Lancaster Mennonite School (LM) has announced that Daniel D. Mast and Jennie Weaver Groff and Jonathan Groff are the 2022 Alumni of the Year. The Alumni of the Year awards are presented annually to alumni who have recently made a significant contribution through service in their community, profession, family, or church. Recipients are selected from nominations made by LM alumni; members of the Alumni Association, faculty, or board of directors; and other friends of LM.

Dan, Class of 1977, lives in Willow Street and is a practicing physician of internal medicine at Union Community Care in Lancaster, with added qualifications in geriatric medicine. After serving with Indian Health Service and as an internist and early hospitalist with CIGNA in Arizona in the '90s, he returned to Pennsylvania and private internal medicine/geriatric practice. His practice provided hospital, office, long-term, and wound care. He served as medical director for three wound centers combined with clinical teaching of students, residents and fellows. He has served as a board officer for Landis Communities and its long-term care facility. His passion is for serving and caring for a diverse range of elders, balanced with mentoring and teaching the next generation to be competent and compassionate medical caregivers.

Dan and his late wife, Cindy, have four adult children, who are all alumni of LM, and five grandchildren. Dan is a member of the James Street Mennonite Church community. Dan has been faithful donor to LM, and Cindy was a longtime board member at the school. In the spring of 2022, Dan donated a Southern magnolia to LM, which the Mast family gathered to plant in honor of Cindy's caring legacy.

Jennie is a member of the LM Class of 1995, and Jonathan is a member of the Class of 1993. In 2010, they joined ownership of Stroopie Inc., a social enterprise that exists to provide meaningful employment for resettled refugee women while making Stroopies stroopwafel cookies. In 2016, the Groffs opened the Sweet Shoppe in downtown Lancaster, where they offer their family's Groff's Candies, local ice cream, and freshly made Stroopies.

Their employees, women resettled in Lancaster from Syria, Sudan, Congo, Nepal, Burma, and Eritrea, make approximately 15,000 Stroopies a week, which are sold in Lancaster and across the U.S. During the paid work day, the women participate in an English as a Second Language class that helps to prepare them to take on management roles at Stroopies or to enter other careers.

The Groffs have four children and live in Lancaster city, where they participate in a home church. Jennie and their employees often visit LM to speak in chapel about their social enterprise, the impact it is having on the women, and ways God is working.

To learn more about the Alumni of the Year, visit http://www.lancastermennonite.org/alumni/.

The Alumni of the Year presentation will be held during the World Changers Gala event on Friday, March 31. Persons are invited to come celebrate LM and show their support at this fundraiser auction and gala event with proceeds going toward supporting Christ-centered education. To learn more about the event and to register, visit http://www.lancastermennonite.org/events/world-changers-gala-2023/.