Member Spotlight

Sonny Marks

What are volunteer roles that you hold currently, including with the Hector San Miguel Fund, and what motivates you to be engaged?

Hector and I worked face-to-face in cubicles for most of my 11 years working in the American Press newsroom. He got sick after I left for law school in 2004, and I knew he was sick, but his death in 2009 was still a shock to me. As I sat at his visitation next to friends who were fellow members of the local newspaper community, I realized how much I missed this man and how attached I still was to the newspaper we all put out every day. Something welled up in me that night to want to create an initiative in Hector's memory. I mentioned it to Louise, and she mentioned a friend of ours, Helen Lowery, who was a law school friend who had just gone to work with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. I reached out to Helen, and she in turn pointed me back to the Community Foundation SWLA. Work on the memorial fund began in the months following Hector's passing.

I am a lay minister at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, where Louise and I attend.

What inspires you to make an annual contribution each year to be an Annual Member of the Foundation?

I appreciate that the Community Foundation facilitates the Hector Fund, and I appreciate the time and effort that Sara gives to it. Debra Vaughn has been with us going back to our first memorial fund luncheon in 2010. Jill Galmarini used her connections in Charleston, where she lived previously, to help us connect to our speaker Autumn Phillips.

When you think about the work of the Foundation, what are some adjectives or phrases that come to mind?

Responsive to the needs of our community.

Tell us about this year’s Hector San Miguel Fund program and why you think this will bring value to SWLA.

We're like most communities around the country and the world which have lost a level of local journalism since the advent of the internet upended the business model. The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. has teamed with foundations there to support journalism throughout South Carolina, in small and large communities alike. Sara and Mark Judson saw this featured on CBS Sunday Morning, and from that, we reached out to The Post and Courier to come tell us its story so as to hopefully plant some seeds in our community. We appreciate that Post and Courier Editor Autumn Phillips is coming, and we are excited to see what discussions will arise from what she shares.