Once again, our annual Donor & Partner Appreciation Night on May 13th was a great success! There seemed to be more energy this year – everyone was deep in conversations and new friendships were made – very exciting!
Morris Country Club did a great job – the food, drink, and service was excellent. The young adults serving that night were very friendly and looked like they were having a good time, too!
This energetic event wouldn’t be possible without our sponsors – it’s their donations that fund the event so that the Foundation doesn’t need to use operating dollars.
Our sponsors this year were: D Construction; EPIC Group; Balasa, Dinverno & Foltz; Savant Capital Management; Erienna Township; Sheriff Terry Marketti; Grundy Bank; Edward Jones – Kristi Bennington; Big R Stores; Aux Sable Liquid Products; Ayers Electric; and Service Gas, Inc. Thanks, everyone!!
Friendly criticism from years past included the simple fact that Jim Baum and I are too long in our speeches – imagine that! So this year we created a 20-minute video highlighting the impact that the Foundation had in Grundy County over the past year.
We interviewed a mother & son from the Jump Start program at Easter Seals (one of our grant partners) and also showed portions of a presentation that Dick Joyce made to the county board about the new coordinated transit system that we are stewarding.
We also included many clips from last year’s “first ever” Back-to-School Fair in Grundy County. It’s so powerful to hear Pastor Richardson, Dr. Johnston, Dr. Roebuck, Dr. Ortiz, Denise Gaska, and Joe Schmitz sing the praises of the Fair. They witnessed first-hand the impact this Fair has on our low income families and we’re excited to share their enthusiasm!
We are in the process of uploading our video to the internet, plus we have copies on DVD to share. Please be sure to contact us if you’d like a copy. Again, it’s only 20 minutes long so it’s easy to watch over lunch or coffee.
And it probably goes without saying, but we plan to make more videos in the future!!
Back-to-School Fair update: low income families in Grundy County who want to attend this year’s Fair are invited to apply. Applications will be available beginning this Friday, May 27th, at Standard Bank locations in Morris, Coal City, and Gardner. The completed application must be returned or postmarked no later than Friday, June 17th.
Transportation will be available again this year. Families needing transportation to the Fair should indicate this in their application.
We also want to send out a big “thank you” to everyone organizing this year’s Back-to-School Fair, which will be Saturday, July 30th, at First Christian Church – it wouldn’t happen without you!!
Again, thanks to our sponsors, donors, and partners who made our annual event a big success. It’s a fun evening to catch up with everyone and celebrate the successes of our Foundation and friends. Hope to see you all there next year!!