Originally published in Flourishing December 2010.
Legacy: a Regional Community Foundation is a public charity established in 1996 by local people to meet a wide variety of charitable needs. Shortly after its founding, I was invited by the founders to suggest ways to help the foundation grow. You know I’m a slow study, so it took a while.
But, during a staff meeting in the early months of 2001, it occurred to me that we could help the foundation by sponsoring a public event. I met with Legacy’s Executive Director, Pam Moore, and we decided to have a Thanksgiving celebration. Our objective was raise $300,000 by the end of that year to qualify for a matching grant from the Kansas Health Foundation. We invited KAKE News Anchor and Winfield native, Larry Hatteberg, to keynote that inaugural event. Larry was magnificent!
That first Legacy Thanksgiving Banquet was so successful, we decided to make it an annual event. On November 18 of this year we were proud to sponsor the 10th Annual Legacy Thanksgiving Banquet. During the past ten years, Legacy has increased its endowed and operational funds by a factor of more than ten. The credit for that, of course, is not ours, but we are immensely proud to be a contributor to Legacy’s growth, and we’re looking forward to at least another ten years.
In addition to Larry Hatteberg, our keynote speakers in past years have included Kansas native and A&E producer, Bill Kurtis, Inc. Magazine “Entrepreneur of the Year-2004”, Jack Schultz, and highly acclaimed Kansas historian, Craig Miner. This year, we were very pleased to have David Rebein, a well-known victims’ advocate from Dodge City, who spoke about living a passionate life.
David is one of seven farm-family brothers. He credits the famous television show, Perry Mason, for igniting his passion for the practice of law. David shared several instances of courtroom drama that were illustrative of his conversion from defending corporate clients to his passion for seeing that right be done. David didn’t just talk about his passion, it was on display.
We were also quite proud this year to feature the very talented Sarah Stevens, who performed a medley of Aaron Copeland’s most popular works. Sarah was accompanied on the piano by Southwestern College student, Joanna Woon.
Pam Moore, and Legacy’s current board president, Marcia Stultz, also spoke to the group, and displayed a regional map showing the names and locations of the foundation’s 2010 grant recipients. mh
Helping Families Flourish 