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Foundation honors vision of a woman
Brenda Dick and Mary Paquesi both of Lake Forest. | Photo by Daniela Resendiz~For Sun-Times Media
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Acorns dropped from trees on a late-summer evening, as a party started at Grace Groner’s cottage home in Lake Forest on Sept. 6.
Bill Marlatt and Bob Pasquesi, trustees of the Grace Elizabeth Groner Foundation, manned the grill, browning brats while Bob’s wife, Mary, created delicious desserts. Groner recipients and others shared stories of how they have benefited from their generous namesake.
One was Camila Quinteros, who interned at the Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest and also enjoyed two architecture internships outside of Illinois.
“The Grace Groner Foundation helped, and still helps, me with finding unique internships,” she said. “I have been able to work in places where they had never had an intern before, places where I have been able to shadow the best professionals in my field, and in projects that were 100 percent my responsibility.”
Seven-million bequest
The program is the result of a $7 million bequest by Grace Elizabeth Groner, a 1931 graduate of the college, who died in 2010 at the age of 100. The program commemorates her belief in young people, her desire to enrich their education and future and her commitment to the students of Lake Forest College.
Daniela Resendiz, director of the Grace Elizabeth Groner Foundation, praised many for their involvement.
“Brenda Dick and Gorton Community Center was one of the first that created opportunities provide outstanding internship and service project opportunities while following in Grace’s wishes of serving the community,” she said. “The members of the First Presbyterian Church have been supportive and eager to work with our Groner recipients. Grace was a member of the church and would be smiling to see us work with the church that was her home for so many years.”~.
