Laura Sievert honored with 25th annual Joe Bonansinga Community Service Award

QUINCY — United Way of Adams County, Inc., and the Rotary Club of Quincy honored Laura Sievert with the 2022 Joe Bonansinga Community Service Award during the Rotary Club’s noon meeting Tuesday at the Holiday Inn, 4821 Oak.

The Joe Bonansinga Community Service Award was established in 1998 by United Way of Adams County and Rotary to recognize an individual who exemplifies the highest standards of community service. The award is named for the first recipient, Joe Bonansinga, more commonly known as “Mr. Quincy.” A panel of individuals representing former award winners, United Way Board members and members of the Rotary Club evaluated the nominations.

In a press release, Jeremy Wingerter, CEO of United Way of Adams County said, “Each one of the nominees this year is a shining example of why this community is so incredibly special. Mrs. Sievert, and her extensive list of community activism, shows us how one person can make a difference in their community. As difficult as this process is each year, all nominees should be proud of Laura’s impact across our area.”

Among the highlights of Laura’s service are:

• Blood donation program leader, founder of a blood donor team in top 1% in the nation.
• TEDx organizer, speaker.
• Trees for Tomorrow (currently president).
• Co-founder of 100 Women Who Care philanthropy group.
• Past president of Quincy Bicycle Club and founder of the Ride of Silence – honoring those hit or killed.
• Executive board member of local Arts Network for the Illinois Arts Council.
• Adams County Health Department Volunteer (scheduling vaccine appointments, going out on mobile vaccine teams, creating public health messaging artwork).
• Member of Sew Essential group that made over 1,000 facemasks through the pandemic.
• Initiated the STEAM projects for take-home art during the pandemic.
• Muralist (most recently the Baldwin School mural she designed) and spearheaded the Celebration of Education sculpture series that can be seen at each of the Quincy public school buildings.
• Musician (Park Band and Quincy Concert Band are both all-volunteer musicians).
• Frequent volunteer at arts organization events (Q-Fest, Art Fest, Quincy Community Theatre usher,
  school arts projects, wrote major capital grant for Historical Society, fundraisers, etc.).
• Speaker at community events and workshops like the Diversity and Inclusion Summit in 2021 and
  Women Empowered in 2021. National speaker at the National Main Street Conference, Ignite for Arts
  Conference, World of Speakers podcast.
• University of Iowa alumni band mentor, volunteer, organizer.
• Organize yearly farm clean up at Terripin Farms (Donated 2,000+ pounds of veggies in past two years).

Her education includes a master’s degree in public policy from Mizzou and undergraduate degrees from the University of Iowa, and four graduate certificates (diversity equity and inclusion certificate from
Northwestern, management of arts and culture organizations from University of Maryland, nonprofit
leadership from State University of New York, microeconomics from University of Illinois).

Past recipients of the Joe Bonansinga Community Service Award are:

• 1998 Joe Bonansinga
• 1999 Harry and Carlene Geisler
• 2000 Carla Gosney
• 2001 Rocky and Rhonda Murry
• 2002 Rev. Tim White
• 2003 Tony and Signe Oakley
• 2004 Carolyn and Steve Hagood
• 2005 Chuck Scholz
• 2006 Hermann Schneidmann
• 2007 Darrell Peacher
• 2008 H.W. Knapheide
• 2009 Lee Lindsay Curtis
• 2010 Kathy Ridder
• 2011 George Meyer
• 2012 Terry Myers
• 2013 Becky Albert
• 2014 Michael Klingner
• 2015 Brad Billings
• 2016 Paul Brown
• 2017 Jeff Spear
• 2018 Mike Elbe
• 2019 Charles C. Doan
• 2020 Phil Conover
• 2021 Joe Henning