Grimm honored with 2021 Jefferson Award

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

LIMA — Former Van Wert resident and businesswoman Donna Grimm has been named one of the 12 recipients of the Lima area’s 2021 Jefferson Award. The award is given to those whose volunteer work and public service are above and beyond the norm.

Now living in Wapakoneta, Grimm and her husband, W.W. “Wally” Grimm, came to Van Wert in the 1970s when Mr. Grimm was named principal of Van Wert High School.

For 35 years, Donna was employed by Community Health Professionals, first as a nurse and then helping lead the company as CEO to an expansion that now includes offices in nine northwest/west central Ohio counties, a hospice center in Defiance, and three senior day care facilities.

Starting in 1975, Grimm was also involved in a number of volunteer organizations, serving for decades with Cooperative Ministries, a 20-year stint on the board of the Van Wert Salvation Army, and as a member and officer of Van Wert Rotary Club. She was also very involved in church work at Trinity United Methodist Church, and still volunteers in her retirement community of Wapakoneta, where she has lived the past seven years.

While serving on the Salvation Army board in Van Wert, she led a fundraising campaign that brought in $350,000, money that helped the organization renovate its current headquarters building on North Cherry Street.

She currently serves on the board of the Area Agency on Aging and as president of the Silver Birch Foundation in Lima.

Her daughter, Shelly Barrett, said the communities where her mother has lived are better off because of the work she did there.

“She made a lasting effect on the community,” Barrett said of her years in Van Wert.

The Jefferson Award also includes money recipients can donate to a cause of their choosing.