Willmar Area Community Foundation announces 2024 award recipients – West Central Tribune

WILLMAR — The Willmar Area Community Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2024 Awards in Philanthropy. The awards recognize various community works, and recipients will be honored at a celebration next month.

According to the announcement, recipients include Rick and Norma Conway, who are receiving the Award in Philanthropy; Johnson, Moody, Schmidt, Kleinhuizen & Zumwalt will be presented with the 2024 Community Builder Award; and the late Suzanne Torgerson will be recognized with the 2024 Marv Otto Legacy Award.

The following biographical information was provided by the foundation in its news release.

The Award in Philanthropy recognizes an individual, couple or family who have made significant contributions to the field of philanthropy in the region. This can be through volunteer work, personal philanthropy or their professional work in advising clients about philanthropy.

Rick and Norma Conway grew up in Slayton as high school sweethearts. After graduating, the pair attended St. Cloud State University to receive their degrees.

“I had no intentions of attending college; however, I did follow Norma to St. Cloud State University,” Rick Conway said in the news release.

After graduating, the pair moved to Willmar to begin their careers. Norma worked as a physical education teacher and Rick worked in accounting. The couple has been married for 52 years, and in that time they welcomed four children and eight grandchildren.

The couple made sure to give back to the community that embraced them. Rick Conway served on many community boards while Norma Conway shaped lives as a teacher and volunteered in the community.

“You can’t always repay someone who helped you, but you can pay it forward to help someone else,” Norma Conway said in the release.

The Community Builder Award is given in recognition of a company, organization or professional advisor that has contributed to the field of philanthropy in the region.

Johnson, Moody, Schmidt, Kleinhuizen & Zumwalt began in 1959 when Robert Johnson opened a general practice law office in downtown Willmar. Over the course of 65 years, that small office grew to become one of the largest full service legal practices in rural Minnesota, according to the news release.

Early on, the firm included Henry Schmidt, Joe Thompson, John Lindstrom, Ron Schneider and Bill Thompson. As a group, they set the practice up with deep expertise, community engagement and core values ​​to guide it as it grew.

“We are problem solvers, and have a strong work ethic and commitment to helping people,” partner Tom Johnson said in the release.

Being active in the community has been significant in the office’s business philosophy. According to partner Brad Schmidt, the law office’s members are a part of service clubs, nonprofit boards and civic communities.

“We choose to support community causes because it makes this a better place for our team and our clients,” Schmidt said in the release.

The community-driven mindset is at play in how the partners practice law as well. The office operates as a team, working together to strengthen the work they do.

“When you hire the firm, you get all of us. We work on things together, supporting one another so no one person carries the whole burden,” partner Brandon Zumwalt said in the release.

The Marv Otto Award was established after the death of Marv Otto in 2009 and honored its first recipient in 2012. Otto was well-known as an Atwater resident and business leader and established endowments at the Willmar Area Community Foundation to help support the people and communities he loved.

The award recognizes those who personify Otto’s generosity and work to strengthen the community with an endowment or irrevocable estate gift.

C. Suzanne Thomson Torgerson, widely known as Suzie, was known for her business skill, willingness to pitch in, her fashion flair and her generosity. During her lifetime, she was involved in the community in a variety of ways.

“Tucson, North Carolina, Willmar… her faith led her to be active at soup kitchens, schools and church bazaars. When she got involved she did so with great energy and love and always gave fully, never halfway,” her daughter Lynn Johnson said in the news release.

Torgerson was involved with many charitable organizations, including Safe Avenues, an organization focused on helping make the community safer for women and children. Safe Avenues recognized her through the Hope for Tomorrow award in 2012.

She also established charitable legacies at the Willmar Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, Rice Care Center with Suzie’s Salon for residents and many other entities through the Torgerson Family Charitable Fund at the Willmar Area Community Foundation.

“Mom carried red glass hearts with her every day. She’d gift one to someone saying ‘know that you are very loved. Keep this heart to remind yourself how loved you are, when someone needs this more than you, pass it on.’ To this day our family hears stories of the red glass hearts Mom gave at a moment it was most needed,” Johnson said.

The Willmar Area Community Foundation attracts and administers charitable giving for the benefit of the local Willmar area. Since 1998, the organization has grown to nearly $29.5 million in assets and awarded $15.5 million in grants to nonprofits. The organization is run by a local board of directors and is a partner of CommunityGiving, a network of community foundations united under a single framework to create efficiencies that maximize the impact of donors.

The Oct. 10 awards event is sold out, but those interested in being added to the wait list may call 320-235-4380 or complete the online RSVP at communitygiving.org/events.