New Scholarship Fund Opened for Gladwin High School Students

Students graduating from Gladwin High School have a new source of scholarship funds they are able to apply for. The Donald and Grace Irene Lyons Scholarship Fund, held at the Midland Area Community Foundation, was recently established to provide an annual scholarship award to a Gladwin High School senior or graduate.

Two scholarships of $6,500 each will be awarded annually to students who demonstrate academic achievement, financial need and other factors such as extra-curricular involvement, work experience, community involvement and overcoming personal challenges. Students or graduates who wish to apply may contact the community foundation at 989.839.9661 or online at www.midlandfoundation.org.

Applications are open beginning February 1st and will be accepted until March 1st, 2013. Students may also apply for up to four additional scholarships (if qualified) through the community foundation, and can be granted a maximum of two.

Donald and Irene lived and worked in Gladwin together after they were married in 1947. Grace worked at the A&P store, while Donald served at the United States Postal Service for 25 years before retiring. They were quiet and conscientious, regularly encouraging others who crossed their paths.

In their estate planning, they desired first and foremost to help others. Their wish was to help students whose financial circumstances might prevent them from achieving their goals. Establishing a scholarship fund through the community foundation reflects their quiet generosity and belief in helping others achieve success.

40 & Forward: Nonprofit Senior Housing

By Tawny Ryan Nelb

Washington Woods Senior Housing

The Midland Area Community Foundation (MACF) celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2013, ushering in a new era of giving and philanthropy. The foundation grew out of the basic human desire to positively impact the world knowing that changing the world starts with changing where we live. It grew out of the belief that individuals can change the community through philanthropic giving. Since 1973, the MACF has been involved in projects that make a difference to the community. One of these areas is non-profit senior housing and the information below gives a brief history of how the MACF and many other organizations have contributed to Midland seniors living better lives.

Societies can be judged by how we care for our seniors. John Hoeven, a current Republican U. S. Senator from North Dakota said, “Caring for our seniors is perhaps the greatest responsibility we have. Those who walked before us have given so much and made possible the life we all enjoy.” The community of Midland has stepped up to support and fund non-profit senior housing for more than 60 years through individuals, foundations, churches, and governmental and civic organizations working sometimes singly and sometimes collaboratively to get the job done.

The critical need for senior housing in Midland was brought to the attention of a committee of King’s Daughters members following World War II. The Midland King’s Daughters Home offered senior housing in eleven rooms in a large frame house on the corner of Jerome and Larkin Streets (the O’Brien house) paid for with rummage sales, card parties, fashion and fur shows and other fundraisers. Members of the King’s Daughters Circle were actively involved in the operation of the Home – cleaning, painting, repairing, maintaining the building as well as canning garden produce and providing dinner casseroles from the very beginning. A convalescent wing was added in 1949. Their facilities for seniors grew again in 1959 with the donation of three and one-half acre plot of land on the corner of Rodd and Nelson Streets from William and Hannah Baker. This was followed by a million dollar gift from Eda Gerstacker of the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation to build the current Alden Dow designed facility with 57 rooms. This privately run non-profit facility has served hundreds of seniors over the decades with affordable pricing.

The next addition to non-profit senior housing was Cleveland Manor. A 1959 White House conference on aging held in Washington, D.C. concluded that one of the first objectives for senior citizens was to provide adequate housing which was defined as: “housing which the aging can afford and which meets their special needs, and which is a part of the community, avoiding the institutional atmosphere.” Dr. Everett N. Luce, chairman of the Midland County Council on Aging along with other committee members explored options for senior housing in Midland and set up a non-profit corporation in February 1965 to build a facility, Cleveland Manor, within a seven acre site between Haley and Eastlawn Streets.

The facility was funded primarily through the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a result of Section 202 of the National Housing Act of 1959 Supportive Housing for the Elderly. The act allowed for direct loans to non-profit developers of elderly housing. Half of the Alden B. Dow and Associates designed structure, laid out in the shape of a diamond, opened in 1968, and the remainder was built and opened to residents in November 1980. Cleveland Manor now has 196 low cost units housing 218 people. Over the years, groups such as the Midland Kiwanis have had a special relationship with Cleveland Manor. They helped with the initial planning, went door-to-door to sell bonds for its funding, provided members for their Board of Directors and donated resources for special projects. The Board has also been served by many other community members with an interest in elderly and disability housing. Funding for major upgrades and alterations has been provided by federal money and the City of Midland’s Community Development Block Grant program but also from grants from the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, the Strosacker Foundation, the Gerstacker Foundation, the Midland Area Community Foundation, among others.

In the early 1970s, the City of Midland saw a still greater need for senior housing for its aging population. As with previous facilities, the rent would have to be low since many seniors’ only income was Social Security. The Rollin M. Gerstacker and Charles J. Strosacker Foundations along with city revenue sharing money provided funding for a 100 unit apartment complex for mixed income independent seniors called Washington Woods named after the vacated city park land it occupied at Dartmouth and Cambridge Streets. A vote of Midland citizens in 1975 authorized the land’s use.

The project was so successful that by the early 1980s a second Washington Woods was needed. The Midland Area Community Foundation coordinated the two year fundraising campaign pooling funding from the major donor, the Gerstacker Foundation, which matched funding from the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, and the Midland, Hearst (in New York), Allen, Barstow and Dow Corning foundations, and the Dow Chemical Company. In addition there were approximately 600 donations from local businesses and churches, as well as many individuals throughout the community to raise the $4.5 million needed for this project. This was a serious collaborative effort. The facility not only provided housing but also meals and health monitoring so critical in the elder years. Resident Katherine Ball commented, “Delighted to have such a secure place. I don’t have to bother my daughter with little things. I feel secure, loved, contented and lovingly cared for.”

Yet, these two new facilities were still not enough to meet the need at a time when there were very few for-profit assisted living facilities in the area and even fewer available for low to middle income seniors. When Washington Woods II opened in 1985, there were still hundreds of people on the waiting list for non-profit senior citizen housing in Midland. Planning for a third facility began shortly thereafter.

In 1989-91, with the theme “The Next Step in Serving Midland Seniors,” the MACF repeated its fundraising coordination role under the leadership of co-chairs Esther Gerstacker and Enrique Falla of the Dow Chemical Company bringing together the financial resources of the major foundations and local citizenry to create Riverside Place on Main Street. The Gerstacker Foundation had purchased the Brown Lumber Company property along the riverfront in 1985 and donated it to the MACF. This property was paired with a three block property along Main Street occupied at the time by Ken’s Crafts, J. B’s Men’s Wear, Collector’s World, Northwood Institute Gallery, Pizza Sam’s and Midwest Auto Parts. The eight major foundations again donated generously with the Gerstacker Foundation donating, $4.4 million. It was their largest grant at that time. Dow Corning, Dow Chemical, and nine churches or civic groups added more funds along with thousands of individual donors. A special contribution came from Midland public and parochial school children who donated $3,162 to the project in pennies earned from home and school projects. One young donor said, “Hauling 400 pounds of pennies to the bank was hard, happy work.” The $13.5 million project was completed in 1993. The Gerstacker Foundation website notes that, “Riverside Place has enriched the quality of life for seniors and helped anchor the rebirth of the downtown area.”

Carl Gerstacker, former head of the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation and one of the visionaries for the Midland Area Community Foundation, commented that the large private foundations in Midland [Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow, Gerstacker, Strosacker, Dow Chemical, and Dow Corning] had major financial resources but not a lot of people while the Midland Area Community Foundation had lots of volunteers but not a lot of money. MACF is able to work together with others if they see a need in the community. Many of the non-profit senior housing projects are example of this type of collaboration.

The mission of the Midland Area Community Foundation is to strengthen our community by providing leadership, fostering collaboration on local needs and issues, and encouraging a legacy of giving through grants, scholarships and events to enrich lives and make Midland a better place to live.

The community is the heart of Midland Area Community Foundation. Every individual, family, business and organization has the opportunity leave their own legacy with a gift of any size. Those who donate to the community foundation are called “members.” These philanthropists are embodying the meaning of the word; they are extending goodwill to their neighbors as they actively promote human welfare in the Midland area.

40 & Forward: Education and the Community

By David Callejo, Carl A. Gerstacker Endowed Chair in Education at SVSU

Since its inception the Midland Area Community Foundation (MACF) has contributed to the educational legacy of Midland County.  From its onset, MACF has been invested in its dedication to enhance the educational opportunities so that a vibrant and healthy community could be formed upon the education of all its citizens; which today we can appreciate through the Youth Action Council, scholarships awarded annually, celebrations of educators and in the motivation of the community foundation to remain a responsive educational leader for the past 40 years.

Early Investment in Youth in the 1970s

The groundwork of MACF emerged from the role of a community foundation that would provide leadership to both the community and its future - the youth.  One of the first programs was the Willard H. and Martha P. Dow Loan Scholarship Fund, begun in 1974.  In the 1970s the Loan Program, Junior Achievement, College and Summer Camp Scholarships accounted for the largest educational investment for the Foundation.  These included the Northwood University and Delta College Scholarships, and the Interlochen Arts Academy Scholarship.  However, smaller grant and scholarship programs also included support for Big Brothers, Junior Achievement, and the arts.  These early investments provided a long-standing, life-changing tradition and investment, continued today in the impact that scholarships have for Midland students.

Growing Initiatives in the 1980s

In the 1980s MACF began a remarkable and proactive stage in the education of Midland by supplementing school programs and the arts for all children. These included providing materials or scaling successful programs to the entire county, such as the Youth Orchestra.  Additionally, the MACF provided grants for “wraparound education,” such as latch key programs, arts, youth development, and recreation.  Many programs focused on disadvantaged youth, including the “I Can Do” program in 1986, Teen Health Line, the Salvation Army Play Center, and the Midland County Schools Elementary Nutrition Project.

A social and community education campaign supported adult and supplemental education, such as parenting programs for single mothers, GED for young women, education programs for the Midland County Jail, purchasing of materials, computers, etc. for community based programs that included the Bullock Creek/Midland Adult Education Consortium, and the Kiwassee-Kiwanis Scholarship in 1988 for distressed farmers.  Proactive funding was also provided to address technical and social changes in schools.  These included funding computer labs, language programs, arts, vocational, and health education; including a pilot computer program at Sugnet School in 1982, assisting Midland Gifted Students, a challenge grant at Dow High School for a scoreboard and equipment/swimming pool, language immersion programs, support for the Bullock Creek Preschool Center, and the Barstow Family Fund establishing a “Dyslexic/Learning Disabled Student in higher education” program at Delta College in 1989.

The Midland Area Community Foundation had an active educational agenda for the first half of the 1980s in conjunction with the substantial growth in community giving to establish new scholarships for Midland Area Students, at an incredible rate of 20 to 30 per year in everything from the arts to technology to science to vocational education.  Some of these scholarships included the Shaler L. Bass, William Brasie, James T. Brooks, Business and Professional Women’s, D.B. Carlson Family, David N. Carmoude, Robert Cermak, Founders, Esther S. Gerstacker Hiram College Fund, Gerhard & Ruth Gettel, Stephen Gorman, Ray and Flora Hart Jeanette R. House, Pendell, Larry C. Smith, Irene Takahashi, and the Warren Yoder Scholarship Funds.

Moving Forward in Educational Leadership

Since the 1990s, new educational work has included influential initiatives, such as the establishment of the Midland County Youth Action Council (MCYAC), which emerged from a matching grant from in 1991 from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Dow, and MACF to provide access for community leadership for the youth.  In the last 20 years the Foundation has continued to focus on larger endowed funds and scholarships that emphasize students’ developing college success.  The growth in scholarships has risen from just under 100 in the 1980s to over 160 today.  Once again anticipating changes in the educational landscape, the Foundation has been active in leading and fostering partnerships with other community organizations to address educational issues that require the community’s attention.

It is important to recognize that the history of the Midland Area Community Foundation has been hitched to the successful education of all residents of Midland County and beyond.  As we celebrate the scholarship recipients and the impact that your contribution has for all Midland residents, we must appreciate and remember that in these difficult and uncertain economic times, the Midland Area Community Foundation continues to advocate and invest in Midland’s future.  MACF has provided over $1.1 million in scholarships to over 550 students since 2009.  One of the goals for the founding members of MACF was to invest in the education of our youth, leaving a lasting legacy of discovery and advocacy for future generations.  Thanks to continued support from the Midland community, that goal continues to be realized 40 years later.

MACF is celebrating 40 years of leadership, collaboration and giving in Midland County.  Since 1973 we have provided an avenue for individuals and organizations to change the community through philanthropic giving.  MACF awards grants and scholarships, offers the ability for individuals and families to invest in the community and serves as a catalyst for collaboration and change by leading community dialogue and action on critical issues.

Know a Great Coach in Midland?

For the 33rd year, we're seeking a coach or sports leader who best exhibits the qualities of service to youth, sports, and the community as did the late Lloyd Osborn.

As a teacher, coach and athletic director at Northeast Intermediate School, Lloyd Osborn made a very significant contribution to the growth and development of the many youngsters with whom he worked.  He was known for his dedication to both academic and athletic excellence, and the people of Midland benefited greatly from his presence.

Recent recipients of the award include Terry Hanley, Jenny Roan, Frank Altimore, Marty McGuire, Ann Gach, Marty Hollenbeck, Bob Scurfield and Diane Sugnet.

So who can you nominate?  Anyone who is or has been engaged in the coaching, teaching or leadership of organized sports activities in Midland County.  Simply download and print a nomination form by clicking here, or stop by any public school athletic office for a form.  You have until April 19th to submit nominations!

For questions contact Nancy Money at 989.839.9661.

40 and Forward: Midland Area Community Foundation

By Sharon Mortensen, MACF President & CEO

Midland Area Community Foundation celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2013, ushering in a new era of giving and philanthropy. The foundation grew out of the basic human desire to positively impact the world knowing that changing the world starts with changing where we live. It grew out of the belief that individuals can change the community through philanthropic giving.

Through the foundation, many dreams have become realities. Area treasures like the Tridge, the Fun Zone, the Rail Trail, and the Santa House have been established. Nonprofit organizations have started, developed new programs and expanded services. Students have been able to access education beyond high school. Projects such as violence prevention in our schools and cultural awareness forums are underway. Celebrations like RiverDays and the courthouse lighting have brought people together. Putting their money together, donors have given the community greater vibrancy as their gifts have enriched and improved quality of life.

Why was Midland Area Community Foundation Established?

On October 2, 1973, twenty-five Midland leaders and volunteers came together to establish a community foundation. Their idea was to allow people to join together and establish a public foundation. Described as “by the people, for the people,” the stated purpose of the organization was to improve the quality of life in Midland.

Carl and Esther Gerstacker both grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where the Cleveland Foundation had been undergirding the community and accomplishing major tasks like downtown renovation. Inspired by this example, the original founders believed that great improvements could take place by soliciting the contributions of local people and using them for specific projects to benefit Midland.

Esther Gerstacker, one of the early presidents, later wrote that the Midland Area Community Foundation is “a combination of many gifts, large and small, from many people, managed as a public fund for the long-term benefit of the community. Its purpose is to make Midland ….. a better place to live – not just now, but to enrich the lives of all future generation of Midlanders.”

What Is a Community Foundation?

The mission of the Midland Area Community Foundation is to strengthen our community by providing leadership, fostering collaboration on local needs and issues, and encouraging a legacy of giving through grants, scholarships and events. Through leadership, collaboration and a legacy of giving, the foundation continues to enrich lives and make Midland a better place to live.

The essence of a community foundation is many people putting their money together to address the diverse needs where they live. Gifts enable people to dream bigger, to see the many possibilities. As money is endowed, the gifts grow forever, providing ongoing support to help the community prosper.

Community foundations reflect and support donors’ wide array of interests and help them address all aspects of community need including arts and culture, economic development, education, environment, health, human services and recreation.

What Does a Community Foundation Offer?

Grants – The Midland Area Community Foundation provides grants for nonprofit organizations. The foundation is concerned about the community as a whole and supports a wide variety of community programs. Grant applications are accepted four times each year. The basic principle is receive gifts, grow funds and give back. Grants total over $2million on an annual basis.

Scholarships – Promoting education beyond high school is a priority for the community foundation. Scholarships are offered to help students continue their education. Last year over $300,000 was given to nearly 150 students. Scholarship applications are accepted annually between February 1 – March 1. Scholarships provide an investment in the community’s future and help students achieve their dreams.

Projects – The community foundation allows project funds to be established for specific purposes. Individuals, corporations, and family foundations may all be a part of a project. While often not the largest donor, the community foundation provides a vehicle for the project to take place. The Tridge epitomizes a project that brought Midland together with generous support from family foundations.

Giving Options - The community foundation idea is simple: anyone may use it to give something back to the community. Individuals can start a fund in honor of someone they love or to celebrate a special event. Donors can direct their gifts broadly or narrowly to issues they care about or to wherever the needs are greatest. However an individual gives, the gift can change lives today and in the future.

What Has the Community Foundation Done Over the Years?

Looking around Midland, it would be hard to find a nonprofit or community gem that has not been touched by the foundation “of the people.” Over the upcoming year, a series of articles in the Midland Daily News will highlight some of the community projects championed by the Midland Area Community Foundation.

Some of the organizations and projects that received funding in the first few years included:

• The Greenbelt Beautification Project

• Whiting Overlook Park

• West County Community Center (now West Midland Family Center)

• United Community Fund (now United Way of Midland County)

• Salvation Army

• Midland County Council on Aging

• Midland Hospital Center (now MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland)

• Midland Center For the Arts

• Chippewa Nature Center

• Northwood Institute (now Northwood University)

• Midland Area Homes

• Shelterhouse

• Riverfront Beautification

• Midland County Child Protection Council

• Midland-Gladwin Community Mental Health Services

• Midland Community Center

• Midland Sheriff’s Department

• City of Midland Police

• Pine Haven Recreation Area

Over the past 40 years, the list of organizations benefitting from the community foundation has grown significantly with tens of thousands of individuals touched by the foundation’s work in the Midland area.

How Does One Become Part of the Community Foundation?

The community is the heart of Midland Area Community Foundation. Every individual, family, business and organization has the opportunity leave their own legacy with a gift of any size. Those who donate to the community foundation are called “members.” These philanthropists are embodying the meaning of the word; they are extending goodwill to their neighbors as they actively promote human welfare in the Midland area.

As the community foundation celebrates 40 years and moves forward, the Midland community will continue to be transformed by the giving of all of us – past donors, current donors and future donors yet to be born. As Esther Gerstacker stated, “Most of us need an ‘enabler’ – a vehicle to help us bridge the gap between dream and reality. The Midland Foundation can be that enabler.”

MACF is celebrating 40 years of leadership, collaboration and giving in Midland County. Since 1973 we have provided an avenue for individuals and organizations to change the community through philanthropic giving. MACF awards grants and scholarships, offers the ability for individuals and families to invest in the community and serves as a catalyst for collaboration and change by leading community dialogue and action on critical issues.