The Loop

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 […]

Mary Parsons had a gut feeling about why clients at LEAVEN weren’t getting services they were being referred to, but she needed someone to POINT the way toward testing her theory. LEAVEN’s experience with POINT (Poverty Outcomes and Improvement Network Team) allowed Parsons and her staff to compile a compelling case for an expansion to […]

By Dana Berger Business Director, Kurt Stein’s School of Music Inc. Kurt Stein’s School of Music and YouthGo of Neenah will be collaborating to provide music education to underserved and at-risk teens. Eight participants from YouthGo, a drop-in center offering activities for teens, will be partnered with 10 teen interns from Kurt Stein’s School of Music, […]

When Lynn Peters calls and asks someone from a nonprofit to have a cup of coffee with her, they should quickly say yes. The result could be sweeter than a peppermint mocha latte. Lynn, the Community Foundation staff member who works with U.S. Venture’s Basic Needs Giving Partnership, calls them her “coffee and conversation” sessions. […]

When the call went out for donations to a lasting endowment fund for early childhood education to honor Dr. John and Sally Mielke, the community showed the love for the cause and the couple who has served the community for so long. Nearly 200 families, individuals, businesses and other organizations contributed to the John and […]

By Oliver Zornow The Building for Kids When The Building for Kids holds its third annual Diversity Discovery Free Day noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, it also will kick off a community art project that will celebrate diversity all year long. The Discovering our Diversity Community Art Project — made possible by a grant […]

Whether sexual assault survivor Brenda Tracy made an impact as the keynote speaker for the 2017 Voices of Men Breakfast and at half a dozen schools is not in question. The applause and the positive reviews were good indications. A Neenah High School student who said, “I have never felt more understood in my life” […]

The Fox Valley Symphony will repeat its successful experiment of adding graphics to music to help its audience understand the composition, this year combining it with a project involving about 1,000 Appleton Area School District students. For Big Arts in the Little Apple, the students produced artwork to illustrate the score to Route 66 by […]

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 […]

Two small creeks that flow through the Kaukauna area may play a big role in cutting down on algae blooms and fish kills and cleaning up the Fox River and Green Bay. Kankapot Creek runs south to north through Kaukauna parallel to Crooks Avenue and empties into the Fox River just west of 1000 Islands […]