Since summer, Bonnie Kahn Ognisanti has been volunteering with her 8-year-old daughter at the Niles Township Food Pantry, one of her several volunteer efforts.
She now has a new one having been appointed Niles Township Government trustee July 24, replacing Janice Cichowlas who recently had to retire because she moved out of state, officials said.
A Skokie resident and mother of three, Ognisanti and her husband own the film production company Harmonic Media, she said. Since the presidential election last year, she said, she has felt a need to become more involved.
That’s why she stepped in with her daughter to volunteer at the food pantry, she said.
“I can’t say enough wonderful things about how that food pantry is run,” Ognisanti said. “They do a fantastic job that’s vital to our community.”
In addition to her weekly volunteering there, Ognisanti is a Girl Scouts troop leader and she and her husband work with an Assyrian immigrant family through the RefugeeOne organization, she said.
A love of gardening led Ognisanti to volunteer at the Jane Stenson Elementary School Community Garden in Skokie School District 73.5. To honor her mother, she and her three siblings founded the Sandra Kahn Cartwright Hospice Residence Fund, which helps those in need of hospice not able to afford services, she said.
“(Ognisanti) has a proven track record as well as a wealth of experience when it comes to helping those within, as well as outside the borders of Niles Township,” said Niles Township Government Supervisor Marilyn Glazer.
Ognisanti will serve the remainer of Cichowlas’ term, which has more than three years left.
For now, she said, she is just learning the job and trying to continue the important work of the township.
“This is a way to be involved in the schools, and we give grants to worthy organizations that apply for them, and some of them are dealing with refugees and hospice, which is near and dear to my heart,” she said. “It just feels like a natural fit for me.”
@SKReview_Mike
