A fifth generation Chicagoan, Debbie Korell
grew up on the northwest side of the city.
She attended college on the south side of Chicago at the Illinois
Institute of Technology, majoring in Management with an Option in Information
Technology. Debbie left no part of
Chicago unexplored! She then headed to
the western suburbs in the early 1990s, and following that, she met her future
husband, Todd, at work in 1995. The two
were wed in 1999.
While she called Chicago home, the
Sarasota area always held a special place in Debbie’s heart. Having visited her aunt and uncle who lived
in Bayshore Gardens, Debbie fondly reminisces about drives around St. Armand’s
Circle in the late ‘60s. The Bayshore
Gardens home was bequeathed to her parents, and in 1997, they retired to the
beautiful home that had always brought their family such wonderful memories. In
the summer of 2009, Debbie moved to the area to look after both of her parents
as their health declined, Todd joined her in January of 2010.
Following her mother’s passing and the
unexpected passing of her husband, Todd, Debbie and her father frequently
attended shows at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall together. Debbie had been in search of a way to
commemorate her late husband, a man that truly had a passion for the arts. Todd and Debbie had both played in their high
school bands; they also enjoyed sharing season tickets to the theater in Chicago. When she learned she could name a seat at our
hall, Debbie says she thought “this would be a wonderful way to memorialize
him. In addition, I could select a seat that was where I would want to sit, and
when I went to the shows, I could sit in his chair. I refer to it as sitting in
his lap with his arms around me.”
Debbie’s involvement throughout the
community is extraordinary and expansive; beyond her integral involvement here
at the Van Wezel Foundation, she has also supported Mote Marine and the South
Florida Museum. What really drove her to focus her philanthropic efforts with
the Van Wezel Foundation was our commitment to the arts education of the
youth. Disappointed to see schools make
arts education less of a priority in their curriculums; Debbie hopes “for
school age children to have a chance to see an afternoon performance by
any of the artists, shows, ballets or symphony's that come to play in Sarasota.”
Our Friend tells us that she has felt genuinely spoiled rotten with her
membership at the foundation. However,
we are the ones who feel spoiled to have a Friend who feels the same way as we
do about the local youth and arts programs, emphasizing that “music and art
touches the soul and sparks imagination and creativity!”
