The Friday Food Bag Foundation will be saying goodbye to a pair of long-time board members whose terms have completed.their terms on the board in December 2019.
Sharon Gostovich is leaving the board after spending six years on the Friday Food Bag Foundation Board of Directors, acting as the board’s secretary since Feb. of 2017. More recently, Gostovich’s service has included a very successful stint as the organization’s grant writer. In 2019, Gostovich, a certified public accountant who ran the WYDOT Fuel Tax Program until her retirement in Dec. of 2011, penned grant applications totaling more than $56,000 in grants to the Friday Food Bag Foundation.
In addition to Gostovich, Joseph Marek is also leaving the board in December. Marek is an Investment Advisor Representative working at RBC Capital who has served on the board for six years. If there is a charitable benefit being held in Cheyenne, chances are Marek is there. One of Cheyenne’s great philanthropists, Marek has been a staple at Friday Food Bag fundraisers in addition to his work on the board.
“I had a lot of fun and I look forward to being a long-term supporter,” Marek says.
The Friday Foodbag Board of Directors is in the process of interviewing new board members after taking in a number of applications this summer. The board slots will be filled by the organization’s January Board of Directors meeting.
The Friday Food Bag Foundation board did welcome Air Force Captain Matthew Larson to the board during its Oct. 10 meeting. Larson fills a vacancy left by Haley Hornbeck, who left the board this summer. Larson is a native Texan and a graduate of Baylor University who is working on his graduate degree from Dallas Seminary. He has been in Cheyenne for just over a year and has volunteered to help The Friday Food Bag Board with grant writing after Gostovich’s retirement from the Board. Larson says he has attended Friday Food Bag fillings and said it inspired him to take a larger role.
“As a logistician I loved the technical challenge of filling the volume of bags we did that night and as a seminary student I loved the focus on helping some of our most vulnerable neighbors,” he says. “The need can seem overwhelming but if we focus on the small things, we can make a big difference.”