College foundation elects leadership. 

College foundation elects leadership. 

VICTORY TOWNSHIP — The West Shore Community College Foundation recently held its annual meeting and elected its board officers. Each officer was elected to a one-year term.

The board of directors will be led by Mark Sandstedt as chairman, Gary Ferguson as vice chairman, and Dan LaMore as secretary/treasurer.

“The college’s foundation truly makes a difference in students’ lives by providing scholarships and funding in support of quality academic programming,” Sandstedt said. “The college is a leader in driving the region’s economy and I’m honored to help lead an organization that exists to help students succeed, which in turn also drives a healthy local economy.”

Sandstedt has served on the board for the past four years. Along with his wife, he owns MS Creative Services, a full service marketing agency in Manistee. He is active in the community and is the president of the Manistee Chippewa 350 Athletic Boosters Club and is a board member of the Industrial Development Corporation.

Ferguson is a retired engineer who was employed for 25 years at Metalworks in Ludington and Fab-Lite in Manistee.  He is active in the community having organized and supervised the Ludington Youth Sailing School, a non-profit school for children. He is also on the Mason County Veterans Endowment Board that serves emergency needs for honorably discharged Mason County veterans and is a frequent Ludington State Park volunteer.

LaMore is a senior vice president for the Christman Company construction managers which has 10 offices throughout the Midwest. The company has completed many projects in Mason, Manistee and Oceana counties. LaMore has homes in Pentwater and Onekama and serves on several voluntary boards including Habitat for Humanity and Mission Development International from Nashville.

Carolyn Schnepel, of Ludington, and Deborah Smith Olsen, of Baldwin, were reelected to a new term on the board. The remaining board members are Mike Ennis, Tom Paine, Brian Pyrah, Jim Scatena, Ron Steiner, Willie Reed, William Roach, Richard M. Wilson, Jr., and Zelal Umran.

James Barker stepped down as a board member and the foundation presented a service award to him for his leadership since May 2014. He remains on the college’s board of trustees.  Barker, who is a 1993 alumnus of the college, is the president of Munson Healthcare Manistee Hospital.

The mission of the foundation is to develop and provide resources to advance the college’s mission of serving students and the community.