Nice Guys Awards - Individual Runner-up
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The Nice Guys awards are sponsored by Acacia Federal Savings Bank, serving the DC area since 1985. As a local small business, we’re committed to the success of individuals and other companies – from one-person companies to multimillion dollar firms.

 

Hard Work. High Standards. Helping Others.
 

Who he Is: James Frank, CEO of Shreve-McGonagle

What he does: Leads, donates and volunteers for causes from disaster relief to caring for an employee with cancer

Why he does it: Feels volunteering is an "everyday responsibility"

"I've always enjoyed helping people; I think it's something the Lord wants me to do. But it's not something special... I think it's something everyone should be doing."
- Jim Frank

 


Jim Frank is matter-of-fact about serving people - from his own employees to people in need overseas. "I don't see that I'm doing anything special," he says.

He helps others internationally as a board member for CrossLink International, a humanitarian aid organization which supplies medical supplies and equipment in the U.S. and abroad. Recently he chaired a task force for setting up a new branch in Memphis, where many of the group's mission teams are located.

Closer to home, he donates office space to the Lion's Club in Falls Church for their eyeglass recycling program and quietly serves his employees throughout the year, from providing a flu shot and complimentary "while-you-wait" breakfast to preparing a Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner for them each year.

He and his wife, Roz, demonstrated "charity begins at home" - literally - when they cared for a former employee in their home until he died. Currently both the couple's mothers, age 83 and 86, live with them.

Frank sets the emphasis on others rather than   himself: "In Memphis, they work with the same structure and access the same databases we have here," he says. "I say, 'It's not our ministry. It's the Lord's ministry.' We set everything up with training manuals so when we're gone, someone else can take right over."

He continues, "We opened an office in Memphis because they have a lot of supplies from Christian hospitals and mega-churches, plus a great pool of potential volunteers and mission teams. Right away, we had a joint venture with the Memphis & Falls Church Offices to rebuild a clinic in Kiln, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina."

 

"A Warehouse and a Truck"

As an example of collaboration, he points out the Lion's Club in Falls Church. "We're pretty impressed with the work they do... cleaning and sorting eyeglasses and sending them around the world. I started donating office space to them around 1997." They first contacted him because they knew he had the space, and he was glad to help out.

"You know, that's how I got involved with CrossLink," he declares, underscoring the practical nature of the work with a touch of wry wit. "They called me - because I have a warehouse and a truck!"

To him, volunteering is part of everyday life. " I was born to be a servant to God and helping people is part of that."

What about fitting it all into his schedule? Once again, he points to others: "It's many people working together that make things possible in anything -- take business, for example. In business, it's the people. Anyone can be a banker or contractor. It's how good your people are - that's what determines how well you can serve."

For more information about CrossLink International, visit crosslinkinternational.org.

To contact the Falls Church Lion's Club, phone 703-533-8610.

Check out the nominees from this year's Nice Guys Awards Individual Category.

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