Florie Wachtenheim to Receive 2012 Scarsdale Bowl

Florie Wachtenheim has been selected by the Scarsdale Bowl Committee to receive the 2012 Scarsdale Bowl, the highest honor for service to Scarsdale. Wachtenheim will be the 75th recipient of the Scarsdale Bowl Award and the 22nd woman selected. Nominators on the Scarsdale Bowl Committee recommended Wachtenheim as “a volunteer leader in Scarsdale who invariably worked cooperatively with neighbors to make the right choices as a group. Her ability to find and solidify a consensus has been exceptional. Her trustworthiness and caring often have carried a group beyond sharp differences and to view changes in a new light.“

Wachtenheim has experienced and led an extensive “tour” of educational service opportunities over her years in Scarsdale from the day she became a resident in 1981 with a husband and one child. Even before her third son was born in 1989, she already had accepted responsibility in the Fox Meadow School PTA.

Her “tour” was marked by growing levels of responsibility from the time in 1994 when she became President of the Fox Meadow PTA. Important roles have been accorded to her at Scarsdale PT Council, School Board Nominating Committee, Middle School PTA, Scarsdale Teen Center, Scarsdale Bowl Committee, Scarsdale Scholarship Fund, Scarsdale Board of Education, League of Women Voters, and Scarsdale Adult School.

Wachtenheim’s sons attended Scarsdale schools, K-12, and now are graduates of colleges and universities. Her business activities included, for twenty years, a role as Administrative Vice President, Merchants Importing, Inc. She is now an Associate at the executive search organization Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, Ltd. where she conducts executive searches for school districts.

Asked about her reaction to the news, Wachtenheim said, “Quite frankly, I was astonished and actually a little bit unnerved. I’ve always felt tremendous support for the contribution and spirit this award acknowledges, and I did not consider that I came close to meeting the standard that the Scarsdale Bowl represents.”

What were her favorite volunteer posts? Wachtenheim told us that she enjoyed “those connected to education, and most emphatically, those where I’ve been able to feel a direct connection to people in the community including the Fox Meadow PTA Presidency, the Board of Education Presidency, and chairing the Scarsdale Bowl Committee in 2008.

Some of her most memorable volunteer jobs including her work on the founding of the Teen Center, on the steering committee to explore an education foundation for Scarsdale as well as serving as a judge of the Middle School speech contest, as a facilitator at Young Writer’s Conference and as the liaison to the High School government at SHS.

The Scarsdale Bowl Dinner on Wednesday, April 18, celebrates the spirit of volunteerism in Scarsdale and includes the high moment when the Scarsdale Bowl is received. The Scarsdale Bowl Committee was formed initially as an independent entity in Scarsdale. It remains an independent committee of resident citizens, but the Scarsdale Foundation has the duty to maintain the Scarsdale Bowl tradition. For further information, go to www.scarsdalefoundation.org .