Herrmann honored for community service

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By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

Common Ground Network hosted the 13th annual Community Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning, and honored longtime volunteer Suzy Herrmann.

Pastor Jon Thomas of St. John Lutheran Church was the keynote speaker at the annual event, held at the Dr. Jim Vaszauskas Center for Performing Arts. Other speakers included Mayor Michael Evans; Donald Williams, chief of staff for the Mansfield ISD; Caesar Rentie, vice president of pastoral services for the Methodist Health System; Laura Rennert, director of community programs at the Mansfield Mission Center; and Crystal Brown, vice president of operations for Methodist Mansfield Medical Center, which provided breakfast.

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The speakers offered prayers for the school district’s students, staff, families and the community.

Approximately 250 people attended the breakfast, including city, school and county officials.

Jim Hampton, president of Common Ground Network, presented Herrmann with the Gary Whetzel Heart for the Community Award, named in honor of the late pastor who was one of the founding members of Common Ground.

Herrmann has helped lead the non-profit’s Feed the Kids program for more than a decade, providing bags of food for kids in need in the Mansfield ISD throughout the summer months. This summer, Feed the Kids volunteers and sponsors bagged and delivered more than 12,000 bags of food for local youngsters.

Common Ground Network is a non-profit group of churches, businesses and local charities that work together on the Christmas program, Feed the Kids, Weekend Backpacks, food drives and the Back-to-School Bash.