Father’s Club Adds Jon Ogren to its Board of Directors

By Dan Holdhusen, Grandfather of three graduates and one currently enrolled in Blue Valley High School

As announced in previously, Father’s Club is proud to announce the election of two dads to its Board of Directors. The previous blog highlighted Dave Strickland, and this one will feature Jon Ogren. Jon and Dave both began serving their terms earlier this summer.

Brief Bio

Jon is a graduate of Colorado State University and began working after college for a financial advisory firm in Denver. While there, Jon met he wife, Gina, who happened to work with the same firm. They moved to Overland Park 25 years ago and have enjoyed living the majority of their married lives in Kansas. Jon and Gina have two children: Austin (a KU graduate who works for Honeywell), and a daughter, Alex, who is currently studying marketing at KU. Both Austin and Alex attended their pre-college scholastic years at Aubry Bend Middle School and Blue Valley Southwest High School.

Why Become Involved with Father’s Club?

Jon’s response to this question is succinct: “America is amazing but becoming less amazing every year. Nearly all could have been and would be impacted positively if we had good dads.” He adds that the civil unrest and looting from a couple of years ago began an ugly cycle that has continued.

“Leadership from dads and the home is critical. Being a dad is not cool, having kids is.” The final punctuation he offers in responding to the ‘why become involved’ question is: “The grassroot level for me is hanging out with other dads and mentors and standing up to today’s world!”

Jon’s involvement with Father’s Club started modestly during the years his kids were in middle and high school, but he could clearly see the advantage and positive impact his involvement had on Austin and Alex – but also on him personally.

Entering a new “season” of life

Now that his kids have graduated and moved on to the next phases of their lives, and Gina’s business is thriving, you would think a dad like Jon might rest on his laurels and build on his past successes and existing business relationships without other distractions. In fact, he is at a time in his professional life that he has been intentional on gaining some margin to expand his involvement in great causes like the Father’s Club.

He explains that he has been blessed with a gift of knowing how to “grow things” or being a catalyst for change, so he is anxious to apply the skills with which he has been blessed and assist Father’s Club to expand its footprint with sustained growth. Instead of becoming complacent and focusing solely on his family and work, he wants to, in his words, “help improve Fatherdom” by volunteering to make a difference in expanding and strengthening the Father’s Club and its mission.

That is one of the reasons that makes Jon an exceptional addition to the Father’s Club Board of Directors.

What specifically would you aspire to do to advance the Mission?

Given Jon’s gifts and training, he would like to assist with building programs to help develop leaders, which is so incredibility important in the bedrock and success of organizations like Father’s Club. With it comes the awesome responsibility of fostering, developing, and nurturing new and existing leaders, and growing leaders at the Regional and Chapter levels and teaching all how to lead with a purpose, and with integrity. Things that do not always come automatically in dads.

An idea Jon plans to espouse is to recruit “veteran” Father’s Club dad/leaders whose kids have completed their secondary education and lend their experience to mentor upcoming dads for leadership. What better resources and talent could be better?!

How does Jon have fun?

On the surface, Jon is amiable and humble. But another Jon lurks inside.

He says that – even in his mid-50s – he loves dressing up and being silly on Halloween. Some of his past costumes include Gene Simmons, Frankenstein, and the Wicked Witch of the West. For this year’s event, he will appear as Hagrid from the Harry Potter series.

No matter the costume, Jon lives life to the fullest, and the Father’s Club is truly fortunate that he has stepped up and offered his “dad” character and talents to serve on the national Board of Directors. This, of course, can also be said about the addition of Dave Strickland to the Board. Both  of these leaders will offer insight and intelligence as they serve, which has been built on years of both being exceptional fathers.