YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Greg Greenwood, president of Greenwood Chevrolet in Austintown and Hubbard, points to advice from his father as one factor that drives the philanthropic efforts of him and his wife, Alice.
Examples of their philanthropy range from contributions to the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital and vehicle donations to local United Way campaigns to funding multiple college scholarships and providing meals for hospital staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They give to every type of charity,” Gina Marinelli says. “They are very diversified in what they support.”
Marinelli, senior gift officer for Mercy Health Foundation Mahoning Valley, nominated the Greenwoods for the Outstanding Philanthropists Award. They agreed to meet with her when she was raising funds for the Abdu Center.
“They have been instrumental. They have been wonderful,” Marinelli says, in helping Mercy. “They almost never say ‘no’ ” when she tells them about a project.
Greg Greenwood’s career in the automobile business began in 1982, when he started to work at the car dealership that his father, Bud Greenwood, had bought two years earlier from Marv Minneman. Two years later, he married Alice, whom he had met when they were freshmen at Ohio University, where he was studying marketing and accounting, and she was an interior design student.
As he considers what influences the couple’s philanthropy, Greenwood points to his wife’s Catholic upbringing as well as his upbringing by his parents. His father taught him how to succeed in the car business and his mother impressed upon him the need to be involved in the community.
“They both met in the middle, so to speak, in their support,” he says. “And the one thing my dad said over the years of working so hard to get these businesses established was that he wished he would have had more time and a different perspective to be able to give back.”
Greenwood took that as “marching orders” to do what he could when he saw an opportunity to help.
“We are in a very blessed situation because our community has been so supportive of us and there’s so many opportunities to give here locally,” he says.
“We see such a need in the community,” Alice Greenwood says. “Many kids can’t afford to go to college. So we are happy that we can help in that way.”
The couple also provide help to organizations like the American Red Cross, United Way and others,
“We’ve been so blessed that we want to be able to give back,” she says.