LIMA — Lima native Erin Hardesty grew up with the mindset to help others.
“I took example from my dad, Knobby Walsh, who was always involved in the Lima community and charitable endeavors,” she said. “He encouraged me from a young age to look for organizations that give a hand up and not a hand out.”
Hardesty has been nominated for a Jefferson Award for her volunteer work in the community by Angie Clark for her work with Sertoma and William White for her work with The United Way.
Clark’s nomination said, “I believe Erin should be nominated because of her love of the Lima Community. … She is always willing to go the extra mile to volunteer her time for the Lima community.”
At one time Hardesty was involved in many more charities and volunteer organizations, but 10 years ago she realized she was spread too thin so she evaluated which organizations to focus on based on what her dad taught her.
“He stressed that if you give someone a hand out you are not helping them and he truly believed that a hand out made people feel worse about themselves because it wasn’t learned or earned,” she said.
Hardesty has been in the banking world for several years and also credits that with her work with charitable organizations.
“I’ve been in banking since the ’70s,” she said. “I took a break to have kids but then in ‘90 I wanted to have a career again. I spoke with my then manager, Angie Clark, about being an officer for the bank and she sat me down and gave me a whole plan. Part of it was to give back to the community and join a service club. Another officer in the bank was already involved with Sertoma and they took me as their guest and I jumped right in.”
Sertoma is an organization that, among other things, helps to pay for speech therapy through the summer months so that the children stay on track, among other things.
“Parents put $5 in because they need to feel an ownership as well, but the therapy is quite expensive and so we are helping the parents out but also giving a hand up to the kids who need it continuously throughout the year,” she said.
Sertoma’s celebrating its 60th pancake day this year.
“It’s our main fundraiser. One of the first ones I went to. My son came to help, he was in middle school I think,” she said. “The bowl mixer that we mix the batter in is very, very heavy but my son was tall and helped all day. The next day he could hardly move.”
She started with United Way as a “worker bee.”
“I helped deliver campaign materials to five or six businesses and explained to them what was in the packets, etc,” she said. “From there, I was asked to be involved in the Leadership Campaign and most of the time I spearheaded the Pilots or the Pacesetter Campaigns.”
Eventually she agreed to be the Campaign Chair and said “that was the most rewarding position I’ve had with United Way.”
Hardesty made a point to meet with every single campaign chair and learn what each of them did and how they benefited the Lima area.
She remembers it as a heartbreaking and intense experience, “it’s a real eye-opener. I really, really, really understood at that time, everything we were supporting with those dollars and how that impacts the Lima Community.”
But she added, “I had a blast developing my own style with the campaign making it a rock and roll theme.”
She loves Aerosmith and made “Walk This Way” the theme song for the event with the slogan being, Rock this Way for United Way. Her campaign raised a little more than $2 million and she reflects that it was worth every minute working for this organization and the campaign.
“I’ve gone on to help in every campaign since in some capacity, generally serving on the Leadership Campaign,” she said. “I’ve served on the board for the last three years. I’m up for Board Chair in 2019-2020.”
Bill White said in his nomination for Hardesty, “I don’t really like to use the term, ‘body of work’, but she’s done so many major things. You point to something here for one person and something else for someone else but for her it’s the complete work. She’s worked for United Way, scholarship programs, work with both hospitals St. Rita’s and Memorial, Sertoma and speech and hearing projects, many are ongoing things. She initiated and spearheaded many of them and she has complete involvement. She has served as an officer, been president twice, secretary or chairman of the board, she does this and that and they are all big things. The professional groups she works with and promotes the community from every aspect, volunteering, educational and money wise and does it with great professionalism.”
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