Boca Raton’s Rosemary Krieger has supported a score of local and area charities and nonprofits with financial donations, leadership for fundraising events and sustenance for facilities in their networks.
Only Rosemary herself seemed surprised when the Junior League of Boca Raton honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award at its 29th Annual Woman Volunteer of the Year Luncheon & Fashion Show Nov. 18 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.
The choked-up, teary-eyed benefactor tried hard to compose herself as she from the podium, thanking the nearly 1,000 people gathered for one of season’s most anticipated events. Many in the audience were themselves in tears as they stood and applauded Rosemary, whose beneficence has helped dozens of nonprofits, from AVDA (Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse), the YMCA, March of Dimes, George Snow Scholarship Fund, Wayne Barton Center, St. Jude Church, Boca Helping Hands and Florence Fuller Child Development Center, to name a few.
AVDA Executive Director Pam O’Brien nominated her for the award. “Rosemary is a true giver who thinks of others before herself,” said O’Brien. “She wants to make sure that women and children in need have a safe place to go.”
In the crowd were Rosemary’s husband, Ben, and all three of her children who flew in from various parts of the country to be there: sons Kenneth, from New York and Gregory, from Delaware, and daughter, Catherine Krieger-Nelson, from Dallas.
“This is the first event like this that I have been able to attend,” said Kenneth. “I could not be more proud of my mother.”
Rosemary was one of five nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Award. Others were Joan Englert (BIG Children’s Foundation), Donna Goray (Farmworker Children’s Center, Inc.), Mary Perper (Florence Fuller Child Development Center) and Anne Bright, Lupus Foundation of America, Florida chapter.
