What are your goals in your role at your company?
At Swerve Outreach, I am working to expand the transportation reach of our Altoona Kids Cafe program to provide summer meals and enrichment opportunities to more children in eastern Polk County. This will be our fifth summer, and our goal is to serve 5,000 meals during our six-week program.

What are your goals for community involvement?
In addition to board secretary of the Southeast Polk Education Foundation, I am also co-chairing our planning committee for our Annual Black & Gold Gala in April. Our goal this year is to raise $30,000 to further our mission of providing a world-class education to all students at Southeast Polk Community Schools.

What’s your biggest passion, and why?
Providing opportunities to help and empower youth, especially the underserved. Everything I do, every board and committee that I serve on, it’s all about the kids. What more can I do to help provide them with access to food during school breaks, summer learning opportunities, better nutrition, a quality education?

What is it that drives you?
My motivation stems from the love I have for my children. I want the world for them — every opportunity. I want that for all children. I also want my kids to know that I saw something in the world that needed changing, and I did my best to change it. 

What are your future aspirations?
I have a shared vision with other leaders in my area for collaborating with local businesses, churches and nonprofits to build a community center for the underserved in eastern Polk County. One of the many programs it would offer would be after-school programming for youth, through Swerve Outreach.

Reasons she’s a Forty:

1.) Maggie co-founded Altoona Kids Cafe in 2013. It is the only Summer Food Service Program providing healthy meals and learning opportunities to children 18 and under in the Southeast Polk School District.
2.) She co-founded Swerve Outreach.
3.) She was a founding board member of the Southeast Polk Education Foundation.
4.) She was the Altoona Area Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Citizen of the Year in 2016.

See all 2018 honorees