Mahoning County resident one of 6 Ohio residents selected for community service award
Mahoning County resident Patricia “Patty” Summers is one of six Ohioans selected to receive a 2024 Jenco Award.
The Jenco Awards are a partnership between the Jenco Foundation Fund and the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio to recognize and celebrate Appalachian Ohio residents who go and above beyond in service to others outside of their paid positions.
Each recipient is nominated by fellow community members and exemplifies the difference residents can all make when helping neighbors and building community.
Youngstown Blue Coats
Summers was first inspired by previous volunteer work with a nonprofit more than an hour away from her home.
In 2017, Summers started helping individuals experiencing homelessness in her Mahoning Valley community.
She is the founder, president and CEO of Youngstown Blue Coats, a nonprofit organization whose mission is: “In America, nobody should freeze to death.”
Summers saw a need for volunteers committed to serving homeless individuals by identifying where they live and bringing assistance directly to them.
Youngstown Blue Coats collects and distributes warming items – everything from clothing to tents – to both the sheltered and unsheltered homeless during the winter, ensuring they are warm and dry.
Over the years, Summers has broadened the organization’s reach, partnering with more than 60 area agencies to provide additional resources and expanding its service area to several school districts.
What Summers started in her home is now a network of support that last year served a record-breaking 3,600 individuals living under bridges, on the streets and in the woods of the Mahoning Valley. One in five of those served are U.S. veterans.
Jenko Awards history
“Through their service, visionary leadership and caring nature, all of these individuals make the lives of others, their communities and our world better,” said Michelle Shively MacIver, Jenco Foundation committee member. “Their impact will be felt for generations and inspires each of us to make a difference in our daily lives.”
The Jenco Foundation and the Jenco Awards uphold the legacy of Father Lawrence Martin Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest who dedicated his life to serving others.
In 1985, Father Jenco was kidnapped while serving as director of Catholic Relief Services in Lebanon and spent 19 months in captivity. Even in confinement, Father Jenco continued to serve, providing a listening ear for other detainees, including journalist Terry Anderson.
In 2001, Anderson founded the Jenco Foundation to honor the legacy of his friend. In 2011, the Jenco Foundation joined FAO as an endowment, ensuring that Father Jenco’s legacy would live on in perpetuity. The Jenco Awards celebrate individuals who, like Father Jenco, have made a difference through community service and visionary leadership.
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