About a dozen years ago, a small group of concerned citizens in Northern Chautauqua County began meeting to discuss what they thought would help improve the quality of life in their community and help the region grow. They had a lot of hope and ideas.
The group members had seen businesses closing or moving away. They saw homes and neighborhoods falling into disrepair. They felt the area’s incredible natural assets, like Lake Erie and Lake Chautauqua, weren’t being used or marketed to their full advantage. They wanted to improve the situation, draw in new businesses, keep current residents here, and attract new people to the area, either as visitors or as permanent residents. To make this happen, they knew funds would need to be raised to make their dreams a reality.
This presented a considerable challenge. They were all volunteering their time. They also knew many of the municipalities in the county did not have dedicated development personnel. Most municipalities already had more than enough on their plates just making sure the immediate needs of their communities were met. Potholes don’t fill themselves after all.
The group felt the best way to make an impact was to start organizing where they lived — in the northern part of Chautauqua County. They asked the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation to house their new advocacy group and named it the Local Economic Development (LED) Initiative. They recruited more members and sought input from a large array of local stakeholders, including local business executives, government officials, non-profit leaders, school and college administrators, and other concerned citizens.
After many years full of long discussions, strategic planning sessions, consultations with experts, including community forums, they ultimately decided what the northern end of the county needed was a development specialist dedicated to helping local communities evaluate their needs.
Doug Manly.
It had to be someone capable of offering hands-on assistance with project identification, fundraising, and implementation. The biggest challenge would be how to afford to hire such a professional person.
Thankfully, many generous people donate to NCCF to help their fellow residents, community organizations, and municipalities achieve great things. Some designate what they want their donations spent on, like youth development, the arts, or scholarships/s. Others have come to deeply respect the process the NCCF uses to decide how to best use unrestricted donations.
These funds, called Community Funds, can then be used for innovative ideas, like the economic prosperity dreams of the LED. One local man in particular fully understood and embraced this type of giving. That man was Doug Manly.
Manly, a longtime Fredonia resident and highly respected local business leader, was determined to enrich the area.
He did so while he was CEO of the Red Wing Corp., which grew into an international powerhouse under his direction, throughout his retirement, and after he passed away. He had his finger on the needs and potential of the Northern Chautauqua region.
Doug Manly speaks at a Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation event.
That is because Manly chose to be deeply involved in his community. He joined the Fredonia Rotary in 1960. He was also a member of the Northern Chautauqua, Dunkirk, and Fredonia Chambers of Commerce and was elected to offices in those organizations. He served on the board of Brooks Memorial Hospital and the Fredonia College Foundation.
Yet it wasn’t all business for Manly. In addition to being deeply committed to his family, he was an avid ping pong player, tennis player, snowmobiler, and cross-country skier. He enjoyed making beer and hosting dinner parties. He loved crossword puzzles.
As a man who understood the importance of living a well balanced life, Mr. Manly also embraced joyous activities in his personal life. He loved an excellent Irish joke and was a delightful storyteller. Many knew him from his frequent “light Irish standup comedy” hour performances at local assisted living centers. He was also the main sponsor of the Story Telling Festival at the Fredonia 1891 Opera House.
Doug and his wife, Ann, believed strongly in the value of education. They set up several scholarships through the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation and the Fredonia College Foundation. He also mentored new entrepreneurs, sharing his time and expertise selflessly.
When addressing local challenges and opportunities, Manly recognized the power of strategic planning during efforts to impact economic development. He worked hard with a group of dedicated, experienced professionals volunteering their time and effort to spur economic growth in Northern Chautauqua County. Known as the Local Economic Development Initiative (LED), they focused on the communities within the Lake Erie watershed; the towns of Ripley, Westfield, Portland, Pomfret, Dunkirk, Sheridan, and Hanover; the villages of Silver Creek, Fredonia, Brocton, and Westfield; and the City of Dunkirk.
Ann and Doug Manly.
Manly stressed that there are many practical things this local area could do to make the region more inviting to businesses. Those ideas included combining or consolidating water and sewage operations in neighboring communities like Dunkirk and Fredonia, consolidating more school districts, and doing everything possible to eliminate unnecessary layers of government. He also embraced the importance of year-round tourism in building the local economy. Perhaps most importantly, he knew that change might be hard for many people to accept, but it is inevitable and ultimately necessary to achieve economic prosperity.
He was committed to improving the local area for people living here during his lifetime. He also wanted improvements made that would impact local people far into the future, long after he was gone. Consequently, Doug Manly chose to put his money where his heart was. He made significant contributions to many organizations, including the NCCF and the work of the LED.
Few people have been more supportive of their community than Doug Manly. Together with his wife, Ann, they decided to share their good fortune with their community. In doing so, they enriched the community with their time, talent, and philanthropy.
Unrestricted contributions from individual donors like the Manlys and foundations like the Ralph C. Wilson Junior Foundation have already made impressive impacts here. Some funds were dedicated to a new economic development experiment. The LED members used these Community Funds to hire a highly skilled Community Economic Development Specialist to assist local communities.
It takes a lot of hard work and skill to have development projects selected by funders. Yet, within just a few years, the new Community Economic Development Specialist helped numerous local communities bring in millions of dollars to complete projects improving the waterfront, main streets and making large infrastructure improvements that companies need to start or grow their operations. This experiment proved so successful that it quickly influenced the formation of a new countywide initiative focused on economic development and quality-of-life issues called the Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Growth (CCPEG).
CCPEG’s return on investment in 2022 was an astounding $42 for every $1 invested. Based on recent award announcements and CCPEG’s ability to hire even more staff, the return on investment rate will likely grow even more this year. Success breeds more success. The Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation’s Local Economic Development committee hopes residents who appreciate this will help everyone in Chautauqua County by making donations, like the Manlys before them, to Community Benefit Funds at NCCF to help build on this dramatic success.
The NCCF is one of nearly 700 community foundations in the United States today. Founded in 1986, the NCCF is dedicated to improving the community by promoting local philanthropy, strategic grant-making, and community leadership. Served by a small staff and governed by an all-volunteer board of directors, the organization has distributed millions in grants and scholarships within the community. Truly community in nature, the NCCF is an organization created by and for the people of northern Chautauqua County.
Doug Manly lived to see a lot of success achieved thanks to his efforts and generosity. Thanks to his actions and the financial contributions and hard work of others like him, he would be thrilled to see how that success continues and is likely to grow. We can all learn a lot from his legacy. The best among us will strive to follow in his footsteps.
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