Bret Bicoy, President of the Marietta Community Foundation, was officially recognized today by the Council on Foundations in Washington, D.C. with an Emerging Philanthropic Leaders Fellowship.  Each year, the Council selects just two people from across the nation to receive this honor. 

 ?The Fellowship is an endorsement of the work of our professional staff and Board at the Marietta Community Foundation,? says Mr. Bicoy.  ?It recognizes both Marietta?s potential and the Foundation as an exceptional tool to help our community realize charitable opportunities.?

 The Fellowship is designed to identify emerging philanthropic leaders with great promise from across the nation.  It then offers educational opportunities to these emerging leaders so they can cultivate philanthropy in their own communities.

 ?I will work with the Council to clarify the issues facing our Foundation as it grows.  The Council will then identify an experienced senior chief executive at another foundation that has already dealt with these issues,? says Mr. Bicoy.  The Fellowship will pay for Mr. Bicoy to visit the identified foundation and bring their chief executive to Washington County to meet with the Marietta Community Foundation staff and board.  It will also provide for other professional development activities for Mr. Bicoy and the Foundation staff over the next two years.

 ?This really is an honor for both Bret and the entire Foundation,? says Teri Ann Zide, Chair of the Foundation?s Board of Directors.  ?It is a testament to all of our hard work building the Marietta Community Foundation.?

 The Council on Foundations is the umbrella organization for over 2,000 foundations in the United States.  Its members include virtually every major private, family, corporate and community foundation in the nation.  The Council?s Emerging Philanthropic Leaders Fellowship is generously funded by the Edwin Gould Foundation for Children, the St. Paul Companies, Inc. Foundation, and the Otto Bremer Foundation.