David Raye honored with Humanitarian Award
David Raye, owner of The Goddard School, 34638 North Hwy. 45 in Third Lake, has been presented with the Humanitarian Award by Goddard Systems Inc., franchiser of The Goddard School.
The award recognizes Raye for demonstrating selfless devotion to serving those in need and a commitment to community outreach through life-enriching programs on local and global levels.
Raye has spent the last decade working with the SEDOL Foundation (Special Education District of Lake County), which helps children who have special needs. He served five years as its chairman, bringing the foundation to new levels in community awareness and fundraising. Raye was presented with SEDOL's Heart of Gold Award in 2016.
Raye and his wife, Donna, started the Help Them to Hear program to help raise the needed funds to ensure that every Lake County student who cannot afford hearing aids or other assistive technology gets the financial and practical help assistance need.
As a board member of Bernie's Book Bank in Lake Bluff, David worked with the Chicagoland Goddard School preschools to organize a book drive, which collected more than 105,000 books for children in need, the largest donation Bernie's Book Bank ever received at one time. The book drive is now an annual event.
Raye served as the president of the Exchange Club of Grayslake from 2010 to 2011 and was presented with the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor that an Exchange member can receive, in 2015. He also organizes events with Toys for Tots, Operation Gratitude, local organizations that hold food drives and more.
Raye is currently the Vice Chairman of HBI Global Partners, which is located in Chennai, India. He has led teams on six visits to various parts of India to assist children in need.
"Besides teaching children to be good students, we also strive to inspire them to be good people. It's important for children to see how acts of kindness can have a positive impact on the community and the world," said Raye.
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