Wooster’s Szafranski wins national Boys & Girls Clubs award

Jenni Szafranski loves her job, and she loves where she’s doing it. And where that’s concerned, little old Wooster proved as big as any other place, thanks to Szafranski’s efforts.

As the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wooster’s director of development, Szafranski was honored earlier this month by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, winning its national MAC award, bestowed upon the B&G Clubs’ top marketing and communications professional nationwide.

Szafranski received the honor when it was announced at the B&G Clubs national conference in Atlanta.

“You have to submit a bunch of information about your marketing and communication, your plans, and what you’ve executed,” Szafranski said. “I submitted my materials last summer and won the Midwest Region in October.”

Szafranski was literally one of hundreds, if not thousands, competing for the honor. More than 4,400 Boys & Girls Clubs across the country are eligible to compete for the MAC awards, which are first broken into regional competitions before the regional winners take each other on nationally.

They include communication personnel from cities as big as Cleveland, Atlanta and Chicago. Given that Szafranski does her work in Wooster, she was quite an underdog.

“We are a pretty small club when you compare us to those out there,” she said. “To put Wooster on the map is a big deal; our organization is kind of small potatoes compared to some of these clubs. They serve thousands and thousands of kids.”

The Wooster Clubs serve a much smaller number of children, relatively speaking. That, though, has nothing to do with the talent on the staff, which Szafranski is evidence of.

A graduate of the University of Akron with a background in marketing, Szafranski is a standout in both digital and print marketing. Anything she did in a communication format, including text items, emails and social media, was in play for the contest.

With her win the Wooster Club received a $5,000 prize, which is far more than a drop in the bucket when it comes to the amount of money that goes in and out of the club.

“That’s huge,” Szafranski said. “Any amount helps, but that definitely makes an impact for our club, definitely for our kids.”

Szafranski said she may not have been too surprised to win at the regional level, but once the national selection came about, it hit her a bit out of left field. Receiving the award on what she called a giant stage in Atlanta, she was surrounded by images of kids’ faces from the Wooster Club on big screens in the auditorium.

“It was definitely a surreal moment,” she said. “I felt pretty confident, but there are some really talented marketing and communications people in the room.”

Szafranski’s background prior to joining the Boys & Girls Clubs was in what she called a for-profit corporate space. Joining the clubs in Wooster has been a game-changer for her, and not one she’s likely to change back.

“The last 2 1/2 years has been my first time in the nonprofit world,” she said. “I will never go back. It tugs at your heart, working with and working for these kids. It’s a great feeling to do work all day that means something and has impact. To see the kids every day makes your job easy.”