Project MANA - A Hunger Relief Agency

Sierra Nevada College's next Fireside Chat, hosted by Andy Whyman, will feature George LeBard, best known for his current role as executive director for local hunger relief agency Project MANA. This latest up-close and personal look at yet another of the community's most prolific citizens will be held on Thursday, January 22, at 7 pm in the college's Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, rooms 139/141. Refreshments will be served. This ongoing series is a concept that grew out of the Seniors Conversation Café and represents a partnership between Sierra Nevada College and the Incline Village General Improvement District.

LeBard, an Incline High School graduate, served as a banquet chef at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe after completing a Culinary Arts apprenticeship. He left Tahoe and his career as a chef in 1981 to go to Belize as a Peace Corps volunteer, where he founded the Belize High School of Agriculture, for which he was nominated Volunteer of the Year (for this LeBard, along with three other volunteers who were nominated worldwide, was invited to the White House to have dinner with President and Mrs. Reagan). Upon finishing his tour as a volunteer he then joined the Peace Corps staff, serving in a variety of roles, including associate Peace Corps director responsible for the development of a new environmental education/conservation program; operations officer; and training and programming officer. After spending eleven years with Peace Corps Belize, LeBard then moved on to work for Yangtze Corporation Ltd. on a project to develop a Chinese community, ultimately founding a school for Chinese students immigrating to Belize that taught them English alongside traditional subjects. He returned to Tahoe with his family in 1998 and began working for Project MANA.

LeBard's roots in the community run deep. He is a founding chair of the Parasol Community Collaboration (PCC), as well as a historian/trainer for the agency. Married for 23 years to wife Irma, LeBard has three sons. He recently completed a memoir on his first five years in Belize.

For more information about this or the next Fireside Chat on February 12, which will feature Justice of the Peace Alan Tiras, please contact Shelia Leijon, IVGID Seniors Program Coordinator, at 775.832.1310, shelia_leijon@ivgid.org, or Debi Noonan, SNC Director of Special Events, at 775.831.1314, x7420, dnoonan@sierranevada.edu.