Category: General

One of the many performing arts organizations in the Fox Valley Region, the Appleton Boychoir, gives boys the opportunity to forge friendships and share in the camaraderie of bringing music into the community and all over the world. By Fox Arts Network members Like so many businesses, the performing arts industry is at a standstill. […]

The Engler Center for the Performing Arts fund, established through the Chilton Area Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, has had a lasting impact by successfully completing its original purpose. The fund was specifically designed to pay off the bond used by the Chilton Area School District to […]

Rebecca Skowronski was a typical high school sophomore, her days filled with studying, athletics and friends, when her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis turned everything upside-down. “At the time I hadn’t really heard too much about cancer, at least not anyone that I was close to, especially a family member,” Rebecca said. Her mom had surgery […]

 By Kim O’Brien, Executive Director, Nonprofit Leadership Initiative (NPLI) I am ready for my next adventure in my career!  After nearly seven years with the Nonprofit Leadership Initiative (NPLI), I’ve decided the timing is right for me to step back and for the organization to move forward with the next leader.   I’ve been working closely […]

The Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region’s tagline Together, we flourish. is an appropriate theme of the Loop the Locks trail network.  June 5, 2024, marked the official ribbon cutting celebration of this regionally connecting loop system. Individually, the communities of Appleton, Combined Locks, Kaukauna, Kimberly, and Little Chute have expanded trails during the […]

The pandemic pushed Kimberly Public Library to get creative in our mission to serve the community. We had to look for new ways to gather and connect patrons in safe and accessible ways. In the fall of 2021 and with funding from a grant from the Bright Idea fund within the Community Foundation (now called […]

By Holly Femal, Community Enrichment Director of the Village of Kimberly The Village of Kimberly has plans for a waterfront trail as a part of the larger Loop the Locks project, to increase free recreational opportunities in the Heart of the Valley region and the Fox River corridor. As a part of a larger redevelopment […]

Members of Kiwanis provide cookies at “Light Up the Night” (pre-COVID), in conjunction with last year’s annual Appleton Christmas Parade in Appleton. By Jeffrey Walters treasurer, Appleton-Fox Cities Kiwanis Club As a donor and treasurer of Appleton-Fox Cities Kiwanis Club’s two funds, I’m grateful for the administrative help and investment base provided by the Community […]

A scholarship fund set up to benefit graduates from six Calumet County school districts by a hard-working couple is itself working hard to carry out their charitable legacy. Violet Laack taught in Reedsville, Brillion and Kiel, starting in a one-room schoolhouse, and continued substitute teaching into her 80s. Her husband, Ruben, worked at his cheese factory […]

Stand on the overlook at Wequiock Falls north of Green Bay and you will see a fence loaded with padlocks, some inscribed with initials. An international craze called “love locks” has found this remote Brown County Park along Highway 57. Lovers have clipped the locks on the chain link fence as testimony to the permanence […]

When Walter S. Rugland’s father, Walter L, Rugland, formed the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region in 1986, working behind the scenes to position this new force for charitable giving was Larry Kath. Walt reflects on the contribution made by Larry Kath, who died Sunday at age 76. (Larry Kath is at the far […]

For many years, the Community Foundation has partnered with United Way Fox Cities to offer an annual training workshop for nonprofits about things like board development, fundraising and strategic planning. This year we’re thrilled to welcome Schenck SC as a partner. I’m personally excited about the workshop focus: marketing! Space is still available at our Sept. 16 workshop […]