Photos of 12 Wisdom Keepers — From left to right top to bottom are the previous Wisdom Keeper honorees: Charlotte “Chuckie” Holstein and Judy Mower; Rev. Jim Mathews; Maarten Jacobs and Melanie Littlejohn; Bethaida “Bea” Gonzalez; Oren Lyons; Sharon Brangman, MD; Cornelius “Neil” Murphy; Sean Kirst; Bill Sanford; Nancy Cantor

See the list and links to bios of Wisdom Keepers here

Thank You Central New York

CLICK HERE FOR WISDOM KEEPER 2020 VIDEO

The year 2020 was like no other, and so is Wisdom Keeper 2020. FOCUS and the entire community made sacrifices to cope with a pandemic. That was particularly hard for the highly engaged people who work every day to keep our community running and embrace the FOCUS mission to enhance the quality of life and future of this region.

Because we could not celebrate in one place and because getting through 2020 required extra effort, creativity and cooperation from so many people FOCUS Greater Syracuse honors for 2020 the Central New York Community for Service, Resilience & Innovation in the face of COVID. FOCUS invited the entire community to acknowledge the accomplishment in a virtual recognition event January 27, 2021.

Here are the sponsors of the event who with their support have helped FOCUS provide its many community engagement efforts.

Syracuse University, The Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation, KS&R and Rita Reicher, Wegmans, C&S Cos., Partnership Properties, and Dannible & McKee are major sponsors.

Bousquet Holstein, Barclay Damon, Centerstate CEO, FM Realty, The Gifford Foundation, Hueber Breuer, KeyBank, King + King Architects LLP, Onondaga Community College Foundation, St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, NHSmith Consulting, and Bentleyhoke also are sponsors.

Wisdom Keeper 2019

Wisdom Keeper Melanie Littlejohn speaks at the Everson. — Wisdom Keeper Melanie Littlejohn speaks.

Melanie Littlejohn and Maarten Jacobs. — Melanie Littlejohn and Maarten Jacobs are the 2019 Wisdom Keepers.

THE WISDOM KEEPERS’ MESSAGE

See the 2019 sponsors here

Chess game at Wisdom Keeper — Yoko Ono’s exhibit at the Everson inspires a Wisdom Keeper chess game.

A chess game at Wisdom Keeper — One good chess move.

Chess game at the Everson — One good chess move.

Melanie Littlejohn and friends — 2019 Wisdom Keeper Melanie Littlejohn

2019 Wisdom Keeper Maarten Jacobs and family — Maarten Jacobs and family

Wisdom Keepers
Bea Gonzalez and Melanie Littlejohn with Karin Franklin King

Melanie Littlejohn and Maarten Jacobs at the Barnes Hiscock Home with Mylz Blake and Eric Jackson and Black Cub Productions. To see the Wisdom Keepers’ video **CLICK HERE**.

The Board of Directors of FOCUS Greater Syracuse Inc. celebrated community strength at the Everson Museum of Art, Oct. 2, 2019, with the two Wisdom Keepers for 2019: Melanie Littlejohn and Maarten Jacobs. These Wisdom Keepers join a long list of people who have shown leadership, continual caring and an understanding of the importance of the vision for tomorrow.

Melanie Littlejohn is vice president for New York Customer & Community Management at National Grid and chair of the Centerstate CEO Board of Directors.

A thought leader and a visionary, Melanie joined National Grid in 1994 as the director of inclusion and diversity for U.S. operations responsible for the company’s overall strategy for inclusion and diversity and compliance, a mission she carries on today in community as well as business roles.

She is former chair of the CNY Community Foundation Board and has served on the Business Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, MACNY, Consensus Commission, boards at SUNY Morrisville Business School and St. Joseph’s Hospital, the Downtown Committee, and the Say Yes to Education Scholarship Board. She is a member of the OCC Board of Trustees and on the board of Pathfinder Bancorp. She has been active with HealtheConnections and other health organizations.

Maarten Jacobs is the Director of Community Prosperity at the Allyn Family Foundation. He is co-developing a Community Prosperity Initiative to disrupt concentrated poverty in neighborhoods by empowering residents to fulfill their potential, contributing to the wellbeing of their families and revitalization of their neighborhoods.

Before joining Allyn Family Foundation, he was executive director of the Near Westside Initiative, a nonprofit organization working to combine the power of art, technology, and innovation with neighborhood values and culture to revitalize Syracuse’s Near Westside, also known as the SALT District. In that role for seven years, Maarten worked to ensure that neighborhood residents were engaged in the revitalization. Early in the process in 2010, he was a featured presenter at a FOCUS Forum introducing the initiative.

He teaches Community Economic Development at the Syracuse University School of Social Work. In January 2016 he received the Martin Luther King JR Unsung Hero award at Syracuse University.

Tapping their creativity and drive to improve Central New York, Melanie and Maarten asked that the 2019 Wisdom Keeper event be a celebration bringing together all parts of the community in a community venue.

Wisdom Keeper 2018

WISDOM KEEPER 2018

The 2018 FOCUS Wisdom Keeper Sean Kirst celebrated with us by honoring the people of Central New York who made his storytelling career possible. A throng of remarkable people with memorable stories joined us in the Finger Lakes Ballroom of the Marriott Downtown Syracuse (Historic Hotel Syracuse) to tell their stories at the event.

You can see the plaque honoring Wisdom Sean Kirst “Storyteller” alongside the plaques honoring previous Citizen Trustee Wisdom Keepers in the mini-garden on the east side of City Hall Commons.