David & Cheryl Venarge named 2025 Polsky Award recipients at ACF Annual Meeting
David and Cheryl Venarge were announced as this year's Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award recipients at Akron Community Foundation's annual meeting yesterday evening. They will receive the award at the annual Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award dinner on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Akron Fairlawn.
The Venarges will be the 56th recipients of the award, which Akron Community Foundation presents each year to an individual or couple who has shown selfless dedication to humanitarian causes in Akron. The Venarges are well known in Greater Akron for both their financial contributions and their hands-on volunteerism, particularly in the areas of food insecurity and issues affecting women and girls.
Recently, they helped create The Venarge Family Food Pantry and Resource Center at the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, which is open to the public three days a week. Opened in early 2024, the pantry distributed nearly two million pounds of food in its first year. The couple also created two nonprofits to address needs in the community: Mount Hope Cemetery Corp. and Food From Friends.
In the mid-2010s, Mount Hope Cemetery in Akron fell into disrepair after its former maintenance organization disbanded. The Venarges organized community cleanups and developed the Mount Hope Cemetery Corp. to provide funding for future maintenance. The couple established Food From Friends in 2023 to purchase and distribute backpacks, school supplies and food to children at qualifying local schools. In 2024, the nonprofit supplied more than 3,800 bags of food to five Akron area schools.
Over the years, the Venarges have intentionally involved their children and grandchildren in their philanthropy, helping to inspire The Center for Family Philanthropy at Akron Community Foundation and using their donor-advised fund to impact dozens of organizations in the community.
David is the owner of APV Engineered Coatings, a nearly 150-year-old business where he worked prior to purchasing the company in 1982. In addition to his work, David has been involved with numerous nonprofits in the area, including Mount Hope Cemetery and First Tee Akron.
Cheryl is a dedicated community volunteer, giving her time to organizations like Akron Community Foundation, where she previously served as a board member, and the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.
The Venarges are both Akron natives and graduates of Akron Public Schools, with David graduating from Garfield and Cheryl from Firestone. They both participated in Leadership Akron's Signature Program and were honored in 2023 with the Outstanding Philanthropist Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals Northeast Ohio Chapter.
The Venarges were selected to receive the Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award by a committee of past honorees. Recent recipients include Catholic priest Father Norm Douglas, Synthomer Foundation President Theresa Carter, Akron Marathon co-founders Steve and Jeannine Marks, and former Akron Deputy Mayor Dave Lieberth.
Corporate and individual sponsorships for the award dinner start at $2,500 and may be reserved at akroncf.org/PolskySponsor. For more information about sponsorship availability and benefits, call Laura Lederer, vice president and chief development officer, at 330-436-5611.
In addition to announcing this year's Polsky recipients, Akron Community Foundation's annual meeting featured an update from its new president and CEO, John F. Garofalo. The foundation also presented financials from its recent fiscal year that closed on March 31, 2025; announced its new slate of officers; and welcomed four new board members: Steve Dimengo, managing partner at Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs; Jolene Lane, director of the Akron Innovation Team at Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities Initiative; Ron Paydo, market president for the Akron/Canton region at Huntington Bank; and Angie Wells, vice president of operations at GPD Group.
About the Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award
The Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award is named for the former president of Polsky's Department Store and founding trustee of Akron Community Foundation. The community foundation presents the award each year to the individual or couple who best exemplifies Bert Polsky's selfless dedication to humanitarian causes in Akron. More information, including a complete history of past recipients, is available at akroncf.org/Polsky.
About Akron Community Foundation
For 70 years, Akron Community Foundation has been our community's champion and generator of enduring philanthropy. In 1955, a $1 million bequest from the estate of Edwin Shaw established the community foundation. It is a philanthropic endowment of $316 million with a growing family of more than 900 funds established by charitable people and organizations from all walks of life. The community foundation and its funds welcome gifts of all kinds, including cash, bequests, stock, real estate, life insurance and retirement assets, just to name a few. To date, the community foundation's funds have awarded nearly $259 million in grants to qualified nonprofit organizations. For more information about Akron Community Foundation or to learn more about creating your own charitable fund, call 330-376-8522 or visit akroncf.org.