Non-Profits

S. Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-Fil-A chain restaurants, was honored by President Bush with the President’s Call to Service Award at the White House April 15th, 2008 for his “life-long commitment to volunteer service.”

The President’s Call to Service Award is presented to recipients who have accumulated over 4,000 hours of volunteer community service. Mr. Cathy has dedicated well over that to numerous endeavors throughout his lifetime. He has actively participated in the health of the community by helping young people achieve their potential, as well as helping couples strengthen their marriages.

He has taught Sunday school to 13-year-old young men for almost 50 years. He also founded the Winshape Foundation in 1984 which reaches out to people to nurture and encourage them to be successful parts of the community. The Winshape Foundation offers annual summer camps for boys and girls, and marriage and corporate retreats for adults. Winshape has also added foster homes, and a challeng/ropes course to their grounds at Berry College. Recently Winshape began sponsoring domestic and international missions trips to reach young people in the worldwide community.

S. Truett Cathy is much more than just the successful owner of the “nation’s second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant”, he is a light and blessing to the non-profit community through his lifelong dedication to volunteer service. He has taken his business and service skills to a whole new level that reaches beyond the excellent service Chick-Fil-A offers to its patrons.

“He is a great example of a wealthy, successful business man who has been blessed by God and uses those blessings as opportunties to bless the community in so many ways,” said Ashley Watkins, a Non-profit Major at Southeastern University. “He is an inspiration to people who want to be successful even though they are going into the non-profit sector.”

Below is a video interview of S. Truett Cathy from CNN as he talks about combining business skills and faith: