Family & Children’s Service of Nashville honors
Jean Ann and Barry Banker’s Purpose-filled Life of Giving
written by Cathy Stewart Brown
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Feb. 28, 2015 — Jean Ann and Barry Banker give enormous commitment and visionary leadership wherever they become involved in community service projects in Nashville as well as Stewart Home & School. Family & Children’s Services of Nashville honored the Bankers with the Jane Eskind Leadership Award for leading “purpose-filled lives” at the annual Winter Lights celebration on Feb. 28. Over 350 guests, including the Bankers’ children and spouses (P.G. and Leah, Ann Stewart and Pearson, and James) gathered to recognize the Bankers at the Vanderbilt Student Life Center.
“Both Jean Ann and Barry Banker are remarkable people who have given a tremendous amount of support to the community throughout the years,” said Michael McSurdy, president of FCS. “We are excited to celebrate their continuous commitment to publicly endorsing the greater good of the community through their many leadership roles, countless hours of service and dedication of resources. We are truly thankful for their efforts,” he said. Upon receiving the award, Barry stated “ We never know what we do in our work that will be remembered. We hope it has everything to do with faith, vision and love that we bring to our work and that our lives have been enriched by what we do.” At Stewart Home & School, we see first hand how Barry and Jean Ann strive to bring the best care to our students, to develop an outstanding program and home for our students, and to build a team of dedicated individuals to enrich the lives of our students each and every day.
The award is named for Louisville native and former Tennessee governor candidate Jane Eskind who has lived a dedicated and a purpose-filled life through her strong community leadership and legacy of service at Family & Children’s Service.
Family and Children’s Service is one of Nashville’s oldest non-profit agencies serving the Nashville area community for over 70 years. The mission of FCS is to connect individuals and families to hope, to healing, and to one another. Family & Children’s Service serves all people in crisis and transition by meeting them where they are, understanding their needs, and providing them with the resources they need. FCS often ‘fills in the gaps’ in social services, creating a safety net to ensure that all children and families can be safe, healthy, and connected. Each year FCS provides direct services to more than 32,000 clients, and phone-based crisis and referral services to another 200,000 Tennesseans.
Stewart Home & School is a residential school for people of all ages with special needs. The mission of Stewart Home & School is the complete and total care of its students and the fulfillment of all their needs – physical, educational, social, vocational and spiritual. The faculty of the school program has experience with the learning styles of people with Autism, Down’s syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, and Williams syndrome, as well as other intellectual disability diagnoses. It is the objective of the school program to create successful learning experiences for all students and to consistently reinforce the students’ enthusiastic motivation for participation and further growth. There are high expectations for each individual and it is a joy to see successes celebrated each day!