Nonprofit founder wins service award

The founder of a Riverdale nonprofit initiative won the Lews Hine Distinguished Service Award from the National Child Labor Committee on March 29.

John McIvor, the founder and executive director of Summer on the Hill, was one of 10 people to win the award this year.

Named for a photographer who documented the exploitation of child labor in the early 20th century, the Lewis Hine Award for Service to Children and Youth is given to 10 relatively unknown people who work for the health, education, and welfare of children and youth, especially those at risk.

Sponsored in large part by Horace Mann, Summer on the Hill works with promising but disadvantaged public school children in grades three through eight, then stays in touch with the students when they enter high school, to provide college preparation help.

Mr. McIvor served in the ministry for 26 years. He was a professor of theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary and pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Mahopac, N.Y., before receiving a dispensation in 1993 to leave the church and marry. He became a lay priest and worked in the admissions office at Horace Mann and now lives in Greenwich, Conn.

Six hundred and fifty children have passed through the program since Mr. McIvor first started his partnership with Horace Mann.

This is part of the April 9, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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