CONGRATS BUD AND SUE!

Bud and Sue Ozar, from Grosse Pointe Park, were awarded the Changemaker Award for 2017 by the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation.  The award was presented at the”70 over Seventy” celebration held on October 12 at the Roostertail to honor those who prove impact is ageless.

“We are surprised and honored by this award” commented Sue Ozar. “All of our work is in Kenya in East Africa and we had no idea folks in the Detroit metro area, beyond our friends and family, really knew what we were doing.”

In 2006 Bud and Sue went to Kenya where they met and worked with Fr. Riwa, a Catholic priest who had established the Children’s Village to house and educate boys he rescued from the streets.   Their lives changed forever. 

The Ozars then returned to Grosse Pointe Park in 2008 with the goal of raising money to build a home for the orphaned and abandoned girls who were beginning to appear on the streets. Father Riwa’s words rang in their ears: “Remember the children.”  “How could we forget?” asked Bud.  “There, children lived in the most deplorable conditions where there were homeless, and victims of abuse.  They sniffed gasoline to dull their hunger.” With the guidance of Kevin DiDio, an attorney and Grosse Pointe Farms resident, they founded Friends of Kenyan Orphans in 2009 and have raised funds to build the St. Clare Centre for Girls, which is a home, and school for 367 orphaned and abandoned girls in Kenya.