Category: Events We Sponsor

To read the comments of Cheri Duchrow’s nominator for a Celebrating Volunteers award you would think volunteering is more natural to her than breathing. She tells others, “Every moment and every person that stands in front of you is a volunteer opportunity to help or mentor someone to make a difference and change someone’s life.”  […]

This spring will be the 20th time that about 600 people from Wisconsin’s Fox River Valley gather in downtown Appleton for an awards presentation celebrating those who improve the community by giving from the heart. The late Paul and Elaine Groth of Appleton were those kinds of people. After the couple was killed in a car […]

The annual U.S. Venture Open — the nation’s single largest one-day charitable event dedicated to ending poverty — raised a record $4.13 million for the Basic Needs Giving Partnership on Aug. 8. An Olympic-gold cheer goes out to U.S. Venture and the many volunteers, sponsors and golfers. The Basic Needs Giving Partnership is supported by the […]

These (pink) feet were made for walking. Walking for a great cause! The Community Foundation team is cheering on participants of local virtual fundraising walks/runs or participating in them. This year’s re-imagined American Heart Association Heart Walk was Sept. 26-Oct. 3, raising funds for lifesaving science that can teach us all how to live longer […]

The Community Foundation receives and manages cash donations to the Stock the Shelves drive for the Post-Crescent’s Community Stock the Shelves Fund. Stock the Shelves has raised and granted $2 million since the Community Foundation and The Post-Crescent started partnering on the appeal in the year 2000. By Patti Habeck Executive Vice President Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin […]

After last year’s Voices of Men breakfast, attendees asked organizers to provide examples of specific things to be done daily to help end sexual assault and domestic violence. During today’s breakfast event at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton, attended by 1,100 people, organizers announced two new efforts — a poster series called “11 Things Men […]

Marie Waddell describes herself as “the crazy lady at Walmart.” She’s the one with the packed grocery cart, buying for 66 kids. They are her kids in the sense that she takes responsibility for making sure students from lower income families at Ferber Elementary School in Appleton have enough to eat. Her volunteer activity isn’t […]

Photo of Cindy Reffke courtesy of The Post-Crescent. Cindy Reffke has used her family’s painful loss to make others aware of suicide in our community. Reffke is the Celebrating Volunteers winner of the 2019 Janet Berry Volunteer of the Year award, sponsored by The Post-Crescent. Our Celebrating Volunteers community partner NBC 26 is profiling several […]

The recent Celebrating Our Volunteers event reminded me once again why some communities thrive and prosper while others stagnate and decline. The answer is simple: It’s the people. People who act beyond their own self-interests to be kind to a neighbor, volunteer their time and talents to a non-profit organization or take their passion for […]

Community leaders trying to settle the future of the former Thompson Community Center have scheduled two listening sessions to hear community input on the at least three solutions proposed to deal with the closing of the center’s College Avenue location by Lutheran Social Services last March. To express your views on the senior and community […]

The 18th annual Women’s Fund Luncheon on Sept. 6 promises to be another exciting and informative day for women and men in the Fox Valley. The sold-out event starts at 11:25 a.m. at the Red Lion Paper Valley Hotel in downtown Appleton. A $5,000 grant from the Community Foundation’s Bright Idea Fund will support this […]

An Appleton native who will serve as the keynote speaker at the Women’s Fund for the Fox Valley Region’s annual luncheon Sept. 7 received international attention this week when the Journal of the American Medical Association published the largest study to date of brain injury in former American football players. Dr. Ann McKee, director of […]