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27 Mar

Posted at 13:50h in A Message from Dawn, Community News, Featured Story
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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...

07 Mar

Posted at 10:29h in A Message from Dawn, Community News, Featured Story
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How many times have you wanted more?  Probably always.  There’s even an old AT&T commercial where an adult asks a group of kids, “Who thinks more is better than less?”  And, because we know that children say the darndest things, an adorable little girl in the focus group answers, “More is better than less…we want more, we want more, like, you really like it, you want more.”  Out of the mouths of babes, right there. But, with age comes wisdom.  And, with a brain like Seth Godin’s, I’m pretty convinced that he’s is old enough to have had play dates with Moses.  So, let’s apply this little nugget of brilliance from Godin and see what we come up with: “The opposite of more; it’s not less.  If we care enough, the opposite of more is better”.  That, friends, is what the kids call a mic drop.  Let’s marinate on that for a bit, shall we? Imagine for a minute that less isn’t more.  Then take that one step further to realize that more isn’t even more.  Maybe, just maybe, better is more.  <<insert mind-blowing moment here>> So how could that work in daily life?  I truly believe that each and every person is...

21 Feb

Posted at 14:42h in A Message from Dawn, Community News, Featured Story
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Dinner at our house is often unpredictable.  It’s this daily dance we do of asking, “What do you want?  I don’t know, what do you want?”  We typically end up deciding with everyone answering this question, “What don’t you want?” That eliminates a lot of options and narrows it down enough to choose. Sometimes our son decides on his own.  Last week he made a DiGiorno’s pizza and topped it with a Totino’s pizza.  I’m not kidding, we had a pizza topped with a pizza.  It might not have been predictable, but I didn’t have to decide or cook that night, so I count that as a victory in my book.            “Whatever happened to predictability? The milk man, the paper boy, evening T.V You miss your old familiar friends, but waiting just around the bend. Everywhere you look (everywhere you look) There's a heart (there's a heart) A hand to hold on to. Everywhere you look (everywhere you look) There's a face, of somebody who needs you. When you're lost out there and you’re all alone A light is waiting to carry you home Everywhere you look.” I grew up watching Full House, so I love that theme song.  And it may be just as true today as it was way back...

31 Jan

Posted at 14:36h in A Message from Dawn, Community News, Featured Story
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I often wonder if every family is as quirky as mine…probably not.  I just ran across an old Facebook memory where my oldest son, Griffin, got embarrassed at school by using a word that he thought was a real word; in fact, it was just one we made up and used all the time at home.  Couperfs is one of those words.  My husband made that one up when we lived in Texas.  As you’d expect, the Sunday edition of the Dallas Morning News was chock-full of what Hoosiers would call money-saving coupons.  But, in Dallas, at the time, these coupons were actually perforated.  This eliminated the need for scissors or, if you were a Neanderthal, crooked ripping.  It was really quite lovely.  Find a deal, tear along the perforation, and ta-da, the world couperf was invented. Those were our newly married days back in the suburbs of Dallas when we were both fresh out of college and learning how to balance a budget a mortgage, insurance, and car payments all on our own—so couperfs were a great way to save a few bucks and allow for a date night or two.  Fast forward a couple of homes and kids later...

23 Jan

Posted at 16:16h in A Message from Dawn, Community News, Featured Story
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I was having lunch with my friend Paul last week and he reminded me of something I hadn’t thought about in a long time.  Nearly 18 years ago, my husband and I had a happy, healthy baby boy.  He was perfect in every way.  Ten fingers. Ten toes.  An adorable round head.  What a happy day!  I’m sure big business deals were being made that day.  Missed those.  I bet someone got married that day.  Missed that, too.  Happy were we, nestled comfortably on Cloud Nine at Marion General Hospital and all was right with the world…until it wasn’t.  A mere week later, things weren’t going so well.  Our son wouldn’t eat and was losing weight rapidly.  Dropping five pounds might seem great to most people reading this, but it’s not great when you start life weighing in at just a tad more than that.  That’s when we learned what ‘failure to thrive’ meant and when our three-month stay at the hospital began. Now, just so you know, the story has a happy ending.  That almost-18-year-old is in Indy today testing for his entry into the United States Army and has made us very proud parents along the way.  But, during...

06 Jan

Posted at 15:21h in A Message from Dawn, Community News, Featured Story
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We don’t do Elf on a Shelf at our house, but we do watch a lot of Elf on television.  The popularity of this Christmas film may be even more ginormous than the toilets in New York City.  It’s mildly embarrassing that I may have seen this movie about 100 times since it was released in 2003…but that’s still not as many times as my husband has watched the first Die Hard.  So, if I measure myself using that scale, I’m still good!  One of my favorite scenes in Elf is when Buddy the Elf is trying to muster up the courage to ask a beautiful retail worker, Jovie, out on a date.  Buddy is a human, but he was raised by elves, so his dating game isn’t what the kids call ‘on point’.  Leave it to his 12-year-old half-brother, Michael, to show him the dating ropes.  The conversation goes like this: Alas, Jovie agrees to ‘eat food’ and Buddy realizes just how nice it is to meet another human being that shares his affinity for elf culture. It’s funny to me how ‘eat food’ was what a 12-year-old thought was ‘the code’ for going out on a date.  But, the more I...

30 Nov

Posted at 10:00h in Community News, Featured Story
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The Community Foundation of Grant County has recently been re-accredited with National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations®—the highest standards for philanthropic excellence. We work to connect people who care with causes that matter. National Standards says that we meet the most rigorous standards in philanthropy and is a promise to our community that we’ll continue to do this good work together, right here in Grant County. National Standards is not mandatory. We chose to go above and beyond by affirming our commitment to excellence and accountability. Our accreditation provides assurance that we have sound policies and practices in place. In short, it means we meet the highest standards for local giving. To receive accreditation with National Standards, The Community Foundation of Grant County submitted our policies and procedures to a rigorous review of 26 National Standards in five key areas of community foundation operations, including donor services, investment management, grantmaking and administration. The National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations® program was established in 2000 in cooperation with the Council on Foundations. For more information about National Standards, visit www.cfstandards.org....

15 Nov

Posted at 17:54h in A Message from Dawn, Community News, Featured Story
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There are two kinds of people in the world—those who use the Oxford comma and those who should.  Not too long ago, I was helping one of my colleagues develop a website that connects volunteer opportunities with volunteers in our Grant County community.  The site can be found at www.ServeGrantCounty.org and it’s a great place to go if (a) you’re a non-profit who needs some extra volunteer help or (b) you’d like to volunteer and need to find the volunteer opportunities that fit the type of help you’d like to give—especially during the holidays. It’s sort of like an eHarmony for volunteers, so you can imagine the sophistication that the engine for this website must have—this is no small task.  It’s also why it’s so funny that when I did a final click-through, the only real edits I had on the site were those involving Oxford commas!  We had a few laughs as this falls under Nerd Quirk #52…good thing being a nerd is cool these days—but not as cool as collective impact. I don’t know if you’ve heard about the collective impact phenomena, but it’s trending in Grant County.  Collective Impact is essentially the commitment of a group of people...

15 Nov

Posted at 17:32h in Community News, Featured Story
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So many historical things have happened so far in November 2016! The Chicago Cubs actually won the World Series. We have never flown the Cubs’ “W” flag this late in the year before at Rush Ranch! There was an historic U.S. election that you may have heard about, but we won’t get into that here. And the Community Foundation’s fiscal year 2015-16 audit and 990 are now complete and available for your viewing pleasure. The Foundation’s auditors reported to the Finance Committee that this was the smoothest audit ever with the Community Foundation, and they’ve been doing this a long time. After reviewing hundreds of reports and compiling the information, the auditors complimented the whole Foundation Team on cooperation and our knowledge of the industry and obvious love for the community. We believe in giving where you live, and that includes hiring awesome, local residents who love Grant County. If you are interested in reading the Foundation’s audited financial statements and/or IRS Form 990, just ask me. We are happy to provide any information about the Community Foundation, and we welcome a conversation about how we can connect you with causes that matter to you and your family!...

15 Nov

Posted at 17:07h in Community News, Featured Story, Grantmaking Impact
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We Hear Those Sleigh Bells Jinglin’ with Santa Grants for Grant County Nonprofit Organizations Santa Claus is coming to Grant County Nonprofits. But he wants to hear from YOU! Write a letter to Santa’s Elves at The Community Foundation for your chance to Deck the Halls for our local 501c3 charitable organizations. Now through noon on Monday, December 12th, we invite you to write a letter to Santa about a Grant County nonprofit you believe is making a difference in our community. Be sure to tell Santa in your letter, the name of the organization, the organization’s contact information, the impact they make in our community, and why they are important to the future of Grant County. To qualify, the organization must be a 501c3 charitable organization that benefits Grant County. Letters must be received by noon on Monday, December 12th at the Community Foundation of Grant County Office, located at 505 West Third Street, Marion, Indiana 46952. Santa’s Elves will make early deliveries of Santa Grants on Friday, December 16th. Announcements will be made on the Community Foundation’s social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), the website (www.GiveToGrant.org), and to local media outlets. If you have any questions about this grant opportunity,...