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A Message From Dawn

16 Jul

Posted at 15:34h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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Here at the Community Foundation, we love connecting people like YOU with causes that matter. We recently revamped our website to make it easier to navigate and make those connections. One way you can help is by visiting our Donor Marketplace and reviewing the information listed on your fund page. Something we have learned throughout the years is that potential donors respond to stories. We all love stories – stories that make us laugh, stories that make us cry, and most importantly, stories that compel us to work towards the betterment of our community. It is often stories that create the impact that leads to action. We want potential donors to read your stories and be inspired to join you, so we encourage you to look at your fund page, especially your fund story, and make sure potential donors’ questions are answered. We've created the brief questionnaire below to help you in helping us to tell your story. It's setup in a way that will allow you to skip the questions that are not relevant to your story. You can even submit photos for us to post on your fund page. Answer all of the questions or only the ones that are...

06 Jul

Posted at 18:43h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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I count things.  I realize not everything that counts can be counted, but I still count things—by twos.  Some people might think it’s an obsessive compulsive disorder.  I like to think it brings more order than disorder.  And if you read my last blog about Wardrobe Wearabouts, the Dewey Decimal System I created for my closet, I’m sure this doesn’t surprise you.  But, many years before that, back when life was simpler, kids were expected to play outside, and weren’t expected to come home until the street lights came on—that’s how our summers were spent and we loved it.  I remember coming home after playing and sweating in the hot sun all day, covered in dirt, tan from the sunshine, and plumb tuckered out. My siblings and I would take a bath and prepare to watch Donny and Marie or Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters—variety shows were so ‘in’ back then—no wonder America’s Got Talent is so popular these days; it’s good, clean family fun. I’d prepare our pre-show bedtime snack of Coca-Cola and M&M’s, something we looked forward to all day long. The three of us would share a bottle of Coke—a real, 16-ounce, glass bottle that we’d return to...

03 Jul

Posted at 15:45h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured, News
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[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column][vc_column_text] Community Foundation and United Way Partnership Launches Nonprofit Leadership Consortium Together, the United Way of Grant County and the Community Foundation of Grant County are excited to announce a new capacity-building training initiative: Nonprofit Leadership Consortium. Through this initiative, participants will collaborate and learn from one another allowing local nonprofits to maximize their impact, strengthen their organization, and gain valuable ideas to help safeguard their resources. This initiative was formed to undertake an enterprise beyond the resources of any one member. Nonprofits are the backbone of our community, and funders like the United Way and the Community Foundation, help to provide the fortification to keep them healthy and strong! In a cohort setting, participants will have the opportunity to receive a Certificate in Fund Raising Management (CRFM) from Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and also Leadership Development training from Harris International’s own Tim Harris. Registration for the Nonprofit Leadership Consortium ranges from $1,500 - $2,250 (see scale below). Full payment is due upon registration via credit card or PayPal. Registrations must be paid in full to secure a spot. The Cohort will meet every month, August 2018 - May 2019. You must attend every session...

15 Jun

Posted at 14:57h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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If you’ve read my blog through the years, 13 blogging years to be exact, you may remember me telling you about Wardrobe Wearabouts, #nerdalert.  Don’t you love the alliteration and the punny spelling?  Wardrobe Wearabouts was an invention of mine in high school.  It all started at the North Park Mall in Marion.  You must harken back to a time when this was a bustling mall full of stores; a true destination for locals to walk, talk, shop, and eat.  It was that very mall where ‘it’ happened.   ‘It’ was unacceptable. ‘It’ was uncalled for.  ‘It’ was about to go down.  ‘It’ was seeing my sister’s best friend wearing MY sweater. (Oh, the horror.  It was a simpler time back then, what can I say?)  I veered down the corridor and vividly remember feeling the blood rushing up my neck like a thermometer in the summertime.  And, I also remember this—knowing that I would do something so ‘it’ never happened again.  As a young teen, I didn’t even like the idea of sharing clothes with my sister, but Mom said we had to.  So, I had to take matters into my own hands, found the loophole, and solved the problem...

01 Jun

Posted at 19:35h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
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Results. We all want them. Some rely on them. Some have to go into overtime to get them. Some get statues because of them. (#Peyton) Some write books about them. That’s what Simon Sinek did. His book, Start with Why reminded me of book Good to Great by Collins in that it shows the minor things that companies can do to get major results. Perhaps because I’m at a stage in my life where I’m around a lot of 16-24-year-olds, Sinek’s premise of starting with why reminded me of a game some of the millennials play—The Three Item Challenge. Unlike sports, there’s no score kept in this game; but bragging rights go to the victor with the best results. This is how you play: what: Go out with your friends to the nearest grocery store, a Meijer or Walmart would be terrific. how: Choose three of the most random items that you can imagine being purchased together. why: Get a reaction--the best result would be the cashier at the checkout literally questing your purchase or possibly laughing out loud. The biggest reaction wins! It’s harder than it sounds! As I was trying to think what I’d purchase, I recalled this one...

11 Jul

Posted at 13:14h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured, News
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Some of my favorite authors have an impeccable ability to paint pictures with their words.  Roxanne Roberts is the author/artist who created this masterpiece, which actually involves paint, and I love it so much: “Think of your life as a can of white paint. Each significant experience adds a tiny drop of color: pink for a birthday, yellow for a good report card. Worries are brown, setbacks gray. Lavender — my favorite color when I was a little girl — is for a pretty new dress. Over time, a color begins to emerge. Your personality.” This week, I, and about 10,000 of my closest friends, added a few drops of red, white, and blue to our buckets of white paint as we all overtook Gas City Park on the 4th of July.  The weather was perfection for this mid-summer Concerts in the Park/Fireworks Extravaganza.  I don’t think it’s officially called an extravaganza, but it should be!  It was a spectacular event with Adam Wakefield from The Voice opening for 80’s classic rock band .38 Special and a fireworks chaser.  They were definitely Rockin’ into the Night! And, as if that weren’t enough, they had Fair Food.  Yes, yes, I know…this kind of food...

20 Jun

Posted at 10:25h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured, News
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If memory and reality become confused, perhaps that’s as it should be.  I have no idea where I first heard that phrase.  With so many different mediums entering our brains these days, it’s hard to recall the source, but I like the idea. For example, I remember the time that Griffin and a couple of friends found themselves in the most massive of pickles when they handcuffed Dalton to the bannister downstairs.  OMGEEE!  Now in many households this wouldn’t be a big deal.  Those plastic handcuffs they sell at the dollar store can be broken easily.  But, when your dad is a cop, the handcuffs are real.  I had no idea where the keys were and neither did the boys.  Barring a pair of bolt cutters, those puppies weren’t coming off without the key.  There was scurrying and problem-solving and a bit of panic.  I don’t know if they were as concerned about giving Dalton his freedom or the fact that daddy was going to be home soon.  The clock was ticking! There are still a few scuff marks on the stairwell from all the finagling they did to set Dalton free that night.  Occasionally, I notice it when I go downstairs...