Next month, Community Health Education Foundation’s annual Red Dress Gala, now in its 18th year, will channel “Midnight in Savannah” as it raises money to help fund health education and prevention programs for the Jonesboro community.

The longtime event will honor five community leaders and businesses that prioritize giving back to Jonesboro: Dr. Kevin Ganong, Health Advocate; The Mickey Seeman Family, Ed Way Community Support and Philanthropy Award; Janice Griffin, Red Dress Ambassador; Nothing Bundt Cakes – Corporate Community Service and Support Award (Fewer Than 50 Employees); and Coca-Cola – Corporate Community Service and Support Award (More Than 50 Employees).

“2024 is the Community Health Education’s 20-year anniversary, and this Red Dress Gala in 2025 will be the 18th year anniversary for the gala (due to COVID-19),” said Emily Lard, the nonprofit organization’s longtime executive director. “In 2005, we partnered with the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to bring The Heart Truth program, which is the first federally sponsored national health education program designed to raise awareness about heart disease as the leading cause of death in women, to Arkansas. The NHLBI designed and introduced the Red Dress symbol to bring greater visibility and awareness about the prevention of heart disease and strokes in women.

“I believe our program has really made an impact on women and has been a part of decreasing death due to heart disease in women. According to available data, the death rate due to heart disease among women has declined significantly over the last 29 years.”

In 2018, CHEF turned its focus to its AED Placement Program, which has placed 110 AEDs in schools, parks, community event centers and churches throughout the area.

“We have had many community leaders jump on board with our CHEF members and help us grow and improve this program over the last five years, like Harold Perrin, David Daniel and Linda Wofford, who lead our AED Campaign Business Leaders Team in raising money to increase the AED placements and introduce the PulsePoint AED, which is an additional program to the AED placement endeavor,” said Lard.

Last year’s event chairs, Denise Gschwend and Valerie Sills, have returned to chair the 2025 event. The longtime volunteers enjoy dedicating their time to their favorite CHEF fundraiser.

“One of the things (I value) in my work with this event is the fact that it has funded and made possible difference-making occurrences in women's lives right here in our community,” said Gschwend, who has been volunteering with CHEF since its start 20 years ago and has been a part of every single Red Dress Gala.

“In our heart health screening events, I have seen women be informed for the first time that they have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, highly blocked carotid arteries and, in one case, a heart aneurysm. This gave these women a chance to act and treat these health problems that could have had catastrophic endings if not identified,” said Gschwend.

Sills, a corporate legal liaison with St. Bernards Healthcare who has volunteered with CHEF for 11 years now, says she enjoys her work with the gala, especially the decorating, and that this year’s theme will not disappoint as the committee is looking forward to a Southern deep-Georgia theme to go with its trademark impressive auction items.

“The work is always very enjoyable with this group, and when you can actually see the results of your time and energy in actual lives saved, it is very rewarding,” said Sills.

Red Dress Gala 2025, Midnight in Savannah, will be held on Feb. 15 from 6:30-11 p.m. at Centennial Hall at Arkansas State University. For tickets and more information, call (870) 931-4044.

Dr. Kevin Ganong – Health Advocate

Dr. Kevin Ganong, an endocrinologist with NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital, will be honored as the 2025 Health Advocate.

Ganong went to medical school at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry at Eastern University and master’s degree in music at Southwestern Baptist Seminary. After graduating medical school in 1989, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he served nine years of active duty, achieving the rank of major. He has lived and practiced medicine in Jonesboro since 1998.

The 2025 honoree has volunteered weekly at the Church Health Center since 1998; he has also served as a board member. Ganong serves on the board of the Jonesboro Adult Soccer Association and served as a coach for several years in the youth soccer league.

“My favorite part of volunteering is feeling like a small but important part of an important enterprise,” said Ganong. “It is important to give back as a donor and volunteer because professionalism in the context of a nightmarishly poorly organized healthcare system (in terms of who has access) affects much of our undeserved population.

“Each community member can take part to better the health of their community by supporting vaccinations for children and encouraging disease prevention education. Don’t wait for your doctor to insist before starting a healthy lifestyle.”

When it comes to heart disease, Ganong said that while treatment and awareness of heart disease are much better, lifestyle risk factors continue to worsen.

“My favorite part of being a physician is asking patients about their daily life and having them teach me things that I don’t know,” said Ganong. “I also like complicated, puzzling medical problems, as they present a challenge that I enjoy investigating.”

The Mickey Seeman Family – Ed Way Community Support and Philanthropy Award

The 2025 honorees for the Ed Way Community Support and Philanthropy Award, in honor of the late Ed Way, a longtime local philanthropist, are Mickey and Beverly Seeman, along with their family. The couple makes it a priority to continually give back to the community they love.

The Seemans originally met at Arkansas State University before marrying and having two children, Jared and Sarah. After starting their family in Fisher, they moved back and have called Jonesboro, where they have volunteered and given back in countless ways, home for more than 30 years.

Mickey began his nonprofit work with the Fisher Lions Club, where he was eventually elected president, and Beverly first volunteered with the Extension Homemakers Club.

“As our kids have grown and established their families and business ventures, we are so proud of Jared and Sarah for their giving nature to better others in the community and continue the Seeman family’s legacy of giving with humble hearts,” said Mickey.

The Seeman family has been blessed to support several charitable organizations locally, including St. Jude Children’s Hospital, The Family Crisis Center, Salvation Army, CASA and Camp Quality of Arkansas.

“We encourage others to donate to charitable organizations in the community,” said Mickey. “Jonesboro is a strong, vibrant and caring community because of the past efforts of others. (Our family has) donated to causes because of others in the community informing us of needs and organizations that help. Volunteer and nonprofit organizations save lives, help those in need and establish roots in a community that bears fruit and make it strong for years to come.

“The Seeman Family is very humbled and honored to accept this award from the Community Health Education Foundation. We are blessed to have friends and family that have donated to various causes and educated the family on these causes, as well. We are also very blessed and thankful to have wonderful employees that have donated time and gone above and beyond to help assist in donations and volunteering in the community. It is our hope that the community of Jonesboro will continue to support charitable organizations such as the Community Health Education Foundation.”

Janice Griffin – Red Dress Ambassador

Janice Griffin, the 2025 Red Dress Ambassador, has been a volunteer with CHEF for seven years and has a very personal history with the nonprofit organization’s mission.

“My reason for getting involved was that my dad died from a massive heart attack and my close friend, Stacey Schratz, encouraged me to join CHEF to try to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Griffin, the county administrator for the Craighead Department of Human Services. “Any person can make a difference in their community by getting out and volunteering; join our volunteer group and encourage people to get checkups for preventative disease on a regular basis. Any amount of volunteer time is helpful.”

One of Griffin’s key volunteer positions in the group is helping to raise the funding for the women’s heart disease and AED Placement programs.

“Many people find raising money is so difficult, but if they would just think about the lives saved and know that the more education and equipment that we get out, even more lives can be saved, it’s really not a difficult thing to do and I’m very proud to do it,” she said. “As long as heart disease is the number one killer of women, we will always need to educate women. Another thing people should realize is that heart disease is not just an elderly disease, because we have had children right here in Jonesboro saved by an AED.”

Griffin gives back to the community in numerous ways; she is a member of the Jonesboro Rotary Club, the treasurer of the DHS County Administrators Association, an executive board member of the Arkansas State Employee Association, an executive board member of the Arkansas Human Services Employee Association, a member of the ASU Newport Advisory Board, a board member of the Magnolia Road Outreach Program and a former chair of the board for the Craighead County Library. She also works with the Fisher Street Community In Action and is instrumental in collecting donations and providing toys to the underprivileged and needy children of Jonesboro.

Nothing Bundt Cakes – Corporate Community Service and Support Award (Fewer Than 50 Employees)

The 2025 Corporate Community Service and Support Award recipient for a business with fewer than 50 employees is Nothing Bundt Cakes, a business that was started in Las Vegas in 1997 and opened a Jonesboro location in June 2022.

The local shop, which employs between 15 and 20 people, supports organizations through fundraising opportunities and its Books for Bundts program. Organizations host a Nothing Bundt Cakes fundraising event that allows them to spread the word about their organization and gets people excited to eat cake for a cause.

 
“Our mission statement to ‘Bring the Joy’ and our company’s focus is to support health, family and children’s organizations,” said Nacita Trammell, one of the franchise’s co-owners. “Supporting organizations that allow others to prosper is key. Our employees enjoy helping Nothing Bundt Cakes give back and attend events to bring the joy. If it takes us giving cake or our time to help others, then it’s all worth it because every cake has a destination and a story.”

Candace Mitchell, franchise co-owner, added: “We appreciate this award, as our work is not done to be rewarded. We just love to ‘Bring the Joy’ through cake. Cake changes everything.”

Coca-Cola – Corporate Community Service and Support Award (More Than 50 Employees)

This year, CHEF will honor Coca-Cola with the Corporate Community Service and Support Award for a business with more than 50 employees. The company has a long history in Jonesboro and currently employs 145 people.

The Coca-Cola bottling company that was at Highland and Caraway was an iconic part of Jonesboro from 1915 to 1994; families enjoyed watching through the front window as the bottling machine carried the bottle through the facility to be filled with their favorite Coca-Cola products. Corinth Coke (DBA Jonesboro Coca-Cola) was brought back to Jonesboro and NEA in October 2017, continuing its mission to provide quality refreshments and enjoyment to its consumers and positively impact the community.

“It’s been amazing to go from a kid on a sixth-grade field trip to Coke watching how the bottles of Coke were processed to being with Coke 40 years and serving Coke to kids,” said Bill Pate, the branch manager. “It’s been a full 360.”

Pate said Coke enjoys being an active part of this community where people, governments and organizations work together to create a sustainable vision for the future of their community. It’s based on the idea that everyone who is affected by an issue that impacts their community should have a say in the decision-making process around it.
“(The) Jonesboro Community is filled with thousands of amazing people helping others when the need arises,” he said. “We are very proud to serve Jonesboro with our refreshing beverages and to be part of serving our community to help thrive for a better tomorrow.

“We are honored to be a part of such a great foundation, and the true heroes are the doctors, nurses and our first responders servicing our area. We are so blessed to have these amazing people ready to serve when called upon.”

The company encourages its employees to get involved with local nonprofits, which it supports by paying them while they’re volunteering with certain charitable events. The company currently supports the NEA Food Bank, United Way of NEA, Jonesboro Unlimited, Jonesboro A&P, Dare Program for Craighead County, the Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce, Joy Fest, the City of Jonesboro and Touch-A-Truck, just to name a few. The company is also proud to support CHEF.

“We are honored each year to support the Red Dress Gala because we have had employees, family and friends that have been affected by heart disease, so we are very proud of the work being done to minimize heart disease,” said Pate.