Community Foundation of the Ozarks

Our new year’s resolution: Every Friday, we want to share the news of new groups and individuals choosing to make philanthropic gifts and investments in their community. You can read more about types of funds available at CFO here. Click here for a full list of non-profit Agency Partners. For more information on fund types and how to get involved, contact Winter Skelton at wskelton@cfozarks.org.

Bixler Foundation – David and Julie Bixler established this family and community fund to assist with their personal giving.

Bluebird Gardens Charitable Fund – This corporate fund was estalsihed by Charlotte Wiggins, manager of Bluebird Gardens, to assist with the charitable giving. This is a component fund of the Meramec Regional Community Foundation.

Brell Family Charitable Fund – Dr. and Mrs. Brell established this fund as part of their estate plan. Upon their passing, it will distribute per their wishes with 20 percent staying at the CFO for children’s healthcare needs and to other child-related charities in Springfield/Greene County.

The Dustin Scholarship Fund – Bailey Simpson established this scholarship fund to assist students in the foster care system pursue a post-secondary education. Bailey is 16 and is a Central High School student. She plans to fundraise toward the $10,000 goal.

Healthy Half Pints Fund – This fund will begin a pilot program to provide kindergarteners and first graders at four elementary schools with an afternoon milk snack. A joint effort by CFO, Musgrave Foundation, North Point Church and the Pendleton Family Foundation.

Kansas City Chiefs Joplin Recovery Fund – This corporate fund allows the Kansas City Chiefs to make grants to organizations helping to support Joplin tornado recovery efforts. This is a component fund of the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri.

LakeExpo.com Charitable Fund – Brent Simpson, owner of LakeExpo.com, established this corporate fund to help simplify his company’s charitable activities. This is a component fund of the Community Foundation of the Lake.

Rieder Family Fund – Larry & Kathie Rieder established this family and community fund to assist with their family’s giving. This is a component fund of the Stockton Community Foundation.

The CFO’s fall newsletter is out, and features the Norton family’s story of loss and survival in the Joplin tornado. A scholarship fund has been established in memory of Will Norton, a member of the Joplin Class of 2011 graduating on that May day.

“He was just gone”

The Tornado’s Wrath Claimed Will Norton, But His Legacy Survives

As Mark Norton lay broken in a crowded, chaotic operating room, Dr. Rex Peterson leaned in close to tell him the morphine supply was depleted and he was going to experience more pain than he’d ever known as the surgeon prepared to re-set the bones protruding from his left leg.

But it hardly compared to the even more exquisite pain a week later when Pastor Aaron Brown had to lean in again at Mark’s hospital bedside in the pre-dawn hours to tell him his son Will’s body had been positively identified after a frantic week of friends, family, strangers and search teams looking for the popular Joplin teenager who vanished into the twister.

An aspiring director whose career was kickstarted with more than 2 million views of his prolific YouTube videos, Will Norton was headed to a prestigious film program at Chapman University near Disneyland. He’d traveled to 34 states and 15 countries, and was learning to fly. His tennis team went to state finals and he went to leadership programs like Boy’s State; he was just at one in Washington, D.C., when Bin Laden was killed and he joined the throngs outside of the White House.

“He was always just a great kid to be around. He made good choices, he never gave us a moment’s worry,” Mark says. “He was a good student. He volunteered his time. He made friends easily because he was real considerate.”

(more…)

Missouri native Sheryl Crow, who announced recently that she’ll donate proceeds from the sale of her 1959 Mercedes Benz Roadster to the Joplin Schools Recovery Fund, plans to talk about the upcoming auction with fellow car enthusiast Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” tonight.

The Grammy-award winner from Kennett, Mo., also will is talking to reporters today about her classic convertible at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles before her taping with Leno, which airs at 10:30 p.m. tonight on KYTV.

The car also will be on special display at the Museum  from Tuesday through Aug. 7  before it goes to Pebble Beach, Calif., for the prestigious Gooding & Company auction on Aug. 20-21.

Representatives for Sheryl Crow and Gooding and Co., hope additional publicity about the auction will spur interest, and bidding, for the convertible, which underwent a major restoration in 2005 before she bought it.

Crow’s announcement that she would auction the car has already generated interest around the world in the donation and, more importantly, the situation facing Joplin and its schools. Here are just a few of the national and global news sources – in addition to local news outlets from Los Angeles to Halifax, Nova Scotia – to pick up the story:

• Reuters
• CNN
• Haute Living
• USA Today
• Jalopnik (Gawker media)
• The Baltimore Sun
• Autoweek
• The Chicago Tribune
• MSNBC

Several CFO staff members had the opportunity to meet with Crow about the donation when she performed at the O’Reilly Family Event Center at Drury University in mid-July. The CFO and its largest affiliate, the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc., have established the Joplin Recovery Fund and 20 other funds now totaling more than $3 million to assist with tornado recovery efforts.

A former educator and now mom, Crow said she selected the Joplin Schools Recovery Fund because she wants to support the District’s efforts to restore its 10 schools either destroyed or seriously damaged in the May 22 EF5 tornado.  Joplin school leaders are working hard to prepare for classes to begin in temporary facilities on Aug. 17.

“I really do believe the future of this country is our kids being educated to the fullest,” she said.

She recalled many tornado seasons growing up in Kennett and said that while she hasn’t been to Joplin, she’s followed the story since the toll of the tornado, which now has claimed 160 lives and more than 8,000 homes, first became evident.

“The stories of the devastation are also the stories of people coming together,” she said.