BY JIMMY LAWTONNorth Country This Week

OGDENSBURG -- The Ogdensburg Community is reeling at the loss of a prominent business owner, philanthropist and community leader who worked to make the city a better place to live.

Bonnie Wright died Tuesday March 25. She served as the CEO of Pepsi-Cola Ogdensburg Bottlers,  which was founded by her father Richard E. Winter in 1943.

Ogdensburg County Legislator Jim Reagen said the community lost an unsung hero.

“She and her family have always been there for community organizations of all kinds for the young people of the North Country. Her dad Richard Winters set the family tradition of community service that’s been carried on by Bonnie and her husband and their son Scott,” he said.

Her generosity has bolstered the Ogdensburg Community through charitable gifts and community service. That includes massive contributions to the Richard E. Winter Center which provides cancer treatment to the North Country.

Her legacy also reached an extensive list of volunteer organizations including The Ogdensburg Boys and Girls Club, Ogdensburg Garden Club, the Hepburn Auxiliary, Zonta, Frederic Remington Art Museum, Canisius College Trustees, Ringling College Of Art and Design Trustees, OFA Band Boosters, Odyssey of the Mind, Ogdensburg Seaway Festival, Clintons Ditch Cooperative Board of Directors, and the Sensational Seventies Reunion, her obituary notes.

Ogdensburg Mayor Tooley offered appreciation for Wright and condolences for her family in a public statement released Thursday.

"It is with much sadness that I learned today of the passing on March 25 of Bonnie Wright. During her lifetime Bonnie was a prominent leader in our city who proudly carried on the legacy in many ways of her father, Richard E. Winter,” the mayor wrote.

He said her contributions were many.

“Bonnie’s contributions to civic organizations were many, among them her volunteer work for the Ogdensburg Boys and Girls Club, the Ogdensburg Garden Club, the Hepburn Auxiliary, Zonta, the Frederic Remington Art Museum, OFA Band Boosters, Odyssey of the Mind, Ogdensburg Seaway Festival and the Sensational Seventies Reunion (which so many of us enjoyed in 1979),” the mayor said. “In 2012, and over the next five years, Bonnie and Pepsi-Cola Ogdensburg Bottlers, Inc. made a generous contribution to the City of Ogdensburg that allowed Ogdensburg residents to enjoy the Elsa M. Luksich Municipal Pool free of charge, another example of Bonnie providing opportunities for families to enjoy life in our community.

“On behalf of the City of Ogdensburg, I extend condolences to Bonnie Wright’s family at this time of loss. Citizens of Ogdensburg and the North Country truly benefited from Bonnie’s life in our city," he wrote.

Her obituary can be found at https://www.northcountrynow.com/stories/bonita-bonnie-anne-wright-71-ogdensburg,291218?