)
Gretchen Luke
Award: Volunteer Service: Emergency Disaster Services
Gretchen Luke works full time as a volunteer and has a passion for serving the community. She is a Bridgeton councilwoman, in addition to working for a family-owned tax preparation business. She is the volunteer coordinator of the Ferguson Twilight Run planning committee.
Gretchen’s work as a Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services volunteer is her favorite way to volunteer, she said. It includes canteen operations, management and instruction, the incident command team and EDS Advisory Committee, and administrative duties. Gretchen has become one of the Midland Division’s reliable and experienced Emergency Disaster Services volunteers.
Gretchen served canteen operations in December 2021 for the Edwardsville, Ill., tornado recovery efforts for first responders. She was operations chief for the Salvation Army St. Louis regional response to COVID in 2020, when she oversaw massive feeding programs, and served as operations chief for Jefferson City, Mo.’s tornados in 2019.
Luke said, “What keeps me involved with the Salvation Army is who I get to work with. The other volunteers and I, we go out to these sites and we don’t always know what’s going to happen, what it's going to look like. Then we meet the survivors, family members and the friends of the survivors. The communities come together. Neighbors help neighbors."
(Pictured: Karen Helm)
Karen Helm
Award: Community Leadership
Karen has been the Community Development Officer for Montgomery Bank for more than five years. She is a founding council member of the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center and serves as its chair. Karen continues to teach our Pathway of Hope financial literacy program, raise funds for our Youth Program SPARK Academy, serve on the advisory council, and volunteer for Salvation Army events, such as the Tree of Lights. Karen has been an excellent advocate for the programs offered at The Salvation Army and continues to be a blessing to our team and the community.
She serves on or is a member of:
The St. Louis Regional Financial Empowerment Coalition as the Chair of the Community Engagement Committee
The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis Housing Committee, where she acts as Recording Secretary
The St. Louis Metro Housing Task Force
The Metropolitan St. Louis CRA Association, where she serves on the Educational Committee and organizes the Junior Achievement JA in a Day
“Everybody needs help,” Helm said. “Nobody needs help more than Ferguson. The things they’ve gone through the past few years, have been kind of disheartening even when you see positive things coming in. There is always something like this pandemic over the past three years that has really put them two steps forward, five steps back kind of situation, to where it seems like there is no kind of progress. The Pathway of Hope program can assist with that on every level.”
(Pictured: Barbara Pearce)
Barbara Pearce
Award: Volunteer Service: Regional
Barbara Pearce has been the single most dominant force in Toy Town -- the predecessor to Angel Tree -- over the last couple of decades. Barbara, representing the Women's Auxiliary, has often been a de facto "co-leader" of Toy Town even as a volunteer. She has recruited hundreds of volunteers and given thousands of volunteer hours to Toy Town over the years. Volunteers knew Barbara when they served and would say that they came because of Barbara, returning year after year.
Barbara carried out many Toy Town-related tasks asked of her or self-started by her, including greeting recipients, holding or watching their children while they shopped, cleaning the bathrooms of the Toy Town or collecting shopping carts from the parking lot. She has also volunteered at St. Stephen's Church and later Central Presbyterian Church, Price School, East Ladue Junior High and Ladue High School, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and World Impact.
“I’ve been doing this for 60 years,” Pearce said. “I just like being around people and I want to help somebody. People need help. Being a Christian and helping people is extremely important in life. The more you do, the better it is."