Director to step away from Love Inc.

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Editor

In the past 13 years, Love Inc. Executive Director Bill Schoessling has watched the non-profit service agency – and the people who work there – make an impact on the lives of people around them.

He’s so proud of the staff, in fact, that he said, “they’re the name of the game here, not me.

“They’ve held it together through the growth, and most of them have been with me since the beginning,” Schoessling explained.

The service agency will likely continue to move forward, but it will do so without Schoessling, who is retiring from his position at the end of the year.

Schoessling will move on to work with his daughter at her non-profit organization, called GeroStart – a company that works with people with cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia.

“I’m going to be 60 next month, and I want to take on another challenge before I really call it quits,” said Schoessling, whose mother died after a battle with Alzheimer’s.

Schoessling is just the second director of the service agency, following founder Judy Morrow into the position.

Since then, the non-profit agency has grown – in terms of its client base, services and its stores. The organization has opened four new stores as well a new donation center and program center.

“We’ve grown probably seven times what it was,” Schoessling said.

As the country struggled through a recession, the numbers of clients using those programs and donations grew.

While Schoessling said the need has finally leveled off and possibly dropped some, the food pantry at Love Inc. still helped 13,716 people last year – an average of 400 families a month. The Christmas program served 362 families, the Thanksgiving program 383 families, and 360 families each were given help through the school supply and shoes for kids program.

While Schoessling is leaving, he credited his staff – 38 members plus volunteers – for all the hard work. Dena Corey serves as the director of services, while Tami House is the director of retail operations, just to name two.

Corey praised the work Schoessling has done.

“I’m very happy about his future plans, but I’m sorry he’ll be leaving,” Corey said. “There’s so many things about the history here, watching the organization grow, continuing on with the mission.

“It’s just been a long, great 13 years,” she added.

Scott Herrmann, a member of the Love Inc. Board of Directors and a local businessman, said Schoessling was instrumental in taking the organization forward.

“There have been numerous crises in the area that Bill and the staff has tirelessly addressed and the community helped us to do that,” said Herrmann, mentioning the Echo Lake Foods fire that resulted in many extra people being added to the food pantry’s help list.

“Love was there,” Herrmann said. He added that the board has started the process of finding a replacement, and will use the next five months to do so.