Peabody businessman to receive award for community leadership

PEABODY – Warren Waugh of the Lyon-Waugh Auto Group in Peabody will be honored with the Harry Ankeles Community Service Award by the Peabody Chamber of Commerce Thursday during their 77th Annual Dinner.Waugh is being recognized for his exemplary spirit of selfless dedication and leadership to the community that the man whom the award is named after exhibited throughout his life.”A lot of people are probably unaware of the extent of Warren’s generosity, as he prefers to maintain a low profile,” said Martha Holden, chairperson of the Chamber’s Community Service Committee. “We were thrilled when he was nominated by Mayor (Michael) Bonfanti.”From donating cars off his BMW dealership lot to providing top notch Dell computers to IT students at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, Waugh has nearly done it all in terms of giving back to the community.”I haven’t said no to too many causes,” said a bashful Waugh. “This is where we work. This is where my employees live. Since we began our business here in 1994, the one thing we agreed to is that if we were successful, we would give back. It was fairly easy for me to do the right thing and write a check here and there to help out different causes.”Of all the projects he’s been involved in, which include sitting on the board of the new YMCA, Make a Wish Foundation, Walk for Hospice, the Jimmy Fund, and Angel Flight, nothing means more to him than what he and his business have done for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.Over the last 13 years, Waugh has helped to raise over $350,000 for cancer research. He proudly admits that his company set a personal record this year by raising $50,000 in just a matter of hours.His interest in the organization really hit full throttle when a close co-worker and all of her sisters developed the disease.”It’s been something that has tugged at my heart strings for years,” he said. “I’ve got my wife, two daughters, and my mother’s still alive?This is something that has meant a lot to me.”As for his donations to the high school four years ago, to Waugh, it just seemed to make sense.”Somebody needed to make a statement,” he said, noting the financial difficulties Peabody High faced at the time. “I was hoping that other business people would follow. I could have cared less if I got any publicity out of it. I just felt like somebody needed to do something for the teachers and the children.”Waugh said he’s honored, yet embarrassed to be recognized with such high regard. To him, doing what he does isn’t “simple.””I don’t have anything but appreciation,” he said. “I’m absolutely in awe of the people I’m associated with.”