David Raye was recently presented with the Exchange Club of Grayslake Book of Golden Deeds award. The award has been given to thousands of unsung community leaders since 1919. It is The National Exchange Club’s longest running project, recognizing dedicated volunteers who give endless hours of their time and talents toward making their communities better places to live.

Raye’s dedication to Exchange Club has been an inspiration to the entire organization. The club’s Prevention of Child Abuse program brought Raye to Exchange in 2007 and he has been active ever since. He has served as president and this last year he served as vice president. He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Award in 2015.

Since 2004, Raye and his wife, Donna, have owned the Goddard School in Third Lake. After two decades as an executive in the corporate world, Raye’s two children, Emily and Evan, inspired him to dedicate his life to delivering high-quality education to children. Raye’s belief that every child deserves the chance to develop to their full potential has led him to develop a program of diversity and inclusion and his kindergarten classes. In 2016 Raye was awarded The Humanitarian Award by Goddard Systems Inc. This award is given to an individual that has demonstrated devotion to serving those in need and is involved in community outreach on a local and global level.

In 2005, Raye joined the SEDOL Foundation board of directors, which serves disabled children in Lake County. In 2009, David and Donna designed and launched the Help Them to Hear program to ensure that every Lake County student who cannot afford hearing aids or other hearing assistive technology gets the financial and practical help they need.

For six years, Raye has served on the Deacon Board of Christ Church Lake Forest which consists of leaders who conduct all business on behalf of the church. In 2012, Raye joined the Board of the Hindustan Bible Institute located in Chennai, India.

In 2015 Raye became a board member of Bernie’s Books Bank in Lake Bluff. He worked with the Chicagoland Goddard Schools to bring books and literacy opportunities to at-risk area children by organizing book drives and collected more than 105,000 books, the largest donation the charity has ever received. This is now an annual even that continues to bring books to all children in need in Chicagoland.

In 2016, Raye was presented with SEDOL’s prestigious Heart of Gold Award. The SEDOL Foundation board of trustees created the Heart of Gold Award to honor those who have made significant contributions benefiting SEDOL’s special children.

Raye approaches all projects with passion, patience and humor. His leadership style is collaborative and interactive, and exemplifies the team-building concepts that he obviously learned well in business school. He treats everyone with respect and generosity.

For more information on Exchange Clubs, visit Exchangeofgrayslake.org.

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