September 1, 2021
“Learning is Action”
Dear Friends: All of us have a list of things that changed in our lives in 2020. Many of us made lists of things to “return” to in 2021 – visiting friends and relatives, tra…
August 8, 2021
A Legacy of Literary and Learning Support Lives On
Growing up, Patricia “Patti” Strauss found reading and writing uniquely challenging, yet for most of her life could never pinpoint why. After years of searching for answers with lo…
July 3, 2021
Success, Fulfillment and Futures On the Summer Syllabus
Following a year of tremendous changes, the school district and nonprofits across our region are rallying for student success on a truly collaborative scale. The timing and urgency couldn&rsqu…
July 1, 2021
The Conversation Starts Locally
Homegrown ideas have a way of catching on far beyond their initial geographies. Consider our region for a moment. Two of the top three selling master planned communities in the nation are he…
June 7, 2021
Sharing Time in Service of Others
There’s an idiom in business that what you measure matters. In philanthropy, there are many measurements – outcomes, lives changed, program results, financial management and years…
June 1, 2021
Early Learning, Parent Pathways, and Investing in the Whole Family
Dear Friends: Do you remember the name of your first teacher? My first two were named Edie and Blake, or as my siblings and I called them, Mom and Dad. Some of us may have first had a grand…
May 1, 2021
Guiding with Solutions from the Head and Heart
Dear Friends: Last weekend I took a Florida road trip with my husband, Mike, to celebrate our 44th wedding anniversary. We took the back roads to Cape Canaveral to admire the feats accomplish…
May 1, 2021
Fostering A More Humane Community, One Paw at a Time
Whether they bark, meow, neigh, or squawk, animals are inseparable members of our families. My own family would be incomplete without our three Labradors, J.J. (Jogger Jerde), a chocolate lab…
April 3, 2021
An Artful Approach to Community Healing
What defines an artistic masterpiece? Some point to technique, others admiration. While the beauty of a piece will always remain in the eye of the beholder, a year of instability across all st…