Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this December 13th, 2023.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
We are joined today by our great friends from Encourage.
We have Kim Shields with us.
Kim, good to see you.
Great to see you. Thanks for having us.
Thanks for being here.
We also want to say good morning to Don Newman.
Good to be here too.
Thanks, Don. Don, did I say right, Newman?
Yes.
I did. Okay.
Pam, write that down. I got a last name, right.
I always get Betsy's right because it's wood.
It's easy. Betsy.
Yes, thanks for having us.
Thank you for being here, Betsy.
Appreciate the time.
All three of you will really do appreciate it.
Not only you guys being here, but what you do for our community.
Thank you very much for this.
I appreciate that.
Betsy, if you don't mind, I'd like to kind of start right with you
in the Community Foundations 30th Anniversary.
Yes.
Yes, thank you.
Well, Encourage is celebrating 30 years this year.
Big 30.
And really, we are Southwood County area's community foundation.
So we're here for everybody.
And it just wanted to take time to thank everybody
that's been part of this 30 years from the initial board
to our current board, to staff members,
to all of the leadership teams,
volunteers, and all of our donors and people
that have participated in making good things happen
for this area.
So thank you to everybody.
It's exciting to be at this 30-year mark.
It's impressive.
I have to admit, I did not realize it's been 30 years.
And it feels like it, not that it feels one of those things,
like when you know how this works,
where you got a friend or somebody that you,
it feels like we've known each other forever,
but you just met.
It's a little like that it feels like with Encourage.
Because while it is 30 strong years,
and boy, we could spend hours talking about all the impact
Encourage has made over those 30 years.
But so much of the time that we share with Encourage
on the air here is focused on another organization
or another company or something.
I love the idea that we can take a stance
to really unpack things that encourage a little bit.
So much of the things that we enjoy about this area
or that we are benefited by from this area,
Encourage has a hand in.
So it's kind of nice to be able to do that.
And I think when we say that the word encourage even,
I think just what you gave us right there, Betsy,
not everybody thinks about all the time.
Oh yeah, board members or volunteers.
Like we think of Encourage.
We don't always think about all these layers to it.
It's nice to take a moment to be able to appreciate that.
Yes, it really does.
How and why did Encourage begin, Betsy?
Well, actually Encourage started with a dream.
Virginia Brasso was really had a had a fill in
and she loved the community.
And she wanted to create an opportunity for anybody
in the community to see philanthropy happen.
And she saw that there was a gap.
She represented the core of philanthropy
and by seeing that need,
she took a step to make that dream come true.
And she created and initiated that dream
by creating at that time,
Southwood County Community Foundation.
And it's a place where anybody can have a dream
or participate in making good things happen for our community.
So when she was looking at creating
Encourage Community Foundation,
obviously she was a woman.
She was coming up with opposition.
But there were people that rallyed around her
and saw her dream and wanted to take it forward.
And so officially we became the community foundation
of Southwood County in November 15th of 1993.
But we started actually opening our doors
as of March 1993.
So that's the 30 years.
We kind of we kind of passed the official date,
but it really opened and we started
going through the steps of being a community foundation in 1994.
The initial board of directors started with Virginia,
John Barzanti, and William Reister.
Did I say that name right?
Yes, Reister.
Nice job, nice job.
So when you look at who we were back then
and who we are today really goes back to the core of Virginia's vision.
She wanted a place where all could participate.
She wanted a place that would really meet the changing needs of our community.
And that's what we still focus on today.
And that's why we bring on other organizations
because we feel it's important for the people of this community
to know how they can participate in making good things happen for our community.
I don't want to put any one of you on the spot or anything,
but do we know how many board members in Courts has now?
How many currently are on the board?
Currently we have four board members,
and we're currently looking for more.
Going from the three to the more,
I think that is an interesting arc for the encourage as well.
Yeah, and it's gone up and down through the years.
But yes, we're at four right now.
Yeah, when you join us, Kim,
whether it's bringing somebody in or not,
one of the things you and I love to make sure we touch on in every interview
is, hey, if you have a thought, if you have an idea,
bring it to encourage.
You just never know.
You think, well, I don't know how much people would really love kayaks in this area,
but I think that that would be our area would benefit from kayaks.
Bring it to encourage.
See what happens and all of a sudden we got a kayaks in the summer and stuff.
Like, these kind of things can happen.
That idea is how encouraged started.
Like, that's pretty darn cool.
That's pretty unique to see that full circleness of it.
I love that.
I love the symmetry of life,
and it's there for you just to wait and for you to see so many times.
And there we have somewhere.
She had this idea that I think that,
you know, well, now it's very easy for us to say,
well, this is a really good idea.
I'm sure there were some naysayers.
I'm sure there were some people that probably didn't think
that maybe this was a necessity thing or not necessary.
And here we are.
30 years later, just from one person having one idea in town.
That could be you.
That could be something you think of.
Bring these ideas to encourage.
That's a beautiful thing.
That's really cool to tell us about.
Thank you for that.
Yeah.
Really interesting.
Don, I've got to put you on the spot now.
Don, what makes encourage unique from other non-profits?
Thank you for that question.
Yeah, so encourage is a community foundation.
And the concept behind a community foundation is that
it is by and for the community.
And it focuses generally on an area.
Marshfield has a community foundation.
Steven's point has a community foundation.
ours focuses on this area.
But we also collaborate and work more regionally as well.
One of the things that differentiates it from a private foundation,
a private foundation is where you have someone who has either with themselves
or their family a decent amount of philanthropic assets.
And they decide to make a foundation.
And then they give away those assets.
But they don't generally collect contributions from the public.
A community foundation really survives on the public contributing widely.
Pulling those dollars, investing those dollars sometimes for long-term endowments
that help to support a long-term or sometimes for pass-through funds
for projects that are happening currently.
But it makes Finland philanthropy accessible to all.
Because whether you have a dollar or millions of dollars,
you can all participate.
So that's the thing.
And we don't we do in the past and currently do do some programs.
We do speak your piece.
We've done trainings in the past.
We've had community picnics in the past.
And that can be similar to other non-profits who actually supply programs.
But the part that's unique for us is also collecting those contributions
that can be pooled and then held for the long-term and then doled out over time
to make sure that other non-profits and programs have long-term support.
My Nana growing up, she's a really, really loved mother Teresa.
She used to say that everybody's got a little mother in her.
They got a little mother Teresa and everybody does.
And you say something there that really speaks to that, I think.
The everybody has an opportunity to be a philanthropist through this.
Not everybody has the money Bill and Melinda Gates have maybe or something like that.
But everybody wants to do that.
Almost everybody out there that's listening,
this wants to get back to their community or wants,
especially this time of year.
Encourage gives you that opportunity to do that, to have that feeling.
That's really powerful for people too.
That ability to know that you're not only doing something for your community,
but you can be a part, you can be just as big of an integral part of it as anybody else.
Sometimes when we don't have a lot, or you know, those things,
we don't think we can do that kind of stuff.
That's really important note and it's neat to think of too at the same time.
That's very interesting.
Do we have other examples of this Betsy?
Well, I was just going to say, 95% of the assets that we have are actually designated for
specific purposes.
If somebody comes to us and wants to start an idea that they have,
so a couple of organizations that we did help.
One example is the Doves Nest,
which is a wonderful, wonderful, respite retreat
for those that are facing serious medical challenges.
And that was a dream that came to us by the Dove family to fulfill Alex's dream.
And encourage was there from the beginning to help them through all the logistical things
that are needed to set up.
Initially, it was a fund at encourage to help them get through this process.
Since then, they've gotten their wings, so to speak, and now they are their own
nonprofit organization.
Wonderful, wonderful opportunity.
And we're so blessed that we were able to help them through that process.
Another example is the Lacy, a smile for Lacy, from Lacy, I should say.
And there's actually two funds at encourage.
And this was a similar situation where Lacy did have a serious medical condition.
And her conversation with her mom resulted in a fund to help those that are seeking
or having medical expenses and are going through that same type of situation that she went through.
So that fund is set up specifically to help those in need.
There's also a scholarship fund that was set up in her memory.
So there's so many different things that people can do if they have an idea.
Or if they want to help others in need.
And there's funds that we have that are set up already that if you don't want to set
up your own fund, you can donate to a fund to help support that idea.
Another idea is the Dictricle Memorial.
Right.
We really walked through that whole process with that committee and initially had a fund that
helped them through the fundraising and the creation of the Dictricle Memorial.
And now they have an endowed fund to help sustain that memorial well into the future.
So those are the types of funds that are designated.
And 95% of the funds that we do have are for specific purposes.
And when we work with people with those ideas, we do set up a legal contract that we need to
fulfill to continue to administer those wishes well into the future.
And then that leaves 5% unrestricted that encourage can use for helping us keep the lights on,
but also helping to meet those changing needs that Virginia really wanted us to be part of.
And as needs arise, we're able to help those needs and help fulfill those situations as they come up.
Perfect examples.
Thank you Betsy for that.
It gives us a wide gamut of different examples and different varieties and layers to them and everything.
But one of the consistent themes of that is encourage helping set organization.
Now set organization is on its own feet.
It's running itself.
I think that's an integral part of what encourage does.
It's not just feeding somebody.
It's not just giving somebody a fish.
It's helping them learn how to fish.
That's an integral part of what you guys do there, which I think is so beautiful about this too.
It's one thing to, hey, we're going to give you a hand and then we're gone.
No, no, we're going to give you a hand and we're going to make sure to help you so this keeps going.
And you don't need us anymore.
You can do this on your own.
It's one of those beautiful things we can do in life.
Any of us that are parents understand that.
The second you help your kid learn to ride a bike and they're riding on the road.
It is as great as it feels that they're riding their own.
You know, you still have an attachment to that and everything.
So it's really cool.
And I imagine that there's a piece of your heart in each one of these organizations as well.
Oh, definitely.
Yeah, and we're just, we're grateful to be able to be here for the community
to help each person with the ideas and the aspirations they have.
It's an honor.
It really is.
So James, when you were talking about, you know, it remains with you as part of your heart.
So there's a couple of programs too that we've supported and helped them to move into another
organization, you know.
So like the Workforce Central Project, a lot of people are aware in the community of that.
That was, you know, a decade-long project where we had received some national funding
from the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.
And it was incredible.
Through that, we were able to help connect employees, businesses,
schools, you know, what help identify what the needs were.
What are future workers going to need?
Looking ahead at the Silver Sunami to fill those gaps.
It was just such an incredible program that had grant funding support.
And, you know, the program, you know, got legs.
And, you know, what other organization in the community now has the capacity to lead that.
And we were able to work with Mid-State Technical College.
And now the program is over there.
So that's a great example of a program where the others, you know,
might be the memorial, you see the project, you see the beautiful duffs nest
and how they're impacting people.
But this is a program.
And then, you know, that is now integrated into Mid-State Technical College.
And they're continuing to work with those schools, businesses,
and the employee workforce efforts.
You don't always get to see the physical impacts of these things in the physical
manifestations of them, but they are, they are felt.
They are still felt and they are still making a ripple effect in our community.
That's a really good one to bring up, Kim.
Thank you for that.
One of the also touching, as we are touching on these topics that are so vital and so important,
there's also understanding that there are so many causes out there.
And so many different things that pull in our heartstrings, that call in our attention,
all the more reason as these things come up to go to encourage, bring them to encourage.
We've always got room.
We've got more room over there where our heart's a big.
We can fill a lot in them.
And I also wanted to make sure to mention too that encourage, I mentioned before, the kayaking.
I said, you know, having kayaks to rent in that.
There's so many programs like that that encourage has been an integral part too.
There are that side of this too, whether it's fun things or just things that we're looking to
bring into the community, we think, hey, this would work really well here.
There's no bad ideas.
You know, we can't promise that everything's going to make, you know, go through with.
I'm trying to get Kim to give me an opportunity with the Simpsons One Man Show.
I'm telling you, I think the community really like it.
We'll see. We'll see.
You know, one of these days, maybe I'll be able to pull this off.
But there are no bad ideas.
I didn't imagine.
It's just on you to bring it to encourage.
That's the first step.
Go to encourage, reach out to encourage.
And Kim, how can people participate and do that?
How can they make good on the things happening in our community?
So the first thing is to just give us a call and have a conversation.
A lot of times we're able to help connect individuals.
You know, maybe their idea is already happening in the community
or we're aware of others that have a similar interest.
And so connecting people is really a big part of what we do.
For instance, big brothers, big sisters was entering our community.
You know, they've been here about a year.
And I was so grateful to be able to connect with them and have a conversation.
And through our conversations, you know,
identify some service groups and clubs that they could reach out to for potential.
Identifying some potential mentors.
And that was, that was really important to anyone launching.
I don't want to pat myself on the back, but that's something that we help them do
to launch into our community.
I'll pat you on the back.
I'll do a for you.
Yeah.
I have a hard time doing that.
Yes, you do.
Yes, you do.
I'll make sure to do it for you.
So like, you know, prior to us,
our radio program today, you were talking with the hitners.
And years ago, they had an idea with so,
with several other people in the community.
There were some farmers, so natural foods, farm to table.
There were some local musicians.
And they were talking, you know, we'd like to celebrate our local foods.
What can we do?
Hey, we have a parking lot that has availability.
You know, these people were donating their time.
They wanted to be able to highlight different local foods.
So, you know, have some food available.
Talk about it.
Just try to make those connections with individuals with similar interests.
And they had a monthly segment.
It was meet me at the market.
And that was something that was supported through a what-if grant.
You know, what if, how could we do this?
And they brought all these people together.
And they had a monthly open community celebration meeting time
to talk about local resources and just celebrate our community.
So that was, you know, that's kind of a good example of
guests that were just done prior to us.
Yeah, yes, yes.
The ChiEx, while we didn't support ChiEx directly,
the ChiEx launched.
We had helped provide a grant to help fund that.
There were the outdoor fitness park.
Right.
That's across from the hospital along the river.
You know, when Dr. Eggy had passed away,
the family and so many community members wanted to honor him.
And just thinking, what could we do?
Well, you know, we don't have an outdoor fitness park.
How could we make this happen?
And we were one of several people that helped pay
organizations that helped provide some financial support.
But a lot of times it's helping to make that connection.
Yeah.
You have this idea and it may seem like, well,
I don't know if other people would like it or I don't know if other people
have thought of this or anything.
And then you find out through encourage or these connections.
Oh, I'm not alone on this and I can work with so and so on this project.
So you're bringing even more of a local feel to it and more local power to it
to these things.
Betsy, I also want to remind people that, you know, maybe you don't have an idea.
Maybe it's not a thought or a passion that pulls you to one thing or another.
But there are opportunities to still make an impact with encourage
through donations and matching donations and things like this.
Yes.
And thank you for that segue because we had a wonderful anonymous donor come to us
and wanted to help us encourage
raise money for our operations and for things that we do and for
community needs as they arise.
And so it's that 5% that we are raising the money for.
And this donor graciously offered a $30,000 match for us to honor our 30 years.
And it is going from now until 330.
Nice.
Isn't that nice?
Oh, very well done.
Very well done.
And we're so grateful to this donor and really donations of any size
will be matched one to one through 330.
Oh, that's a beautiful thing.
That's really cool.
Yes, it is.
God, we got a great.
So excited to be able to announce that.
Love this community.
We got such a good community.
That's really cool to hear.
We're speaking with our friends from Encourage right now.
And Kim, I wanted to give you a chance to touch on a couple of announcements that we have.
Yes.
Great.
Thank you so much.
So at Encourage, as Betsy said, our founder was Virginia Brezzo.
Her birthday would have been tomorrow, December 14th.
That is always a really, really important day for us at the Community Foundation.
We like to honor her, remember her.
Make sure that people know about her and how her dream started Encourage.
And along with doing that, when Virginia initially helped establish the Community Foundation,
it came with a long-term philanthropic gift.
So every year on her birthday, we establish a 100-year fund.
And so money is put into a 100-year fund that cannot be distributed until 100 years has passed.
Wow, it's that cool.
So we are just so honored.
So we'll be doing that tomorrow.
But please join us in thinking about and remembering Virginia.
And this incredible gift that she gave to our community.
That got me.
That really got me.
Oh, that is beautiful.
Oh, that is really good.
Do you can't make the guy talk in speechless.
You guys are really good.
That's beautiful.
So we're really, really honored to be able to share that news for tomorrow.
So please think of her.
And then on Friday, local students, our online scholarship application opens.
The schools have all been notified.
We've had it on our social.
Take a look at that.
Our application is open this year from December 15th to January 25th.
So just about six weeks.
And we're really excited.
And in talking to the guidance counselors, they have kids rare and to go as well.
So we're super excited and start those applications on Friday if you can.
Yeah, make sure to add to anybody out there spread the word about that as well.
If you happen to know a local high school student or something like that,
maybe your kids are in school.
They spread the word about this.
Absolutely.
We have some for continuing college students as well.
It's a great program.
Yeah.
Good time to do it over your winter break.
Yes.
Yeah, I know that's my mom made me do it.
That's what you have to do.
That's all my winter break was.
Happy holidays.
As we wrap up here with our last couple of minutes,
did anybody have anything else?
Betsy, did you have anything?
Or yes, Dawn, did you?
Yeah, one thing that I think we haven't touched on yet that is an important part of
how things can be done through encourage is
sometimes people want to be honored for the contributions they make
or noted in the community.
Sometimes people want to do it very quietly behind the scenes.
And through encourage, any philanthropy you do can be done on an anonymous basis.
And so sometimes people love to help and just kind of stay in the background.
And we're able to do that for them as well.
And actually do that quite often.
Yes.
It's a really good note.
Thank you for that, Dawn.
I appreciate that.
And thank you all.
Thank you so much for everything.
Not only you're doing the impact you make,
but just hanging out with us and being great community members.
I appreciate you also very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We people want to find out more.
Kind of if they want to be a part of things with encourage,
they have ideas.
How can they reach out to you all?
Give us a call at 715-423-3863.
Or you can send us an email at helloatincouragecf.org.
I love that email address.
I love that email.
That's great.
Thank you all very much again.
And thank you.
Happy holidays.
Happy holidays to you.
Merry Christmas.
Happy Hanukkah.
Thank you.
And we thank you all.
And happy holidays to you all of you and yours.
And we'll have more Midday Magazine for you tomorrow right here
at 97-5 FM 13-20 AM WFHR locally grown radio.
