CVS Samaritan Award
When Bob Fortney and his wife, Ruth, saw the children in need at the Berea Children’s Home, they couldn’t help but do something. It started with taking children into their own home as weekend parents, and then quickly escalated into a much bigger commitment to charities, not just locally but nationally.
In just the last five years, Fortney and his general contracting company, Fortney & Weygandt Inc., have provided average annual contributions in excess of $300,000, for a five-year total of more than $1.5 million.
Fortney always does exhaustive research of any potential charity he will give to so that he can be sure that a high percentage of the financial contributions are in fact going to support the charitable program rather than administration and fundraising.
If you need to see what effect all his donations have, all you have to do is see the look on the children’s faces when they come to his office from the Cleveland Christian Home. They deliver their thanks by way of hand-painted original artwork, which are then displayed throughout the Fortney & Weygandt offices so that employees can see what their support has meant.
Fortney focuses a lot of his donations on causes that benefit children, including the aforementioned Cleveland Christian Home and the Cleveland Scholarship Programs. He lends his support to the latter organization by sponsoring the Jimmy Malone Golf Classic, which raises money for the scholarships. These scholarships are awarded to children who do not have the means to attend college otherwise.
Giving back is also a family activity for Fortney. In December 2006, he established the Fortney Foundation with his wife and four daughters, with the goal of assisting various charitable organizations while teaching his daughters the value of giving to others. To date, he has placed more than $2 million into the fund to be portioned out at a later time. Donations have benefited local charities, such as the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Ohio, as well as national charities such as St. Jude Children’s Research Center, Jewelers for Children, World Wildlife Fund and the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.
His employees also contribute to the cause and can be found running in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, bowling to benefit Junior Achievement or manning the phones at the local offices of National Public Radio.
How to reach: Fortney & Weygandt, (440) 716-4000 or www.fortneyweygandt.com