Carolyn Stubbs and Susan Schneberger aren’t your typical retirees. In fact, they may be busier in retirement than they were in their impressive healthcare careers.

The two women take advantage of the extensive system of retirement communities in the area, participating in sessions like tai chi and chair yoga, among other classes and events. Once a month, they meet with a cooking club they established 20 years ago, and later this year, they’ll travel to Eastern Europe with the group, then stay to voyage on their own. While they are finding more time for leisure activities, their robust retired lives are largely committed to supporting an extraordinary list of causes and organizations dear to them.

FIM is very fortunate to be one such organization, and we are exceedingly grateful for their dedication to our mission. It was not a difficult choice, then, to recognize these women with the 2024 Mrs. J. Dallas Dort Award for exceptional service to FIM and the community.

The Mrs. J. Dallas Dort Award was created in 1979 to honor individuals who have given significantly of their personal time to advance the success of FIM. Named after Marcia Webb Dort, wife of Josiah Dallas Dort, the award recognizes her legacy of volunteerism within the arts community. They join the ranks of many esteemed recipients, including FIM board members, event committee chairs and others who have dedicated philanthropic efforts to FIM.

“Carolyn and Susan are truly a dynamic duo and such a special part of our FIM family,” says FIM President and CEO Rodney Lontine. “They have been tireless, lifelong advocates for the Flint community and bring that same spirit of support to our programs and events, sharing their time and treasure to help us sustain and extend the power of the performing arts.”

A Warm Welcome
Carolyn first discovered FIM nearly 20 years ago, when she was invited to volunteer on the annual auction committee. She immediately felt welcomed by the other volunteers and staff. Among them were Paul Torre, then-executive director of FIM, and his wife Davin, who now serves as VP of performing arts instruction and director of the Flint School of Performing Arts.

“They didn’t care who you were, where you came from or how much you could give,” Carolyn says of these first encounters. “They treated everyone with the same respect and made everyone feel valued.”

While Torre is indeed grateful for every measure of service, she says that Carolyn and Susan have since gone above and beyond the call of duty. “They are fixtures at so many FIM events and show their support in ways both big and small. From chairing committees to attending student recitals, they are quick to share their time, treasure and encouragement,” says Torre.

“They’ve generously connected us with potential partners in the community, and they show a genuine interest in the future of FIM by creating conversations of positive change and putting forth the effort to help make that change happen.”

Carolyn continued to volunteer for the auction committee for many years, even serving as its chair for two of them. Additionally, she has served on the Wine Dinner Committee since 2006 with multiple terms as chair, and on the Seeing Stars Committee.

Together, she and Susan’s philanthropic efforts extend well beyond volunteerism and event attendance. The pair often serve as sponsors, generously providing invaluable financial resources to events they attend, including Seeing Stars!, Flint Symphony Orchestra concerts, and FSPA faculty concerts.

In each endeavor, they carry on the tradition of hospitality and connection that attracted them in the first place.

Pam LaVasseur has worked alongside Carolyn for several years on the FIM Wine Dinner Committee and has grown to know Susan through that event and others. Her collaboration, she says, has brought her both joy and “lessons on graceful service and purposeful leadership.”

“The most defining quality of Carolyn is her ability to build meaningful connections between people,” says LaVasseur. “And Susan’s dynamic energy complements Carolyn’s approach beautifully. Her ability to rally support through her quick wit has earned legendary status at our events.”

Their impact reaches far beyond the specific events they support, LaVasseur adds. “These women demonstrate how dedicated volunteerism creates powerful collective impact; that genuine community leadership means more than event coordination. It involves building relationships and fostering cultural growth to create spaces for collective support of higher goals.”

Full Lives of Service
For these two humanitarians, who have spent the entirety of their personal and professional lives caring for the people of their community, there are few things more important than working toward collective growth.

Both women began their careers in social work, each with a bachelor’s and master’s in the field. Susan also received her juris doctorate in 1987, and in 2009 was named a pro-bono attorney of the year. Both retired – the first time – from McLaren: Carolyn as a social worker in the home healthcare group, and Susan as a corporate health line executive.

Shortly thereafter, Carolyn returned to McLaren, this time as a hospice executive, and acted as interim executive director and CEO for the Flint YWCA. During that time, she also discovered her legacy as a descendant of two revolutionary war patriots and joined the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She currently serves as secretary of the Michigan state chapter and has led several local efforts to appropriately memorialize the history of patriotism and American veterans.

Meanwhile, after her own retirement from McLaren, Susan became the director of the Urban Health and Wellness Center at UM-Flint. A tireless advocate, she also served as interim executive director of both the Flint Children’s Museum and Wellness AIDS Services, and after her second retirement, she led the Children’s Healthcare Access Project (CHAP) at the Genesee Health Coalition.

Collectively, the two have participated in an extensive list of local boards and committees, are members of Quota International and the Michigan State Association of Parliamentarians – through which Carolyn has become a professional registered parliamentarian – and they give aggressively of their time and finances to a variety of charitable activities.

The lifelong residents of Flint freely give to their community because they have hope in it to overcome its obstacles, they say.

“Flint is full of leaders. When given the resources, we have the power to do anything,” says Susan. “Do we have hope in the city? Absolutely. We’ve seen it at its best, and we’ve seen it at its worst. And this is a city that doesn’t give up.”

The Communal Power of the Arts
While it was a warm welcome that attracted Carolyn and Susan to FIM, it was the mission and investment in the future of Flint that convinced them to stay.

“I think the program at the school is so wonderful,” says Carolyn of the FSPA. “The programs available to the kids, and all they do for kids in the community, is so important.”

She adds to that her satisfaction with the efforts to merge the Whiting and Capitol Theatre in order to provide more diverse programming for the community, and of course, her special affection for the Flint Symphony Orchestra.

“We also love Enrique. There is nobody like him,” says Carolyn of FSO’s conductor for 37 seasons. “He makes everyone feel welcome, whether they know the music or not.”

That’s especially important to Susan, who says she rarely understands the music, but she enjoys the congenial atmosphere of FIM performances and events so much that she’s happy to participate.

“Susan has kind of a wooden ear,” jokes Stubbs, with no objections.

Employing the wit she’s known for, Susan says she prefers the simple tune of a passing ice cream truck to the baffling sounds of classical musicians like Wagner. But despite her tastes, her attraction to FSO is no less fervent, thanks in special part to its longtime conductor.

“During the Flint Water Crisis, Enrique was genuinely engaged with the community,” says Schneberger, who devoted countless hours to her community during the crisis as an influential healthcare advocate. “He would begin each concert with a message of hope and appreciation for Flint and the audience, and bring us all together in peace.”
For Susan, this reflection of Diemeke’s character and the spirit of the organization was enough to recruit her lifelong commitment. “FIM is an anchor in the community,” she says. “It is egalitarian and classy. It really wants to improve lives, to make its desires real, and to turn mission into action.”

Of course, none of that work would be possible without the dedicated support of volunteers and donors like Carolyn and Susan, who believe in the power of the arts to change our community and our world for the better.

“They certainly embody the legacy of Mrs. J Dallas Dort and all this award represents,” says Lontine. “We are honored to call them friends and grateful they’ve chosen to share their generosity for so many years in service of our mission.”