Celebrating 21 Years Of Prayer
Twenty-one years ago, an area Christian named Gus Yeager birthed the idea and vision to have a Toledo citywide annual mayor’s prayer breakfast. The aim was to not only pray with and for the leaders of Toledo but also provide an opportunity to present the good news of the Gospel to leaders of the City. (Gus was an insurance agent at the time with Daniel James Insurance Agency but had also previously been instrumental in the founding of Toledo Christian Schools. Gus and his family have a long history of spearheading and involvement in many Christian ministries. Gus later became the Chaplain of the UT football team among other things.) While nobody can accurately determine the attendance at the first breakfast; within a couple of years, Gus turned the responsibility of the breakfast over to a newly formed group of Christian businessmen: Ray Barrett, CFO of LOF at the time, Mark Lassiter, partner at Price Waterhouse and Jim McWhinnie, owner of Daniel James Insurance Agency and several others including current Treasurer Rick Smith. This group had been formed to disciple Christian business men. The annual event was now called the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast to be more inclusive than just Toledo.
Not long thereafter, Gus’ brother Wally Yeager, Jr. became involved with the group and thru Wally’s long association and involvement with Christian Business Men’s Committee, USA. Wally was on the National board. Their father Wally Yeager, Sr., founder and owner of Seaway Foodtown also became involved. (Wally Yeager, Sr., was instrumental in the founding of Christian Business Men’s Committee, USA itself in the mid 1930’s.) Since the mission and purpose of the group of business men was the same as CBMC, which was to build and develop stronger Christian business men and to share the Gospel, the Toledo group of men became affiliated with CBMC. The prayer breakfast now became known as CBMC Metro Toledo Prayer Breakfast. Chairmanship of the breakfast was shared by different men from the group each year.
To be even more wide-ranging, the name was changed to Business and Community Leader’s Prayer Breakfast to include as much of Northwest Ohio as possible with not only people from the business community but also people in government, education and other areas of the community. The breakfast grew in numbers each year to finally reach the maximum capacity of the facility of 1,000. The location used for most of the history of the breakfast was Gladieux Meadows on Heatherdowns in Toledo. The breakfast was also moved on the calendar from late winter to spring to coincide with the National Day of Prayer.
Another name change occurred along the way to NW Ohio Community and Business Leaders. The CBMC involvement became only represented by the Perrysburg CBMC and was sustained primarily though the efforts of Jeff Silliman of Master Chemical. As the energy of the group began to diminish, assistance was sought and found from New Hope Christian Community Foundation and Jim Oedy and their broad network of Christian business men. Al Caperna, owner of Century Marketing in Bowling Green, was soon instrumental in the leadership of the breakfast. With the infusion of new men and energy, the breakfast regained its maximum capacity of 1,000 for the last several years which has become a prime networking event for many of the leaders of Northwest Ohio. The YMCA of Greater Toledo also became involved in recent years and has provided much needed assistance with the breakfast.










