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A Message From Dawn

17 Aug

Posted at 17:43h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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Have you ever seen that movie where the slacker boyfriend arrives to pick up the beautiful daughter for a date with his credo tattoo, ‘NO RAGRETS’, emblazoned boldly across his chest like a Happy Birthday banner? The dad takes one look at his daughter’s poor decision-making and says, “No regrets, huh? Not even a single letter?” It’s funny—if it’s not your daughter. Ironically, I thought of this movie scene recently as I read about a more serious concept—the difference between victors and victims. Two letters. In the book, Victors & Victims, author Ken Harrison posits that those who find success and joy in life are those who know who they are and give it versus those who know what they want and take it. Wow. Let that knowledge nugget sink in for a minute. That’s a powerful thought—made even more powerful by a jovial discussion that happened in the CoFo office this past week. You see, there are a couple of teammates in the office who have actually said OUT LOUD, in front of people—as in not secretly—that they’re beginning to like 2020. <<insert GASP here>> For now, these two colleagues shall remain nameless, although I don’t think they’d even mind if I...

29 Apr

Posted at 13:04h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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I’ve always said if someone made a movie about my life that Jimmy Fallon would play my husband and Queen Latifa would play me. Why Queen Latifa? I don’t know really. She just always strikes me as a strong, independent woman, and I love her movies. Why Jimmy Fallon? Because I think he’s hilarious. And Jerry is one of the funniest people I know! If you haven’t watched any of Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show tapings from the comfort of his own home, with his wife representing the entire camera crew and his daughters, Winnie and Franny, stealing the whole show, you’re really missing out. When Winnie and Franny ‘Boo’ during his Tonight Show monologue, your ears could not hear more joyous little giggles. And for some reason, those tiny soprano ‘Boos’ reminded me of another Fallon skit that he did on SNL…back when SNL was still funny. Remember the “Move” skit? This skit took place in an office environment where they were having a bit of technology trouble—we’ve all been there, right? Instead of helping his officemates figure out how to fix their computers, he simply barks out a demanding “Mooooove!”  I’m sure we’ve all met this tech guy before....

28 Jan

Posted at 15:47h in A Message From Dawn
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As Shelly said a couple of weeks ago, ‘We’re back’!  That means my blog’s back, too.  Hurray! If feels good.  I’ve missed writing it. I’ve missed the words.  I’ve missed you.  The truth is, Lilly Endowment Inc. blessed Grant County with what I think Texans call a couple few grant opportunities. I’m not sure if that term is a real thing or not.  All I know is that the GIFT VII grant opportunity knocks on more than a few doors and less than some doors—so, a couple few doors. And we’re not about to make them knock twice. As soon as news of this huge investment Lilly Endowment Inc. made in Grant County arrived in my inbox, a different couple few things happened immediately:  (1)  I ran to ring our celebration bell to harken anyone who happened to be in hearing distance at the time to the workroom, (2) I took a big breath and then announced this amazing donation, (3) cheers of elation ensued, (4) followed by an unchoreographed happy dance, (5) then 12 quiet seconds [typically timed on Meagan’s cell phone, for accuracy—since 12 seconds is much longer than you think] to think about this amazing gift just long...

27 Jun

Posted at 15:08h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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The Community Foundation of Grant County received a $75,000 Community Leadership Planning Grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. This grant will deepen the Foundations understanding of the challenges facing Grant County due to our high rate of child poverty, the opportunity to convene key local solution-oriented stakeholders, and both the time and funding to further explore how we can effectively play a leadership role in implementing initiatives—all strategies that enhance the quality of life in Grant County. Lilly Endowment Inc. challenged 94 community foundations across the State of Indiana to become stronger community leaders. This grant will better position Indiana foundations to serve their communities and lead the charge to prioritize the issues they are best positioned to address. This grant is part of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s seventh phase of its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative.   The GIFT initiative is part of Lilly Endowment’s grantmaking to strengthen Indiana communities and has been a priority of the Endowment since the first phase of GIFT in 1990.  The initiative’s primary aim is to help Indiana community foundations develop the philanthropic capacity to identify, prioritize, and address local opportunities and challenges. The Planning Grant will give the Community Foundation both the time and money to...

24 Apr

Posted at 18:52h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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I think I might be old. I don’t feel old. And no small children have pointed at me in Hobby Lobby and innocently exclaimed, “Look at that old lady, mom!” But, 2019 has flown by. Holy cow—it’s April and Spring already! My grandma always used to say that the older you get the faster time would fly. If your time is also flying, please remember this:  you are the pilot. We live this out at the Community Foundation and, as pilots of our destiny, plot our course intentionally at every turn. In fact, the new President/CEO of the Indiana Philanthropy Alliance, Claudia Cummings, visited our office recently. The first thing she said when she walked in was, “Wow, I feel like I’m at Disney World!”  We couldn’t have said it better. The look and feel of our office represents our culture, and it was designed on purpose. Sure, Disney’s marketing budget is much bigger their ours, so they can claim the title of the happiest place on earth. But in reality, the happiest place on earth is really our office; it’s just that Disney doesn’t know it yet. It’s also one reason that we’ve adopted the moniker this year of “The Happiness Laboratory”....

29 Mar

Posted at 12:57h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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“We’ve got a good one for ya today!” bellows Steve Harvey nearly every weekday evening as we’re preparing dinner and decompressing from the day. Jerry and I always compete to try to outwit each other. He’s pretty good. We laugh at the answers—good and bad, theirs and ours. We laugh at Steve Harvey—he’s so much funnier than Richard Dawson used to be; he just kissed every female contestant, and that was just gross, even back then. And, we laugh at that fifth family member. You know the one; they never have good answers, but they cheer wildly for their family. No doubt, that’s part of the fun; it’s the recipe for game show gold. And, we always judge whether we think they picked the best two family members to play Fast Money. We wonder if they predetermine that decision or if they wait to see who plays the best? We don’t know for sure, but what we do know is that Steve always hits them on the shoulder with his cue card if they’ve nailed it—always. Just watch. He does it every single time. And there’s something about winning $20,000 in Fast Money that makes full grown adults jump up...

17 Jan

Posted at 23:25h in A Message From Dawn
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I’ve been tired this week.  All in favor of blaming winter say ‘aye’.  While it’s true that it’s dark when I wake up and dark when I get home from work, ultimately, I think that re-entry is hard…even if you love your job.  The time off during the holidays spoils you.  Cuddly blankets by the fire and predictable Hallmark movies on 24/7 where Nick (his name is Nick most of the time) always wins the girls heart in the end--you know this because he finally kisses her and the most beautiful white snowflakes begin to fall.  Add all that to staying up late, sleeping in later, decadent food, and the frivolity that extra time provides for friends and family and what do you get?  You get entering 2019 tired.  Or in my husband’s case, entering 2019 re-tired. I know what you’re thinking--how can someone so young and vivacious as me possibly be married to someone old enough to retire?  LOL!  Probably the same way I’m old enough to have a son with a beard!  Somewhere along the way, we blinked, and the years caught up with us. Beware, it happens when you least expect it. As most of you know, my husband...

10 Oct

Posted at 19:32h in A Message From Dawn
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Remember that scene in Elf where Buddy is in the mail room?  He said, “This place reminds me of Santa’s Workshop, except it smells like mushrooms and everyone looks like they want to hurt me.” I laughed out loud when he was sticking mail through the tube and declaring it was ‘very sucky’? Well, we haven’t exactly replicated that at our house, although having a son in Afghanistan is pretty sucky. But, we have set up a  mini-post office in our kitchen. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know my son has been in Afghanistan for the past five months.  Five months that felt more like five minutes—under water.  So, to help the time slip away a bit quicker, for us and him, we send care packages…every week.  So, at all times, we have a couple of corrugated boxes that we’ve snagged from anyone who has recently got an Amazon shipment and we fill them up a bit each day.  Since he’s at a base camp, and not an actual base, there are no grocery stores or amenities like we enjoy.  So, if he’s craving some Oreos, he can’t just drive down to a convenience store or up to...

25 Sep

Posted at 14:03h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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She was feisty. No one would argue that fact. Well, they could try, but they wouldn’t win. I think it must run in our family. The feistiness. Or maybe that’s just what feisty people say. No matter what you call it, the stories are worth remembering and, I think, repeating. Her name was Elvie. Not ElviS, as in the King of Rock and Roll. But ElviE, as in the Queen matriarch of our family. She was as beautiful as she was bold. As an adult, I totally get her—she made things happen. As one of her grandkids, I was occasionally mortified. I know my cousin Cathy remembers well, ‘that one time’ when we were nine-years-old, following our grandma to the back of Kmart. Elvie was in Indiana visiting and took us ‘into town’, as she called it. Her mission that day was a new set of pots and pans for my mom. Chances are my mom didn’t even know she needed a new set of pots and pans. But, Elvie thought she did, so it was happening. However, since grandma wasn’t from Grant County, she didn’t know the layout of the store, so she was having some difficulty locating exactly...

17 Sep

Posted at 02:39h in A Message From Dawn
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The Nonprofit Leadership Consortium has started with a full-capacity class of 30 students. The cohort will meet monthly for this capacity building training to earn their Certificate in Fundraising Management from IU’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and also sharpen their leadership development skills with Harris International. This capacity building training is an investment in the effectiveness and future sustainability of the nonprofit. When capacity building is successful, it strengthens a nonprofit’s ability to fulfill its mission over time, thereby enhancing the nonprofit’s ability to have a positive impact on lives and communities. Capacity building is whatever is needed to bring a nonprofit to the next level of operational, programmatic, financial, or organizational maturity, so it may more effectively and efficiently advance its mission into the future. Individuals come from all over the world to earn their CFRM from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The certificate normally costs an individual $5,800+travel expenses. Because the training was brought to Grant County, each student is receiving their CFRM for only $1,500. The remaining costs are being underwritten by a partnership between the United Way of Grant County and the Community Foundation of Grant County. Dawn Brown, President/CEO of the Community Foundation stated, “Although...