The Loop

By Carolyn Desrosiers, Community Engagement Manager We’re excited to announce our Community Foundation’s Bright Idea Fund has awarded six new grants to nonprofit organizations striving to improve the quality of life in the Fox Valley region. This fund combines dollars from endowments established by generous donors to address ever-changing community needs in Outagamie, Calumet, Waupaca […]

Many people don’t like to think about what happens after they’re gone. Earl Kinjerski and Patricia Schoenborn-Kinjerski aren’t only thinking about it, the De Pere couple has made extensive preparations. Locked away in their safe are the obituaries they wrote a few years back and a special plaque for their cemetery marker commemorating Earl’s service […]

Leaders A’Hmong Us: United Hmong American Association (UHAA), and Fox Valley Technical College invited hundreds of local Hmong students to enjoy culturally relevant resources around leadership, higher education, career development and mental health while celebrating their heritage, thanks to a $1,000 grant from the Bright Idea Fund within the Community Foundation. Photos by Viseth Moua, […]

Whether it’s plunging over a waterfall in a river kayak or following Alaska’s Inland Passage to recreate the past, a festival of 2019’s best paddling films is being presented Friday, March 22, at Lawrence University’s Warch Center Cinema in Appleton. The films will communicate the adrenaline and beauty of kayaking or canoeing in the wild. […]

How do you define well-being in a community? Imagine Fox Cities is a new, inclusive community-wide initiative created to be more intentional about shaping the future of the Fox Cities to improve individual and collective well-being. Many communities define well-being differently but most include common threads of housing, safety, health care, lifelong learning and more. The initiative was […]

Since I first I came through the doors of the Community Foundation as a new hire, and I’ve loved every minute of my job helping to share the stories of the great things our grants are supporting in the Fox Valley, and the generosity of donors here in the community. In my life before the […]

Most symphony attendees sit quietly in their seats during orchestral performances. That did not happen yesterday. Hundreds of local third, fourth and fifth-graders used their voices and recorders to help an orchestra make beautiful music in Appleton, thanks in part to the generosity of a Fox Valley family. A grant to the Fox Cities Performing […]

The 2019 Celebrating Volunteers awardees have been selected! Each year we celebrate the people in the Fox Valley who go above and beyond to help make the community a better place with their gifts of time. Volunteer awards in seven categories will be presented to the winners during the 22nd Celebrating Volunteers community gala May […]

For those of you who have Irish or Scots-Irish ancestors, two nationally renowned speakers are coming to northeast Wisconsin to help discover more about those roots, thanks  to a grant from the Miller/Anthes Family Fund within the Community Foundation. The grant helps support a March 13th lecture at the Brown County Library in Green Bay by […]

Catalpa Health of Appleton has trained 13 counselors for its Seedlings program to address the mental health needs through its infant mental health program. Supported by a $40,000 grant from the Bright Idea Fund and $16,000 from two donor funds within the Community Foundation, these providers work with parents of children from birth to age […]