Ottawa native Sharon Eschbach Coleman recently made a $20,000 donation to the Starved Rock Country Community Foundation, a gift that was matched by participants in the Foundation’s 2023 Disco Ball. Sharon suggested the gift while on vacation with SRCCF founders Pamela and Chuck Beckett, and her brother Robert Eschbach, a charter member of the SRCCF board, and John Ross, a donor to the SRCCF.
It is the third major gift Coleman has made to SRCCF. In 2016, she and her late husband Ken Coleman donated $60,000 to establish the Robert M. Eschbach Legacy Endowment Fund to recognize the former Ottawa mayor’s accomplishments and to continue “aesthetic, cultural and economic development in the city.” She later donated an additional $20,000 to the fund.
“SRCCF has been blessed to have thoughtful and gracious friends like Sharon Coleman,” said President and CEO Fran Brolley. “Sharon appreciates what our Foundation is accomplishing and believes in the direction we are moving.”
Coleman has also given generously to the Ottawa region. In October 2021, she donated $250,000 to the capital campaign for the Ottawa YMCA expected to open in spring 2024. The gift afforded her naming rights for the new outdoor plaza and she chose to name the space in her brother’s honor.
Coleman retired in 2021 as senior director of commercial real estate development at Vulcan Real Estate where she lent her leadership in design and smart development to projects that changed Seattle’s skyline and contributed to Amazon’s urban campus and office developments for Google and Facebook.
Since its founding eight years ago, Starved Rock Country Community Foundation has invested more than $1.8 million in the region and it recently reached the 100-fund milestone with nearly $2.2 million in assets.
The Foundation supports the arts, education, health and human services, the environment and disaster relief. For information, visit www.srccf.org or call Brolley at 815-252-2906, ext. 1.
