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Sunday, September 27, 2009 Lifetime of volunteering recognized Sunday, September 27, 2009
By BETHANY TABB btabb@thecouriertimes.com Anyone who knows Herb Bunch has heard him repeat a famous Harry S. Truman quote: "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." Even before he knew who first said it, the New Castle man decided to make that statement his life's goal. He even has notecards printed with the quote to serve as reminders. It's a statement he believes sums up true volunteerism. "If you're going out and you're looking for credit just for you, that's the wrong reason," he said. "You've got to be thinking about what you can try to help people accomplish. That's what I've tried to do." Bunch wasn't looking for recognition, but he recently received some when he was named the winner of Henry County United Fund's annual Danielson Humanitarian Award. Each year, United Fund asks the community to submit nominations for the award. Executive Director Jenny Dennis said as she looked through this year's nominations, Bunch stood out among the rest. She pointed to his financial philanthropy as well as his willingness to volunteer. "He has a huge impact on Henry County," she said. To Bunch, volunteering is his way of paying back a community that's been good to him. He says every opportunity he's had came from the kindness of other people. Those kindnesses began as he grew up in Henry County. His father passed away when Bunch was a teenager, and his mother was left with three children to raise on their own. Money was tight, and for nearly 10 years his family didn't even have a car. But Bunch said people he knew from school and church stepped up to help him. Later when he wanted to go to college, it seemed impossible. But then a man from Chicago helped pay his expenses so he could attend Wabash College. Back then it wasn't considered a scholarship, he said, but was more like a stipend. His education was interrupted when he left Wabash to fight for more than a year with the U.S. Army in Korea. When he returned, he eventually earned a degree in education from Ball State University. After teaching in Lebanon, he earned his master's degree and spent the next 12 years working with handicapped children and adults at New Castle State Hospital. Then one day he talked to the superintendent of New Castle Community School Corp., who needed a principal for the seventh-grade building. He took that position and was principal until he retired 24 years later. Then the opportunity arose for him to become executive director of the Henry County Community Foundation. So he worked for the foundation from 1994 to 2000. "Every time I've turned around, I've had opportunities," he said, "but it's because of people and associating with people and building relationships with people." Bunch never forgot those opportunities, and he decided the best way to pay those people back was through volunteering his time. The first thing he did was join the New Castle Noon Optimist Club, where he's still a member today. Once he joined that organization, it snowballed. Other clubs asked him to help, Bunch said, and he has a hard time saying no. Over the years, he's served on the Henry County United Fund board, the Indiana Public Radio advisory board, the Comprehensive Mental Health Association and practically every board in Henry County. He's also served on just about every board possible at First Presbyterian Church, where he's currently an elder. Working with people is his true passion, he said, and many organizations are about the same, he said. That makes it easy to do as much or as little as you want. "I guess I looked at it as a challenge, to give of myself ad give something in the way of experience," he said. "Once you get experience in a leadership role, it carries over to other organizations." Jerry Schaeffer, current executive director of the Community Foundation, met Bunch when he hired her as his secretary. Since then, he's been her mentor for the past 10 years. Schaeffer said Bunch taught her about philanthropy and what it means to be a volunteer. He also connected her with community organizations like United Fund. That's why she nominated him for the Danielson Humanitarian award, she said. "I think it just comes so naturally for him," she said. "He's taught me the more you give, the more you get." |
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