Making a difference right here in Elkhart County
These stories appear in our recent annual reports and provide a more complete story to the generosity of our community.
Career Paths Sometimes Surprise Us
Colin Gregory didn’t expect an emergency work call on his way home from his job. As a contractor for Advanced Testing Laboratory, a company that provides lab-based contract work for Eli Lilly, he was teaching himself new skills. His love for learning had been recognized a decade ago when he received the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship, funded by Lilly Endowment and administered locally by the Community Foundation. Colin became one of the scientists who could help respond to a growing pandemic. “Our team was being asked by the clinical diagnostics laboratory [at Eli Lilly] if we could come in the Read More »
Doc’s Pavilion
Doc’s Pavilion Will Celebrate the Community He Loved In the first few years after moving to Wakarusa in the 1950s, Robert “Doc” Abel built a community swimming pool and pool house in his backyard. Wakarusa, a town of 1,100 at the time, didn’t have a community pool, so Doc Abel’s new one attracted large crowds of kids and adults. To this day, Wakarusa residents remember the good times in and around that pool from the 1950s to the 1970s. After he died in 2017, people who came to his viewing said one of two things. “So many people either said, Read More »
The Joy of Giving
As a young boy, Tony Magaldi watched his father buy a new television set for a local laundromat attendant who was also a widow and mother. “He always tried to help people. That spurred me on too,” Tony says. “My parents lived paycheck to paycheck. My dad was a steelworker on the south side of Chicago,” recalls Tammy Magaldi, Tony’s wife. “While they didn’t give cash, they gave of themselves.” Now decades later, the couple says their parents’ small acts of kindness unleashed a passion for philanthropy that continues to grow. Like the single spark that ignites an autumn bonfire Read More »
Mapping a Future with Fully Connected Trails
Elkhart County’s trails and pathways wind through the community, affording runners, cyclists and walkers the opportunity to enjoy nature as they exercise or commute. When the various trails connect so that one can move across the entire community safely, the community is tighter-knit and even stronger. As the Placemaking Committee of the Community Foundation began working with the emphasis on trails and parks for Community Investment Grants, it wanted to bring people across the community together to do more planning for the future. The Community Foundation and its Placemaking Committee work to create open communities in Elkhart County which inspire, Read More »
100 Women Who Care Creates a Circle of Giving
At her first 100 Women Who Care meeting, Kris Mueller saw how the giving circle can truly empower other organizations. “In the bigger picture, my hundred dollars doesn’t seem like much but in fifteen minutes you can completely change an organization’s function. That ten thousand dollars can make or break them, the thought that my little vote can do that was elating,” says Mueller. Kris Mueller joined 100 Women four years ago after being encouraged to go by some friends. She was hooked from the beginning. This group gathers four times a year for a one-hour meeting, and each Read More »
The Post’s Path Forward
Walk into The Post and you’ll find Goshen teenagers playing a pickup game of basketball, hunched over their latest homework assignments, or chatting over snacks in the café. They represent a diverse range of family structures, school systems, and perspectives. What matters is that their voices converge here—in Goshen’s old converted post office. “Our mission is to take those that can’t plug in somewhere else—and everyone else too,” says board member Don Wade as he sits next to The Post’s executive director E-man Monge and board president Sean Behensky. The three have gathered to reflect on the last 20 years—plus Read More »
Helping Children Find Their Way
Five years ago, leaders at several organizations serving youth in Elkhart County saw that too many kids experiencing behavioral and emotional challenges weren’t getting the help they needed. These children ended up getting expelled from after school programs, school and spending time in the juvenile justice system. But the leaders believed that children could avoid going down dangerous paths if they had the support network and emotional and behavioral help that they needed. The leaders started meeting regularly to imagine how they could work together to better identify the behavioral health needs of children early on and build a support Read More »
A Path Built From Persistence
Every trail has its hurdles. Some, like miles-long gaps in the path, are obvious. Then there are the invisible hurdles: laying the groundwork for diverse communities to connect or convincing neighbors to build doors instead of walls. Forging new pathways takes persistence. Today, when Pumpkinvine Nature Trail founder John Yoder rides his bike, glides past the old gap, and sees three generations of families stretching their legs along the greenway, the decades of persistence are worth it. All he feels is gratitude. The story of the Pumpkinvine began in 1989. A group of Elkhart County cyclists, including Yoder, envisioned a Read More »
Clearing a Path
When Walter Beardsley purchased an Auguste Rodin sculpture for $50,000 in 1969, he hoped it would be more than a beautiful piece of art to display. He donated it to the Ruthmere Museum with the intention that it could one day help secure the legacy of the museum that honors his family — Elkhart’s founding family. In 2019 “The Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone” sold for $7.5 million. “The sale of ‘The Caryatid’ was the fulfillment of Walter Beardsley’s originalintention, to give something to Ruthmere to benefit the Elkhart community not only in art, but in the longevity of the Read More »
A New Way Forward
Generosity often looks like a check in the mail. A legacy gift. A fundraiser. Financial outpourings make a deep impact, but so too do small acts of service—a helping hand, a pint of blood or an hour of volunteering. For years, the Community Foundation of Elkhart County has worked to improve quality of life in Elkhart County by inspiring all types of generosity. When Acts of Service joined our ranks in late 2019, it opened new connections between local nonprofits and volunteers. Acts of Service was founded in 2017 with a simple, powerful premise: offer practical ways for people to Read More »
STORIES OF
IMPACT
Read our most recent Stories of Impact in our latest annual report (PDF).
