Two recognized with Jurgemeyer inaugural awards

Heritage Fund: The Bartholomew County Community Foundation is announcing the recipients of the Donald W. & Catherine G. Jurgemeyer Community Leadership Project of the Year Award and the Jurgemeyer Community Hero Award.

The Black History Month Columbus organizers were recognized as Community Leadership Project of the Year. Presenters said that organizations involved in the project, including the African American Fund of Bartholomew County, NAACP Columbus/ Bartholomew and Paths to Success, worked with more than a dozen community partners to collaborate on efforts to present Black history.  The award includes $15,000 to support the sustainability of the project.

Patty Pigman, specialist with the Infant Mortality Prevention Action Team, received the Community Hero Award. Pigman, a licensed social worker with Columbus Regional Health, was credited with helping to curb infant deaths in the community attributed to unsafe sleep. In 2018, a study showed that a quarter of all infant deaths were related to unsafe sleep here. The recognition comes with a $5,000 award.

The two new awards were established this year by the estate of longtime Columbus residents and philanthropists Donald and Catherine Jurgemeyer. The couple were long-time Columbus residents with Donald Jurgemeyer, an attorney in the community for 29 years, serving as legal counsel for the community foundation in its early years. Catherine Jurgemeyer served as president of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation and chaired the American Bar Auxiliary and the Indiana Lawyers Auxiliary.