Door County Community Foundation Announces 2016-2017 Scholarship Recipients

The Community Foundation is pleased to announce that over $74,000 in scholarships has been awarded to Door County students pursuing a post-secondary education. The Community Foundation administers 21 scholarship funds which awarded 49 scholarships this year:

John Bobb Memorial Methodist Scholarship
Daniel Weber, Returning Adult $250

John Bobb Memorial Sevastopol Scholarship
Savanna Birnschein, Sevastopol $250

Bill and Yvonne Boettcher Scholarship
Jeffrey Alberts, Sturgeon Bay $1,500

Bill and Yvonne Boettcher Scholarship
Bret Bicoy Jr., Sturgeon Bay $1,500

Bill and Yvonne Boettcher Scholarship
Liam Ostrand Kolstad, Sturgeon Bay $1,500

Bill and Yvonne Boettcher Scholarship
Noah Roberts, Sturgeon Bay $1,500

Bill and Yvonne Boettcher Scholarship
Madeline Schopf, Sturgeon Bay $1,500

Carol Coryell Vocational Scholarship
Brian Baus, Returning Adult $2,000

Carol Coryell Vocational Scholarship
Ian Moore, Gibraltar $3,900

Carol Coryell Vocational Scholarship
Melanie Samonds, Sevastopol $5,000

Carole Counard Scholarship
Hanna Mallien, Southern Door $1,000

Carole Counard Scholarship
Lucas Stenzel, Sevastopol $1,000

Da Vinci Scholarship
Steven Tellstrom, Sturgeon Bay $1,000

Door Peninsula Astronomical Society Scholarship
Hanna Mallien, Southern Door $5,000

Door Peninsula Astronomical Society Scholarship
Yunjeong Lee, Sevastopol $5,000

Door Peninsula Astronomical Society Scholarship
Blaze Woldt, Sturgeon Bay $5,000

Door Property Owners Scholarship
Theodore Annoye, Sturgeon Bay $1,000

Tessa Erickson Memorial Scholarship
Riley Haleen, Gibraltar $2,500

Tessa Erickson Memorial Scholarship
Connor Moore, Gibraltar $2,500

Johnny G Family Scholarship
Riley Haleen, Gibraltar $1,500

Johnny G Family Scholarship
Natalie Hooten, Gibraltar $1,500

Stanley Greene Memorial Scholarship
Aaron Kinard, Sturgeon Bay $1,000

Stanley Greene Memorial Scholarship
Madeline Schopf, Sturgeon Bay $400

Stanley Greene Memorial Scholarship
Paige Sullivan, Sturgeon Bay $1,000

Darlene and Wayne Harmann Scholarship
Tory Jandrin, Southern Door $1,000

Hope Church Scholarship
Bret Bicoy Jr., Sturgeon Bay $1,000

Orville F. Kay Scholarship
Austin Claflin, Southern Door $5,000

Orville F. Kay Scholarship
Tory Jandrin, Southern Door $5,000

Orville F. Kay Scholarship
Megan Pavlik, Southern Door $5000

Adam LaLuzerne Humanitarian Scholarship
Jeffrey Alberts, Sturgeon Bay $1,000

Virginia Muckian Schneider Memorial Scholarship
Demitra Ploor, Sevastopol $1,500

Sevastopol Extraordinary Volunteerism Award
Lily Birmingham, Sevastopol $200

Southern Door Booster Club Eagle Award
Michael Bertrand, Southern Door $250

Southern Door Booster Club Eagle Award
Kathleen Guilette, Southern Door $250

Southern Door Booster Club Eagle Award
Tory Jandrin, Southern Door $250

Southern Door Booster Club Eagle Award
Nicholas LeCaptain, Southern Door $250

Southern Door Booster Club Eagle Award
Megan Pavlik, Southern Door $250

Southern Door Booster Club Eagle Award
Carina Renard, Southern Door $250

Southern Door Booster Club Eagle Award
Alexa Soto, Southern Door $250

Southern Door Booster Club Scholarship
Hailey Geyer, Southern Door $200

Southern Door Booster Club Scholarship
Tory Jandrin, Southern Door $200

Southern Door Booster Club Scholarship
Nicholas LeCaptain, Southern Door $200

Southern Door Booster Club Scholarship
Hanna Mallien, Southern Door $200

Southern Door Booster Club Scholarship
Zachary Marchant, Southern Door $200

Southern Door Booster Club Scholarship
Megan Pavlik, Southern Door $200

Southern Door Booster Club Scholarship
Carina Renard, Southern Door $200

Robert C. Solomon Memorial Scholarship
Ashton Spritka, Sturgeon Bay $1,000

Robert J. Stoffel Sr. Memorial Scholarship
Julia DeMain, Sevastopol $1,500

The Sue Todey Drug Alliance Prevention Scholarship
Isaiah Spetz, Sevastopol $500

Congratulations to some of the finest young members of our community. We wish them the best of luck on all of their future endeavors.

The Door County Community Foundation, Inc. is a collection of separate charitable
funds set up by individuals, families, non-profit organizations, private foundations and businesses that are managed, invested and disbursed for the current and future good of Door County. The Foundation was launched in 1999 and currently administers more than $18 million in charitable assets.

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Community Foundation Awards Sustainability Grant to Trueblood PAC

A good many of us have a hard time thinking clearly without that morning mug filled with coffee but apparently my brain was more addled than usual the other day. It was far too early to be awake, so I dreamed of stopping for a cup of java on the way to the office only to be greeted in the most unusual of ways.

“Good morning!” said the barista. “Welcome to Door County Coffee & Tea. We are not a petting zoo.”

Then as I looked across Door County Coffee’s parking lot, I imagined a new promotional video for another iconic business on our peninsula. The camera entered through the doors, cinematically panned around the rows of merchandise, then a deep movie-style voiceover said, “In a world of darkness, there’s Door County Candle, where we don’t sell bowling trophies.”

Maybe it would have been more realistic had I dreamed of yet another classic Door County business simply creating a new tagline to describe itself. “Main Street Market. Not Miniature Golf.”

Clearly, before that first cup of coffee in the morning, the absurdities can abound. After all, what kind of industry would so foolishly try to define itself by what it is not. That’s a preposterous way to differentiate yourself and does nothing to inspire someone to frequent your business.

In other words, it’s just plain dumb. Yet for some ludicrous reason that I cannot quite fathom, the charities of our nation continue to insist on defining themselves by what they are not.

These well-meaning folks of charity traditionally refer to their institutions as “nonprofit organizations.” Then one day some marketing “genius” decided that every charity should henceforth rebrand itself as a “not-for-profit corporation.” However, if you’re employed at a trendy, truly cutting edge nonprofit, you now tell people that you work for a “nongovernmental organization.”

Wow. Consider me inspired and motivated to give.

Of course, most of the time when we ask someone where they work, they simply say the name of their employer, be it the “Just in Time Corporation” or the “United Way.” Yet we never hear those in the former category tell us that they are a “for-profit business” the way the latter groups often describe themselves as a “nonprofit organization.”

For years I’ve referred to my employer, the Door County Community Foundation, and other organizations like it, as “charities.” Yet I’m still amazed at the often viscerally negative reaction of others in this field when I refer to their work the same way.

“I don’t work for charity,” I’ve been told in varying forms by colleagues over the years. “I work for a not-for-profit corporation.” It’s as if only by dehumanizing our work, by making it sound more institutional and transactional, that it achieves a level of gravitas.

The chief executive of one local nonprofit quietly confessed to me that they don’t like the term “charity” because it implies their organization is “dependent” on its donors. The irony of course is that this person’s employer is absolutely dependent on its donors. Only they don’t like to admit out of fear that it might somehow diminish the organization’s legitimacy.

This all strikes me as patently absurd. Even such gigantic institutions as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital have one thing in common – each has a really big button at the top of its website inviting you to make a charitable donation. No matter how much earned revenue charitable corporations like these make in ticket sales or hospital bills, they would be a mere shell of the treasures they have become without charitable gifts. They unequivocally are dependent upon the generosity of others.

If 501(c)(3) public charities could pay for all their operations just by selling their services, some smart entrepreneur would have figured that out and already be doing our job. We are charities precisely because we need the people of our community to come together in support of our mission. In other words, we charitable organizations are dependent on the charitable giving of others.

Merriam-Webster defines “charity” as “benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity,” or as an “institution supported by such gifts.” If you ponder for a moment what that truly means it’s easy to see real beauty in those words.

I’m not interested in working for an organization that exists “not” to do something – be it not to make a profit or not to be government. I want to work for an organization that defines itself by what it is – an institution of goodwill and love of humanity. I want to serve a charity that brings us together as a community to help each other through wonderful acts of generosity.

Every April I have the responsibility of presenting a 90-minute annual “state of the foundation” to the community foundation’s Board of Directors. During this spring’s presentation I noted that during the last four years alone, the Community Foundation was blessed to receive charitable donations of $16,087,561 from the remarkably generous people of our community. The majority of these contributions are then invested in endowment funds so the principal will last forever. Those investments helped generate an incredible $5,041,610 that was distributed to support charitable work right here in Door County.

I work for the Door County Community Foundation. It is a charity. It’s a charity precisely because it is completely dependent on the continuing friendship and generosity of people like you.

This article originally appeared in the Peninsula Pulse.