Fund Contact Portal
Board Portal
Give Online

A Message From Dawn

01 Jun

Posted at 19:35h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured
0 Likes

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
0 Likes

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
0 Likes

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...

22 May

Posted at 11:13h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured, News
0 Likes

It was a Thursday night about 7:00 p.m. when my husband arrived at the MGH Emergency Room.  It wasn’t a life-threatening event, but our 2-year-old son, at the time, fell in the slippery bathtub and hit his chin just right.  Just right means a small gash that left the bathroom looking like a crime scene on CSI Las Vegas.  As a police officer, my husband works well under pressure, so he handled the blood, stitches, and tears like a champ.  He even managed to clean up the mess, give the boys a bedtime snack, and tuck them in—all before I made it home for the night.   You see, I didn’t even hear about all of the ‘excitement’ until I arrived home at about 10:30.  I was at my night class, just as I had been every Thursday night for the past two years.  It wasn’t easy getting a Master’s Degree when my kids were only 2 and 5--having a superhero husband helped. Let’s be realistic, life is messy…glitter messy.  And, frequently (read: all the time) when I was working full-time and completing my second degree, my house resembled the before picture of any home improvement show.  True, there was one time...

02 May

Posted at 11:02h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured, News
0 Likes

I’m always surprised when I’m out with a friend and then run into another friend, only to find out that those two friends know each other—but, I didn’t introduce them!  It’s like two of my worlds have collided and it blows my mind every single time.   But, the same thing happens when I assume everyone knows the same information that I know, when they don’t.  The most recent instance of this was at one of our Give Me Five celebrations when I was encouraging the grant recipients to attend Gas City Concerts in the Park to enjoy live music and feast on an elephant ear or a pork tenderloin sandwich.  It was then that one grant recipient said, “What’s an elephant ear?”—again my mind was blown! We make those simple mistakes often when we come from a small community like Grant County.  It’s easy to readily complain about what didn’t work or what we don’t like.  But, we completely forget to boast about what is awesome about our hometown because we just assume everyone already knows.  Alas, that’s not so. It was at this Give Me Five celebration that we hosted a couple of new Grant County residents who recently moved here...

20 Apr

Posted at 15:39h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured, News
0 Likes

I’m sure by now you’ve all witnessed the birth of Oliver and April’s baby boy.  This adorable calf was born at the Animal Adventure Park in New York last Saturday just as Hoosiers were rising and shining.  According to Google, there were 232 million live views of this delivery for a total of 7.6 billion minutes of live watch-time! It was over a hot cup of coffee that I watched April’s 5’9”, 129 pound newborn take his first wobbly walk within an hour of being born.  How miraculous is that?  Those unsteady strides were literally two steps forward and one step back as this confident calf was determined to get back up and try, try again. I have no idea why, but this scenario took me waaaay back to a time when I was about three years old.  This in and of itself is a mini-miracle because my memory is horrible!  But, I vividly remember living in a small farmhouse out in the country one spring when my family was planting a small vegetable garden.  I’m sure as a threenager that my attempt at ‘helping’ wasn’t all too helpful.  But, I wanted to be part of the action.  I was intrigued...

27 Mar

Posted at 13:50h in A Message From Dawn, Home Featured, News
0 Likes

My family had one of those ginormous old console televisions back in the day.  I remember it well for two reasons: (1) We only got three channels…6, 8 and 13. I remember when Fox added a 4th major network to the lineup and many people thought that it would never survive; alas it did and so did many others! (2) I was the remote.  There were no fancy controls back then; you wanted the channel changed, someone had to get up, walk to the television, and physically twist the little dial.  That job usually fell to any child in the house at the time! Times were simpler then and many things have changed; but some things, well, some things stay the same. With three network channels there wasn’t much to watch in the 60’s and 70’s on a Saturday afternoon, but if you were lucky, you could catch a heartwarming Doris Day flick and all was right with the world.  I remember watching With Six You Get Eggroll, Pillow Talk with the one and only Rock Hudson, and listening to her beautiful voice singing the Lullaby of Broadway or Que Será, Será.  And, boy was she a looker!  She had a showgirl presence, but...