Caring hearts build strong communities. The people of the Lenawee community display profound care throughout the entire year.
The Lenawee Community Foundation (LCF) continually celebrates donors, volunteers, community members, past award recipients, and everyone who shares their hearts, assets, skills, or time to build a better Lenawee.
LCF’s Annual Celebration brings together local individuals, organizations, and businesses to recognize and honor this year’s award recipients along with the work of donors, volunteers, and community partners.
This year, LCF is also celebrating the incredible generosity of the Lenawee community that has transformed the Health, Happiness, and Hope Fund (H3 Fund) into a reality. Together, the bold goal of raising $2 million by the end of 2024 was not only met but exceeded! This speaks volumes about the caring and generous spirit that makes Lenawee such a remarkable community – collectively creating something transformative: a flexible, local resource to meet needs and opportunities as they arise, now and for generations to come.
On Thursday, April 17th, two individuals and two couples who excel beyond community expectation will be celebrated and honored.
The Lenawee Lifetime Legacy Award recognizes individuals, couples, and families who have given exemplary service and commitment to the Lenawee County community. The award honors consistent, lifetime giving to multiple local causes for a minimum of twenty years.
Gary and Cindi Gray are the 2025 recipients of the prestigious Lenawee Lifetime Legacy Award. The Grays have big hearts for our community and for others, especially children. Nearly 35 years ago, they created Hot Rock Basketball Training Camp to teach basketball and life lessons all with no charge to attend this camp. Gary has been an assistant varsity basketball coach and Lenawee Christian School Board member. He is CEO of Gray Institute and Director of Program Development and Education at 3DPT Physical Therapy. He is world-renowned in the fields of physical therapy, functional movement, and sport training.
Cindi volunteered and taught at the Adrian Training School for 20 years. She has shared her skill of sign language in churches, schools, as well as at Gray Institute. She has served on the Crisis Pregnancy Board and volunteered at HOPE Community Center. Cindi has also written a historical fiction book, Locust in the Sandbox, about the 1963 bombing of a Black church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four girls.
The Grays are kind and considerate, genuine and authentic, quietly living their values through actions that serve others. They have big hearts for our community and for others, especially children. They embody all that the Lenawee Lifetime Legacy Award represents through their lifetime of giving to multiple local causes for more than 40 years.
Robert L. Vogel is the recipient of the 2025 Lenawee Leadership Award. The Lenawee Leadership Award honors a person or couple, who exemplify the underlying principle that the future of our county will be determined by the quality of its leadership. Formerly known as the Maple Leaf Award, previous recipients continue to be recognized and are listed on the Foundation’s website. The award has a county-wide focus that mirrors the Lenawee Community Foundation’s mission: to connect people who care with causes that matter, bringing HEALTH, HAPPINESS, and HOPE to our community, now and forever.
Vogel graduated as salutatorian from Clinton High School. He worked at Hardwoods of Michigan in the village of Clinton for 43 years, serving as vice president for nine years and president for 20 years, while also serving as president for Walker Lumber Bigler, PA, and vice president of Kansas City Hardwoods, MO. He was named one of the 50 most influential people in the hardwood industry in North America in 2010.
Vogel has served the Lenawee community on numerous boards and committees. He served on the Herrick Hospital Development Board, the ProMedica Herrick Hospital Board, and the ProMedica North Region Board, Lenawee Intermediate School District Board.
He currently serves on the boards of Hospice of Lenawee (since 2013), Habitat for Humanity of Lenawee County (Treasurer), Sam Beaufort Woodworking Institute (charter board member), and the Lenawee Community Foundation (since 1999).
Vogel is a member of the Lenawee Cares Pillars Club and helped start the Clinton Area Fund. He is a charter member, active participant, and donator to the Hunters Helping Lenawee initiative which donated a record 5,185 pounds of venison to the Lenawee community for the 2024-25 hunting season.
Vogel believes you can go far in life without leaving town through involvement in your community and its causes. He works hard for our community and quietly lives each day as an example of the quality of leadership that determines a positive future for our county.
Dr. Stanley and Karen Caine are the recipients of the 2025 Stubnitz Award. The Stubnitz Award is presented annually to a person or couple demonstrating exemplary commitment to Lenawee Cares, our community, and volunteerism in Lenawee. The award is named in memory of Lenawee’s philanthropist and businessman, Maurice Stubnitz.
Dr. Caine and his wife, Karen, moved to Adrian with their children, Rebecca, Kathryn, and David, in June of 1989 when Dr. Caine assumed the position of President of Adrian College. Both Stan and Karen come from families who believed in service to others. They also believe that community members should work as a team for the benefit of all. Adrian welcomed them to the team.
Since coming to Adrian, the Caines have been members of the Adrian United Methodist Church and have volunteered with Meals on Wheels and Share the Warmth.
As president of Adrian College through 2005, Dr. Caine made efforts to connect the college with the community. He was a member of the NCAA President’s Council which allowed him to ensure that athletes in Division III had access to sports. He was a member of the Rotary Club and served with the Lenawee Community Foundation as part of the Investment Committee and the Lenawee County Educational Foundation.
Karen has been a member of the church choir, brass ensemble, and bell choir. For 16 years, Karen served as a coach for both high school girls and college women’s tennis. She also served as a substitute teacher for the Adrian school system. Karen has served on the Board of Housing Help since the 1990s, including spending time as President. She was a member of the Adrian Symphony Orchestra Board and has been a member of the Stubnitz Foundation Board since 2006, including being the current president.
The Caines are especially honored to receive this award since they had the opportunity to meet Dorothy Stubnitz before her passing. They also feel blessed that their service has given them the opportunity to meet people with whom they wouldn’t normally connect, and the chance to learn from diverse perspectives.
The Caines are Lenawee Cares Pillars Club members and have demonstrated exemplary commitment to Lenawee County and the cause for volunteerism in the Lenawee community for decades – so much so that following his retirement from Adrian College, they remained in Adrian and continue to call it home. They are kind, thoughtful, generous and do good wherever they can to help others and make a difference.
The 2025 Incito Award recipient is Jacob B. Wright. Incito means to inspire, excite, spur, increase, hasten, urge forward. The Incito Award was established in 2011 to recognize a young person, age 40 or under, who has emerged as a community leader and demonstrates a commitment to volunteerism, philanthropy, and leadership in our community.
Wright is a Tecumseh High School graduate who pursued architecture earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan. He is an Architect/Project Manager at Krieghoff-Lenawee Co, licensed in both Michigan and Ohio. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), National Council of Architecture Registration Board (NCARB), the Tecumseh Public Schools CTE Advisory Committee.
Wright serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors of Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Michigan, the Lenawee County Land Bank Authority Board of Directors, the Vice Chair of the Charter Township of Raisin, and Zoning Board of Appeals.
Wright inspires by example while making our community a better place in which to work and live. He follows his passion and thrives on doing good in his community. He inspires others with this passion; when he sees a need he wants to fix it and doesn’t let obstacles slow him down.
Wright is very involved with the Kiwanis Club of Tecumseh, serving on the Board of Directors and several committees. He revived the Canoe Race and chairs the Canoe Race committee, putting all he has into this community effort to bring everyone together for a family-friendly event.
He takes risks and puts it all on the line. He enjoys the challenge and strives to make things better. He feels fortunate to be born and raised in Lenawee County and strives to make it even better where he can so his daughters can grow up with the same pride in the Lenawee community.
There is so much to celebrate in Lenawee County! Join the Lenawee Community Foundation’s Annual Celebration breakfast on Thursday, April 17, from 7:45-9:15 a.m. at the Adrian Armory Events Center. Tickets are $20 and include breakfast. Reservations and payment are due by April 8 and can be made by contacting the Foundation at 517.263.4696.
Join the Foundation in celebrating our community, its members, and businesses. Connecting people who care with causes that matter for the love of Lenawee. Now and forever.
To donate, volunteer, or get involved with one of the Foundation’s many community programs, call 517.263.4696 or visit: lenaweecommunityfoundation.com
