Starting Managing Nonprofit Organization Danielle Merrick

May 19, 2023

Danielle Merreck | Attorney

In this insightful interview, Danielle Merrick, a law professor at UMKC and director of Kansas City volunteer lawyers and accountants for the Arts, shares valuable knowledge about starting and managing a nonprofit organization. She discusses the wealth of resources available in Kansas City, the legalities of nonprofit formation, and the importance of planning, budgeting, and setting up a board of directors. Merrick also explains the difference between a nonprofit corporation and tax-exempt status, emphasizing the need for internal controls and annual filings. This interview is a must-watch for anyone considering starting a nonprofit or seeking to improve their existing organization’s management practices.

visit them here: https://law.umkc.edu/

 

What Nonprofit Questions are Answered?

  1. What are some resources available for starting and maintaining a non-profit organization?
  2. What is the difference between a non-profit corporation and tax-exempt status?
  3. What are some common mistakes made by non-profits?
  4. How can non-profits amend their bylaws?
  5. What is the annual event mentioned that pairs non-profits with attorneys?

 

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KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, tells the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and connects them with the community.  

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Transcript:

(00:00) City nonprofits and the people behind them KC cares is the intersection of the non-profit and the profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live work and play this KC care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation www.koffman.org I’m Ruth Baum Bigus many non-profits are started because of the passion of the founder to help the community in some way while Noble and purpose there are many things to consider including legal issues and obligations when the word legal is mentioned in the same sentence

(00:33) as non-profit it may send shutters up the spine but our guest today on this ask the expert episode is here to ease your worries and break things down for us KC cares welcomes Danielle Merrick she is a University of Missouri Kansas City professor in the School of Law and a director of the Kansas City volunteer lawyers and accountants for the Arts and many other things that Danielle is involved in that’s just a snapshot that I thought we’d start with so welcome to the show thank you I’m doing well well as I said uh legal

(01:10) may send those shutters or spook or Scare some folks who go in and they you know they want to help heal somebody raise money for some other where does someone start with legal issues and a non-profit where’s bring us in so the first thing is is that um there are a lot of resources in the Kansas City area that can assist you with um both information about how to form a non-profit and do it properly and then also with maintaining that non-profit so one of the places that I recommend on a regular basis is the Midwest Center for non-profit leadership

(01:56) um also non-profit connect um so the Midwest Center for nonprofit leadership is a program that’s actually through the blocks School of Business through UMKC and it puts on I believe it’s quarterly um they put on a quarterly a um basically so you want to form a non-profit class and I believe it’s maybe an hour and a half or two hours long and they have illegal non-profit expert that comes in and just talks about the basic building blocks about setting up a non-profit um they also talk about kind of the

(02:32) um sorts of planning that an individual or group of individuals needs to go through to successfully form a non-profit so if you are someone that’s in the very beginning stages in the what I like to call you God told me to do X stage then that’s a great resource is to start there to kind of get some of that exposure to that um non-profit connect and Midwest Center for nonprofit leadership nonprofit connect is basically an affinity group for individuals who are already either involved with a non-profit whether that

(03:08) be as Board of director members or executive directors or Founders or whatever and it provides a few things it provides a um networking platform they have events where you can network with other non-profits so that you can kind of uh compare War Stories they also put on classes and events that are designed to educate people on non-profit best practices um so like the Midwest Center for nonprofit leadership has a fundraising certificate so if you have a board or an executive director member who wants to be more Savvy at fundraising there’s a

(03:41) fundraising program that they can go through non-profit connect puts on similar classes like that so I always say you know do that first if you’re starting at that the next thing I would suggest is that one of the things that people don’t really understand about non-profit is that um well two things one is that non-profits are owned by the people of the state in which they’re formed they’re not owned by any one individual so one of the things that I tell people when they’re thinking about forming a non-profit is

(04:15) you have to decide whether or not your primary goal is for this to be your baby and you control it or your primary goal is whatever the mission is and the mission might go on without you and you might not be involved with your non-profit at all in the future so you have to decide which is more important and there’s not a right or wrong answer to that because some people are like no this is my baby I want to always be involved in it and I never want to be parted from it and if that’s the case then a for-profit

(04:50) structure is probably a better structure for that um but if it’s more Mission driven and your personal affiliation with it is not as important then a non-profit structure might be the right way to go the second thing that a lot of people don’t understand about nonprofit is that their the legal work to set up a non-profit is like the last 10 percent ninety percent of it is all y’all like you’ve got to come up with your budget you’ve got to come up with your program and you have to figure out your board of

(05:22) directors you I mean you have to do all of that the lawyers are not going to do any of that for you nobody nobody’s going to come to me and go I’d like to set up a homeless shelter and we go okay yeah I know exactly how you want to run this and let me just you know dictate everything to you I’m gonna go okay great tell me all about your homeless shelter and if you say uh well I don’t know I haven’t decided I’m not charging for my services with all of my clients so you’re all you’re doing is wasting some

(05:50) time but if you’re paying an attorney they’re charging you for you to Fumble around and not be able to tell them what your program is so you know really kind of doing that research ahead of time and really knowing a lot of those types of things before you go consult with an attorney to start setting things up will save you money it will save you time and it’ll save you frustration um so I recommend all of those things when we first are setting up a non-profit um just as a total complete site and you’re

(06:28) probably aware of this already um given that you interface with non-profit stuff on a regular basis is that um Kansas City has a lot of non-profits like a lot we do yes I do a lot a lot um and you know some people could say that that’s the generosity of the Midwest and the generosity of the city as a whole um but it does create problems um there was a study by Midwest Center for nonprofit leadership I believe it was in 2019 Maybe 2018.

(07:00) uh all I’ve noticed it was before the pandemic this is after the pandemic um and it basically said that due to the number of non-profits in Kansas City all these existing nonprofits are essentially competing for the same 43 individual donors so my thing when anybody approaches me about starting a non-profit the very first thing I ask them is have you volunteered with a non-profit that’s doing what you’re doing is it possible there’s a nonprofit you could already partner with and be a program under an existing non-profit as

(07:33) opposed to setting up a fully formed secondary non-profit and that should always be anybody who has a great idea that they want to help somewhere in the community that should always be their primary problem of focus is there somebody already doing this or something ancillary to this that I could expand on and just assist that mission as opposed to diverting Dollars to the administration of another non-profit so um you know that all being said when I get a non-profit client in I usually spend the first 30 to 45 minutes trying

(08:06) to talk them out of forming a new non-profit oh no oh no but you know sometimes there are reasons that partnering with another organization doesn’t work or maybe you know they have part maybe they have been very involved in what they’ve been doing and have been doing in a grass level level for several years and they just want to formalize it and so there are reasons why they might want to form a non-profit anyway um non-profits in both Missouri and Kansas are under corporate law um which seems a little weird but that’s

(08:44) how it is Missouri and Kansas are slightly different Missouri has set all of their non-profit corporate law into a whole separate section Kansas and Kansas is stupid sometimes and I can say this because I live in Kansas Kansas was like no we’re just gonna smash the non-profit corporate law into the for-profit corporate lawn we’re going to call it zero par Value stock that gets issued so Kansas nonprofit law is a little bit more strange a little less straightforward than Missouri is because you’re in this

(09:18) inside of a for-profit law so if you are someone who’s interested in forming a Kansas nonprofit I absolutely suggest that you not try to do that on your own only because there are so many nuances in Kansas non-profit law because it’s mashed into the for-profit law that makes it a little less straightforward um so both of them are under corporate profit law or Corporation law um the main thing we do is what we we file Articles of Incorporation with the secretary of state to set up a non-profit Corporation now the nonprofit

(09:54) corporation form on the Secretary of State’s websites um they have gotten so many people who form non-profits and don’t actually know what they’re doing that they have put the language in the instructions of the PDFs of those that has all the language that the Internal Revenue Service requires for your non-profit to be considered eligible for tax-exempt status now that’s the next misconception that people have is that there is a non-profit Corporation and then there is tax exempt status and these are two separate things

(10:35) you could have a non-profit corporation that is not tax exempt you can have a tax exempt entity that is not a non-profit Corporation so most people when they tell me they want to start a non-profit what they actually mean what they’re colloquially referring to is a charitable non-profit corporation that is eligible for tax exempt status under 501c3 of the IRS code so the IRS requires specific language in your Articles of Incorporation and in your bylaws for you to be eligible to apply for tax-exempt status

(11:17) so if upon forming your non-profit Corporation you fail to put that language in whatever attorney you meet with is going to have to tell you that we’re going to have to amend your Articles of Incorporation and amend your bylaws before we can even apply for tax-exempt status so it’s really important if you are not aware of what that language needs to be in the Articles of Incorporation go look at the instructions on the Secretary of State’s website for those the PDF of those forms it’s right there the

(11:49) language is right there um or ask someone try to find out what the language is supposed to be because that going back and having to amend that that sets off a whole series of processes that delays your application for tax exempt status [Music] um so you know we’re always trying to make sure that you know if you’re going to do things on your own you’re we’re giving you the best start you’re trying to you know get as many things squared away properly to begin with [Music] um so once you’ve set up your Articles of

(12:21) Incorporation Missouri and Kansas have different requirements for the number of board members Missouri requires that you have three board members at all times Kansas requires one um both require that you have a president a secretary and a Treasurer and those can be three individuals that throw that fill those roles or it can be one individual filling all three roles like the trinity and so normally the persons who are filling those roles are members of the board of directors but they don’t have to be they could be

(12:53) outside persons that are not on the board of directors that does create a level of complication that I don’t most attorneys would not recommend that but it’s not illegal to do it that way um so what happens if you have less than three board of directors in Missouri or what happens if you have less than one Board of director in Kansas that means that technically you’re not in compliance with Missouri or Kansas statute which means that your limited liability under that non-profit Corporation no longer exists

(13:29) so what that means is if you’re a Missouri non-profit operating with only two board members instead of three your board members and your executive director are now personally liable for anything that happens yes exactly so it is very important that you understand in whatever state you’re formed what the requirements are to maintain your non-profit Corporation as well um one of those is the board of directors but then the other thing is that Missouri and Kansas both for non-profit corporations require an annual report uh

(14:04) with the secretary of state if you fail to file that annual report they will administratively dissolve your nonprofit corporation and then you’re back to individual personal liability for everyone affiliated with the organization so once you’ve done that you’ve got your thing set up you’ve solicited your board of directors now you need bylaws and now you need a conflict of interest policy and your bylaws are the best way I can describe bylaws is they are a contract between the board of directors and the non-profit

(14:38) organization as to how the non-profit organization is going to be administered and so the bylaws are describing like here’s how often we’re going to have board meetings and here’s how we’re going to elect people and here’s how we’re going to remove people if we need to and here’s how we feel if someone just leaves or or whatever and it’s a whole layer of things two hints about bylaws number one non-profit corporations that are tax exempt um have a higher level of required disclosure than a privately held

(15:11) for-profit Corporation that means that as a taxpayer in the state of Missouri I can ask any existing non-profit for a copy of their bylaws or a copy of their Articles of Incorporation or a copy of their recent tax returns with the IRS or copies of their most recent board minutes and they have to provide them to me so one of the things that I tell people who are trying to figure out how to set up buy-loses I’m like find a big organization that does something similar to you and requests a copy of their bylaws because now you

(15:47) know they’ve paid an attorney to look at them and now you can kind of see how they structured stuff that doesn’t mean you have to structure everything the way they did but it gives you some insight into right well how do I want to do some of this stuff the biggest thing that happens that I see client the biggest mistakes I see with bylaws is the bylaws are drafted and don’t account for proxies or electronic participation in meetings yes um so you know if you’re by less don’t contain that you technically can’t have

(16:21) a zoom board meeting you technically can’t have a teleconference board meeting you technically can’t have someone vote on behalf of somebody else and so making sure that those are included in new bylaws if you’re drafting is very important in this day and age to make sure that electronic communication proxy all of that stuff is in there um the second most common mistake I see with people with bylaws is they don’t follow them so yikes yes so whatever your bylaws say you have to do I would say that the most

(16:59) common question I get from existing non-profits is they’ll say can we do X and my most common response is what do your bylaws say and if they’re bylaws say they can do X they can do X if their bylaws are silent on that or say they can’t do X they probably can’t do X and so you know being familiar with your bylaws and knowing what you can and can’t do and then abiding by them is very important I find that I have to go back because it’s not something I think that you easily memorize I’ll speak to myself

(17:38) it’s not something I keep top of mind because you’re busy doing your mission if though it isn’t in your bylaws and you want it in your bylaws can you amend them and how difficult is that to do so yes you can um even if you’re bylaws do not have a stated Amendment policy most bylaws do but for some reason if they are silent on the amendment there is never a situation in which you cannot amend a document um so let’s pretend it’s silent the default rule is that you can amend it as long as a majority of the board of

(18:19) members agree to amend it in writing so those are the key things a majority and in writing they can amend the bylaws now if you have a membership-based organization that’s a little different if it is a membership based organization and let me be clear there’s a difference between membership for marketing versus membership in a legal structure membership for marketing is like I’m a friend of the zoo and I get a couple of zoo passes but I don’t get to have any power to vote in the board of directors that’s a market membership

(18:54) legal membership is I have a membership based organization like um a homeowners association or a country club or a social league and the members get to vote in the board of directors so if you have a legal structure that has members then amending your bylaws will also require the members the majority of the members to approve in writing the amendment to the bylaws um and then you call a meeting you present all the Amendments people vote bam your bylaws are amended the most common amendments that I’ve done in the

(19:33) last you know I’ve been an attorney for about 20 years now the most common amendments I do is adding proxy and electronic communication like electronic meeting that’s the most common um occasionally we’ve done some things where we’ve either added in term limits or removed term limits but for the most part the most common thing is is changing the way that voting and meeting structures happen because especially organizations that were formed you know early odds or before electronic meetings and electronic communication just was

(20:05) not something that was regularly included in bylaws something at this point again that you would recommend that you go ahead and do I mean we’re in this world of zoom and teams and everything else and I know for us for example during the pandemic we had to I mean you couldn’t gather unless you decided you’re gonna go stand on a driveway and you could all vote and and do that I don’t think any of us probably did that um so tax exemption status you really need to be clear about you really need to

(20:38) know your bylaws you really need to know your articles what are those big you know step in the mud kind of things that you see non-profits kind of just either don’t pay attention to or aren’t you know what are those big mistakes we make um so I see a few um non-profit boards tend to have a decent amount of turnover and so in that turnover if there is not someone who is The Keeper of the records sometimes records just get lost in the turnover um one of the ways that I suggest nonprofits can help avoid that

(21:27) is um having or non-profit organization pay for a business Dropbox or business OneDrive or a business box or whatever Google whatever file system you like to use whatever you know one is your favorite they’re all these are like they’re all apples right it’s just like whether you like Galas or Pink Ladies or honey crispy they all have the same security they all have the same functionality it’s whatever one you prefer setting up something like that paying for the business subscription so you don’t have to worry about

(22:07) you know we’ve run out of room or whatever right and then every person who is a member of the board has a login to that business you know online file system that way when Susie Smith leaves the board we just deactivate her from OneDrive but all the stuff that she ever put in there is already up there so the next person who comes in your place can go in and be like oh we’ll hear all the minutes and here is the bylaws and here all the amendments to the biologic here are all the tax returns and all of that

(22:43) type of stuff so having some measure of internal controls in terms of document retention and things like that that makes your life so much easier and digitizing we have so much readily available technology to digitize that stuff at this point and the more you can digitize it the easier it is to keep everybody on the same page and to have everybody have access to the same thing so um that’s one thing I see happen a lot like especially organizations that were formed prior to the pandemic but I’ll have organizations that come in

(23:21) that they were formed in the 90s and they’re like we know we have bylaws but no one can find a copy where are they so we pretty much have to start over and draft new bios because nobody can find a copy of the original bylaws and we have no idea what they are um and so that’s one of the things that happens a lot um the next thing that I see happen a lot is uh just general internal control issues with um um one person having control of the social media accounts and then that one person for whatever reason right being

(23:56) not a good person and yeah uh or one person having access to the bank accounts or one person who controls all the funds and nobody’s really overseeing that or you know anything that could potentially have an adverse negative effect on the organization ideally should have a point person and an overseer and those should be two different persons um so you know for your social media accounts you have two people manage it you have two administrators for it one person might be the one who’s doing 99 of the posts and the other person’s just

(24:38) there if something goes wrong but you have two people same with your bank account you’ll have two people every time you know for the Kansas City volunteer lawyers and accounts for the Arts for example I am the executive director I’m the one writing all the checks I’m the one charging all the things on the credit card Etc but we have a Treasurer who every month is looking at all of my transactions and every time I write a check he sees an image of it every time I cash a check he sees an image of it and if

(25:08) something doesn’t line up or something I didn’t like make enough of a note to make it clear what it is he will email me and he’ll be like this 21.25 in miscellaneous what is that for and then I’ll be like oh yeah sorry okay yeah I did our annual report with the Missouri Secretary of State and I didn’t notate that when I put it in there but he’s you know just over there kind of making sure he’s like hey let’s you know where’d you spend that money and and I it’s not particularly onerous

(25:37) for me and it’s not particularly onerous for him and I’m not really interested in embezzling but it’s a way to have that check in Balance to kind of make sure that that doesn’t happen um so those are a couple of things that I see a lot um and then the other thing that I see a lot is people just um failing to file annual reports failing to file tax returns with the IRS missing deadlines and things like that um the IRS if you are granted tax exempt status if you fail to file your 990 return for three consecutive years so

(26:17) three years in a row they’ll revoke your tax exempt status and getting that reinstated most of the time means you start over I and so you know having I have on my personal Google Calendar for example reminders like every March 1st it pops up and it’s like file the 990. you know and so something like that so that somebody is making sure that all of those you know T’s across your eyes are dotted um because we want to maintain that tax it’s upset us that that was what a lot of the nonprofits have really worked for

(26:55) because they’re soliciting grants they’re soliciting donations or corporate sponsorships and the way that they are able to obtain those things is by having a tax exempt status with the federal government so maintaining those things is very important and it’s really easy to let those slip through the cracks and and and nobody’s meaning to and it just happens right so having a process for that is important crisis is always important we’re just about out of time but I wanted you to share that

(27:23) there’s an upcoming uh event in June that folks can try to participate in give us the the quick stick yeah so there we do annually um the UMKC School of Law who I represent um Stinson Law Firm which is one of the larger firms here in Kansas City and the American Association of corporate Council we put on an event annually as well as with Kansas legal aid and United Way a um event where we pair non-profit organizations with a team of both Stinson attorneys and American corporate Council attorneys to address

(28:06) some non-profit issues in a one-day clinic so the attorneys and the clients meet for two and a half ish hours and so whatever the issue is it needs to be something we can kind of wrap up in two and a half-ish hours um we um if you are an attorney that it has a limited license and you’re interested in doing some transactional work and you’re not a member of the American Association of corporate Council if you become a member you can participate if you’re a Stinson attorney listening you should participate

(28:37) um and then if you are a non-profit um there is the we’re actually at this point our applications we’ve actually I think we’ve exceeded the number of people that we can take this year but we will do it again next year so be on the lookout in like March April um an invitation will go out and you can apply and you if you have something like we need someone to review our bylaws and tell us how to amend them that’s a great project for this Tech clinic or um we’re thinking about hiring employees

(29:08) and we don’t know what we’re supposed to do like what are some tips with that great thing for this clinic so you know that’s some types of things that you’d be consider doing um it’s completely free um the legal services are free they give you lunch at the end um where’s the best place for people to go check so that maybe next year they can stay in the loop or you know in between they might be able to reach out so um this year and last year we have posted it on um non-profit connect they have kind of

(29:43) like a bulletin board sort of thing um it’s on nonprofit connect it’s also been on Stinson’s LinkedIn page and the American Association of corporate councils LinkedIn page as well as Stinson’s website Stinson markets it pretty heavily but if you’re not following Stinson you’re not going to necessarily run across it people can always contact me um and I can get them hooked up with that but then the other thing is is that if you are a non-profit and you have a legal issue please just reach out to me

(30:17) um I do non-profit issues through um KC’s school of law clinic and so there’s some stuff that I might be able to help you with through the UMKC School of Law I might be able to tell you to participate in this Clinic coming up in the summer with Stinson and the ACC or I might have other resources for you so um I’m pretty open to taking emails and answering people’s questions and at least trying to direct them to the right resources for them if I can’t personally help them through my clinic

(30:46) will you share how they can reach you I assume by email is the best yes um so um my per my direct email is Merrick my last name D.A the first two initials of Danielle at umkc.edu or the clinics email is e l s clinic at umkc.edu so the acronym for entrepreneurial Legal Services clinic at umkc.edu um you can call and leave a message I will eventually return your message but I tend to be in meetings a lot of the day um but the phone number is 816-235 -6341 um and that’s the best way to reach me and like I said I’m happy to answer

(31:39) questions direct to resources um I actually go and speak to non-profit boards on a somewhat regular basis so if you’re a non-profit and you’re like I’d like someone to come and talk to my board about board responsibilities support liabilities I’m like yeah I can come and do that so um I I speak to non-profit boards about legal issues as well just to give non-profit organizations a better understanding of everything that’s required of them Danielle thank you this has been great I feel like I just went to a mini Law

(32:08) class and and you didn’t charge me which was even better so thank you for sharing your expertise we’re really grateful for For All You’ve shared with us yeah you’re welcome thank you for joining us for KC cares Kansas City’s non-profit voice we’re produced by charitable Communications also a non-profit this KC care segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation www.koffman.

(32:34) org you can spread the love and find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC cares radio on Instagram at KC cares online and check out our website at www.kccaresonline.org you can find Danielle and all of our expert podcasts right there and don’t forget you can catch us Saturday mornings on ESPN 15 10 a.m and 94.5 FM 8 A.

(32:57) M thanks for joining us I’m KC cares [Music]

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visit them here: american-ballers.com

 

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TW: @kauffmanfdn FB: @kauffmanfdn IG: @kauffmanfdn

Transcript:

(00:00) KC cares is the intersection of the non-profit and profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live work and play this KC care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation www.Kauffman.org I’m Ruth Baum Biggus for Sean Birdsong Sports has been his life the son of an NBA player Sean started playing basketball at a young age ultimately competing on the court in college as well as professionally in the Continental Basketball Association in the Premier basketball league while many

(00:31) kids love sports few make it to the level Shawn has experienced and knowing the transformative nature of sports Sean saw that participation can mean so much more for kids so with a commitment to help youth excel at every level he created American Ballers and its non-profit arm the global Ballers Foundation providing kids with Educational Tools that they don’t get in any classroom setting the foundation hosts a variety of sporting clinics and camps providing a dose of life skills while kids play the sports they love

(01:02) Sean is joining us today to talk about his efforts and his journey to help kids become the best humans that they can be and we’re so lucky to have Sean with us welcome to KC cares good morning roof how are you doing I’m doing great and it’s so good to see you outside of a coffee shop right right that was a very good coffee shop by the way yeah we’ll put in a plug there for robo cup Sean let’s talk a little bit about your journey in sports I alluded to it of course in our introduction but I want

(01:33) our audience to really know where you come from and that we can talk about the passion that you’ve used to create your foundation uh thank you for having me this morning again um I come from a I would say very rich education background as well as Sports background um my my mother was an educator Candace Birdsong for 30 years in the Kansas City Kansas School District and my father was a NBA player Elvis Birdsong played 12 years in the NBA so I grew up basically having basketball and education really at the Forefront since I was a baby

(02:15) um my younger brother and I Sydney we of course played various sports soccer um football baseball outside with the friends but basketball was really a center part of uh us both growing up you didn’t have quote the normal upbringing though and I wanted to talk a little bit about that being the son of a professional athlete how how did that balance at home you had a mom who was an educator and then you have a pro athlete how did they create a balance and share with you what they felt were really the important life lessons

(02:53) well it’s a great question it was very unique uh situation um I do know you know I remember the last few years of my dad’s playing career in New Jersey so I was born in New Jersey um when he was playing with the Nets my mother and my father met here in Kansas City when he was playing with the Kansas City Kings so I believe 1981 um when he his contract was up with Kansas City and he signed his free agent to New Jersey they moved to New Jersey um I was born two years later and I just remember um you know that last year in New Jersey

(03:30) from my memory um you know just players coming over to the house or us going over players house me going to the Meadowlands Arena um down in East Rutherford New Jersey going being in the locker room you know with a lot of those guys coming in and out um opponents you know Michael Jordan and Magic and all of those guys so I think um growing up around that I didn’t really understand that it was anything special I guess you can say um it was just normal to me um but also I remember my mother um being you know later on we got a

(04:03) little older you know she just really has always been a hard worker um and not really just your so-called NBA wife stay-at-home mother um she did take a few years off you know to to raise of course my younger brother myself but I do remember vividly later on those last few years um from my dad’s career she got out there and was like Hey I’m you know I’m gonna do a part-time thing I’m gonna go out and teach and I’m gonna go get out the house and do things like that so that work ethic um from him playing basketball and my

(04:32) mother um also being a teacher and all of that that really kind of shaped at that time the way I was thinking about okay we’re in the school but we also going to the arena we’re going to school and all of that so that was a that was an awesome experience um during that time and then also you know his last year in Boston you know I remember when he he left New Jersey um and signed with the Celtics his last year I remember you know us going to Boston and and being up there you know with with Larry Bird and uh Robert

(05:04) Parish and Kevin McHale and Dennis Johnson all those guys like that was that was a good experience within itself because again I was a young kid didn’t understand the rich tradition of the Boston Celtics but as I got older and I looked back on it I was like wow like I was really in the locker room and you know in a a team meeting with you know Jimmy Rogers at the time who was the head coach um drawing up plays and things like that and me and you know my young Brothers running around with balls and things

(05:30) like that um that was a that was a cool situation as well I I think there’s a movie here but I digress be an interesting movie great idea yeah yeah a peek into the locker room but you yourself excelled in sports it through high school and and then you went into the college experience and then into the the pro ranks yourself so at what point did you make a decision of this is just it’s more than just playing the sport how did that come about for you um my senior year in high school and not too many people know this story a lot of

(06:12) a few people who are around the situation know the story but not too many people know the story so um in high school you know for a few years there I struggled with you know uh grades and things like that and one year in particular you know from my freshman year going into my sophomore year I was ineligible um the first five games of playing basketball because I you know at Bonner Springs High School where I attended the grade system was abcf there were no D’s math was always a struggle for me um and I think I believe it was a

(06:43) Spanish class of a struggle for me so I unfortunately you know if you failed I believe was either two or three at the time you couldn’t play the next the next semester so I actually had to sit out and I think sitting out um during that time and actually looking observant like okay this is really more than basketball because if you don’t get your grades if you if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do off the court you really can not play the game that you love to play so going through those

(07:08) situations in my senior year I broke my foot um seven games into the season that and I was lost for the season I was really a wake-up call um I believe I had UMKC New Mexico University um Indiana State University Kansas when coach Roy Williams was there I was getting a lot of letters and a lot of you know calls and things like that going into my senior year that was also a wake-up call to work you know I broke my foot and I had to transition um and and think about okay this is really the second time that basketball

(07:42) has been taken away from me so at that moment my senior year I remember like was yesterday I was really sitting in my room and I was like you know if basketball doesn’t work out I really have to start looking towards the future and I was when I was 17 years old so um after those situations I had to go you know Juco um played at Highland Community College for two years and then after that I fortunately was able to get a scholarship um to Lincoln University HBCU in Jefferson City Missouri NCAA school played there

(08:14) um and that was a a great situation itself um but it was just really the grind of trying to get you know back you know unless you’ve you know to the viewers um having to go through the Juco ranks and then try to fight your way back to go to an NCAA level type type experience it can really take a mental toll on you and I even experienced that going into uh the CBA um that that first year after I left Lincoln University as well as as far as the mental toll um in the minor leagues you know playing professionally

(08:53) um having coaches tell you that if you have a couple bad games you may get sent home you know that was a daily reminder to us all of us in practice the minority level hey there’s no guaranteed contracts here that’s the NBA level um but if you guys aren’t playing up to par we can send you guys home and bring other guys in that was the reality of always trying to be on your toes since I broke my foot in high school so how and where did you get support you knew that there had to be something I guess to fall back on or continue your

(09:29) life I mean you’re a young person at that point what swooped in to support and help you um during my high school years I basically have course um and I say of course because I know a lot of kids aren’t fortunate to have it but that was my reality uh when I say of course you know my mother um you know my dad even though they had gotten a divorce um when after he retired he was still involved um you know in our in our lives and my mother um was was our was a teacher I mean she was she understood what we were dealing

(10:03) with and my uncle you know my Uncle Mike Iman Sandy and a lot of my grandmother at the time when she was alive um here like I had a I had a support system from grandparents uncles um aunts and and of course my mom but um also AAU coaches you know we had Au coaches that also would tell us the reason why I have you guys here in the gym on a Friday night and a Saturday night is to not have you guys in the streets you know because we honestly have even though I played at Bonner Springs and my mother she was really um

(10:32) she was really Savvy you know she’s from KCK and she was seven she told me this when we were she’s like listen yeah you’re out here in school at Bonner to get a good education and and graduate but if you’re gonna play basketball you need to learn how to play with multiple players like from all backgrounds and all walks of life so she put us into AAU team in Kansas City Missouri with you know you had um coach Al Collins who coached you know or Watson NBA great um Jaron Rush Kareem Rush uh Brandon

(11:03) Rush and Malcolm Campbell and Jeff Hawkins and Wayne Simmons a lot of guys that came through um The Running Rebels in Kansas city so we were a part of that for like three years and we got exposure um to go to Las Vegas to go to Los Angeles but Gail Collins and also Al Collins who are our coaches would say you know always keep God first that’s really what we were um you know that was really our influence as far as hey same thing you get injured you tomorrow’s not promised you know keep him first uh go forward in

(11:36) in everything that you do um and everything will be great that was the kind of support system we had growing up so let’s look at those trials and tribulations from breaking my foot and then the the grind in college and then going into the CBA and all of that I always had those that you know those those people in my mind as far as what I went back to um you know when I was younger so let’s fast forward this is your life experience how did you then put American Ballers and your foundation together and and

(12:11) what is it that you want to or want to accomplish with it so after I finished playing a buddy of mine um Mike Copeland he actually worked at a place kvc it’s a behavioral health care center and he told me about you know he you know giving back to kids and they were going these outings and mentorship and all of that to young kids so he said hey this may be something that you might want to go into and look into man it’s really it’s really cool you know giving back to the kids and all that so went there and I actually you know

(12:46) interacting with those kids had a different mindset seeing the struggles that they had um of course I was interested in doing that based on the fact that my family were Educators so giving back to the kids in that way and understanding where they come from where there was traumas and things like that that opened my eyes to a lot of the reason why kids act the way they do and the reason why honestly a lot of adults may act the way they do as far as their upbringing so with me being involved in basketball camps and Clinics after I finished

(13:17) playing I’ve worked with the Dallas Mavericks for a few years doing skill development with their youth um youth events and then also that led to me being a part of the NBA assistant coaches program um in New York City to where they the NBA prepares you to coach if you want to on the NBA and NBA G league so I’ll coach combines and things like that in New York City with a lot of Hall of Famer you know Paul Silas former great um NBA player Hall of Famer George Lynch Rex Walters former Kansas player a lot

(13:48) of these guys that were getting into coaching I was in the room with these guys and just picking their brain and listening to them so doing that helping the Dallas Mavericks being involved in other camps um hearing the kids stories at these camps were kind of touching to the to where it was well we we play the game of sports um whether it’s basketball football and then we go home to our home lives whether it’s mother or mother’s there with boyfriend you know boyfriend smokes marijuana um I’m seeing this abuse I’m seeing this

(14:20) it was almost like wow so you guys are some really smart kids but you’re going home to this kind of home life that is like a distraction so in 2000 18 um I had the idea to kind of start my own um I guess you could say camps and Clinics as far as the non-profit side goes to really give back to the kids like okay instead of us giving you know t-shirts and just saying hey stay in school don’t do drugs which is what we grew up on how about we do a little bit more and like try to add to this to really like try to

(14:56) change um the lives of these kids we’re talking with Sean bird song American Ballers and his non-profit Global Ballers Foundation so how does this work and how do you infuse in this let’s say two-hour session that you’ve got with kiddos some who are coming in with home life that are let’s say less than ideal how do you put both things together so they can walk out of there and maybe have a little bit of change with both skills both skills that’s a great question well a lot of people they look at

(15:33) professional athletes whether in the NFL or NBA as okay they’re superheroes sometimes fans forget that these guys and women and WNBA that they’re human they have ordinary problems just like everybody else um you just happen to see the glitz and the glamor on TV but these you know individuals do have issues as far as anything anything that that you can probably think of but um 2018 when I started it I wanted to purposely bring in NBA and WBA players um to come and talk to the kids to say Hey you definitely can make it but these

(16:09) are the steps that you’re going to have to take so I just got on the phone with my with my resources fortunately I had resources growing up to reach out to different players and all of that so you know I would say hey I’m doing this basketball clinic or this Camp would love for you to come in be like a mentor to these kids of course teach basketball skills but we want to talk about life um and education off of the court and our first event was with the Brooklyn Nets organization in New York City brought my

(16:36) father in and brought former NBA All-Star um Michael Ray Richardson in also played with the Knicks and the Nets and it was a great event we had about maybe 80 70 to 80 kids from the New York City area come out to the Barclay Center the you know the Brooklyn Nets they laid it out for us um and we were able to have it at their practice facility which was all awesome the kids loved it and that was really the start of getting this ball going um the Los Angeles Lakers were next in that you know with a great um Keisha Nix

(17:05) you know vice president over there at the Lakers and Miss Linda Rambis um whose wife of former NBA player and Laker Kurt Rambis you know she invited me out there was like hey we like what you’re doing with American Ballers we love you to come up here and talk to these kids and all that so after that you know we did events with Orlando Magic and then um and then we went to Houston and this this has been rolling since then but we I bring in these guys and gals to talk to the kids about education but also what to do in the community

(17:38) um our five pillars for American Ballers and the global bars Foundation are careers Health which is your mental health could be physical health um Finance you know financial literacy is heavy entrepreneurship and also social awareness which is your drug and alcohol prevention and also policing um in in communities how to interact with the police and when we’re in Houston when we first brought in an individual from from the police department previously back in 2020.

(18:10) um it was the first time that I saw you know when the police asked hey how many of you guys know a cop or you know how many of you guys you know interact with police or how many of you guys are scared of police and when they ask the question of how many guys you scare the police you know a lot of the kids like raise their hand because they only see the negative side of policing well my grandfather was a policeman you know growing up and my you know I have cousins who were Sheriff so I saw the other side of the law as far as okay

(18:41) I know that there are are good cops out there um trying to do the right thing so we just try to bring that awareness to the kids um in all of these topics that we discuss with them at these clinics how many clinics are you doing I mean are they every month are they and and where and how do you choose the kiddos that get to participate great question so we reach out to the community um so the high schools middle schools um our ages are 8 to 17 but we try to more so for the education part you know we don’t turn the kids down but for the

(19:14) education probably really try to talk to the middle school and high school kids because they’re the kids that’s the age group that’s really about to go into college if they want to or if they leave cop if they leave High School excuse me and they’re going into a trade you know some of them may not want to go to college we understand that but they’re at the age to where they can really understand hey I’m going to start working you know I’m going to start getting a part-time job and start

(19:35) worrying about my finances um and and also you know those kind of saving type habits um so we just reach out to different um organizations and say hey we’re providing this this camper Clinic would love to to bring this to your students and it’s been it’s been great I mean we’ve we started out doing one clinic or two clinics a year starting out and then covet hit um but that was was a different situation within itself but fortunately you know we held clinics to where we kept our masks on and then also we had a

(20:10) few clinics to where Tiffany Hayes he’s a WNBA player with the Atlanta Dream she was like hey Sean this is great you know I know that the city I believe the city of Atlanta at the time wasn’t fully open yet I don’t believe um but I think parts of parts of the city was um and she had her own gym so she was like hey we can host it here at my gym and we brought kids from Atlanta out and she brought um Dwayne bacon he was the guest speaker he was he was the current player with the Charlotte Hornets at the

(20:39) time he’s now overseas playing but he came and talked to the kids so we try to get about one a month um upcoming this year we’re looking at about five in July alone so we’ve been picking up um yes we’ve been picking up a lot um of Buzz and actually have had people calling us hey we heard about Ballers we like to get you guys involved with with our organization here or you mind coming out here so I’m very very proud about where we’re headed as an organization why did you decide to create a

(21:12) non-profit arm when you already kind of had a gig going why did you decide then well we need a foundation we need to to have that be part of this that’s a great question so unfortunately in you know certain communities of of color um kids are able to afford your standard basketball camp you know and I’m not gonna you know go down the list of players who put on camps every year but they’re you know some of these teams organizations um rightfully so you know it’s a it is a business um they charge x amount of dollars for

(21:47) kids to come in and go to the camps well there are some kids that love to play basketball love to play football but their parents just can’t afford to pay for a basketball camp um so when I got you know the idea of hey we can give back in a different way these kids still deserve to have a right to an education have a right to um top quality athletes you know I’m fortunate to bring in Hall of Fame basketball players and Hall of Fame football players and it’s free for the kids you know so I don’t want to say It’s A disruption to

(22:21) what everybody else is kind of doing but it’s kind of like hey this is what I want to offer to the kids because we know that their parents um can’t afford to it but we still want to give back the same knowledge and you know we want to make it a fair we want to make it an even even playing field across the board whether you can pay for it clinic or you can’t pay for a clinic so by having the non-profits you could raise funds and then underwrite costs for kiddos who who couldn’t come exactly any other way and do that and I I want

(22:52) to be sure to share with our audience too he’s not just doing the foundation is not just doing basketball they’re in all kinds of sports you were recently part of the NFL draft so it sounds like you’re using Sports all together not just basketball yes and our our company 83 Ventures you know I was born in 1983 so that’s where I got the concept um under 83 Ventures we have American Ballers beyond the court which is our you know podcast that we started when covet hit a lot of former players you

(23:28) know Rick Barry Hall of Famer Marcus Johnson Hall of Fame Rogers Gilmore a lot of these guys George Gervin you know at the time we’re like hey we really don’t want to uh you know get on a plane right now totally understandable but you know hey let’s we can have a dialogue and we can still get a message across um via online okay that’s that’s even better so that’s when we started that um nothing but net Sports was our training business is really what we how we train kids and whether it’s um

(23:55) physical fitness basketball cleaners camps things like that and then American ballers in the gold bars Foundation so we we pretty much try to really give back um to the youth um on a variety of ways as well as parents we try to educate parents and I try to bring in professionals from the community um to talk about you know whether it’s mental health um whether it’s you know talking to the parents about not being too hard on your on your son or daughter is just a game you know we always get thrown out the

(24:27) sports mom or Sports dad but if you’ve never really lived it a lot of these parents unfortunately don’t understand that when you put pressure on your kids to play a sport or to do anything really you’re kind of steering them away from what you want them to do they’re going to back off of it and they may um you know if you’re writing a kid saying hey you need to get up and do this do this and they really don’t want to by the time the refreshment of sophomore in high school they’re

(24:52) probably just going to quit and we’ve seen that before so we try to talk to the parents as well as not really trying to tell them how to parent but when it comes to the sports thing it’s like hey we know we’ve seen this before it’s like back off a little bit let them enjoy the game um let them enjoy school let them enjoy the the things that that we all enjoy don’t try to push them too hard great great advice what’s the best place for our audience to go check out what you’re doing with the foundation and

(25:20) overall your website yes our website is uh American slash baller so that’s American minus signballers.com and also um Instagram I’m at the Sean bird song on Instagram and also our LinkedIn um Sean Burson on LinkedIn running the non-profit component of your activities what’s the greatest challenge that you face the greatest challenge I face oh besides raising money well there you go raising money so so uh any tips for anybody or how can they support you I was going to say it’s an opportunity for volunteers to work with

(26:04) you in any fashion well and I say I say that’s one of them one of the the problems were you know or is to raise money but I’m really particular in who we involve and that’s where I I guess that’s kind of a struggle because I’m not a person I’ve never I was never raised this way to just hey go try to seek um funding for an organization from anybody the one thing that I told the players when I first started American balls is hey are you guys involved with kids everybody who’s been involved in

(26:34) American Ballers and you can look at our website um the players have been involved they either all have a foundation they either all have kids themselves or they’re involved in some type of basketball component or education component I never want to just bring in anybody to just tell the kids a different message or a wrong message who aren’t really invested and that’s kind of the approach that I have when it comes to fundraising and the non-profit world I want to align myself um you know with people who want to give

(27:03) back to the community who want to service the community and of course who like who like sports but also see that there’s life beyond Sports um so many times in the world now there’s a lot of stuff going on but we try to I try to get across if we as a as a society put more into the kids I think in my opinion the world would be a better place because the kids are the Next Generation coming up who are going to take care of us but what we see is so many adults trying to take care of other adults which I understand it but if we invested that

(27:42) much money into the the younger generation I think it would be a a better place you know I think you know Charles Barkley I’m not sure if you watch um Inside the NBA or not um on TNT but Giannis antetokupo from the Milwaukee Bucks had a great great um line after the game that they they lost um to get eliminated in the playoffs and it was going around you know it went viral he was basically trying to report her when he asked him it’s like do you view this season as a failure he was like why would I view this season as a

(28:14) failure it was like first of all I’m in the NBA he’s like we are champions he said but there’s steps to the process you know he said you look at your job as a failure if you don’t get promoted every every couple years you know do you you look at yourself in the mirror and say hey I’m a failure because I know I got promoted last or three years ago but I haven’t gotten promoted in a few years so everything you’ve done up to that point is a failure no and I love when Charles Barkley made the analogy of hey

(28:37) teachers are the real are the real you know people who aren’t failures like they’re the real success stories it’s not really professional athletes I mean yes we got to a certain point my father got to a certain point there’s many guys who got to that point but after the playing days are gone what’s the next step and so many of us athletes we understand that we know that but I think that needs to be talked about more just in society as yes this is a great game whether it’s football or basketball

(29:08) um but we need to start investing in education investing in the youth coming up because they’re going to be where we are in a few years Sean Birdsong you are a wise Soul we want to send our audience again to American Dash ballers.com to check out what their non-profit is doing helping youth use sports but learn those life lessons thank you so much for sharing thank you I appreciate you for having me on and you’re doing great things in the you know Community as well I got a chance to be with you um at the 120th celebration

(29:45) um at JFS uh you know a while back so you got you guys you know keep up the great work and I appreciate you having me you betcha thank you for joining us on KC cares Kansas City’s nonprofit voice we’re produced by charitable Communications also a non-profit this KC cares segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation www.kauffman.

(30:07) org well to be a guest on KC cares find all of our episodes visit our website kckersonline.org spread the love you can find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC cares radio and Instagram or at KC cares online and catch us Saturday mornings on ESPN 15 10 a.m and 94.5 FM at 8 A.M thanks for joining us on KC cares [Music]

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visit them here: https://theparadeofhearts.com/

 

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Transcript:

(00:00) voice and we’re telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and the people behind them KC cares is the intersection of the non-profit and profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live work and play this KC care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation www.kauffman.

(00:20) org the coveted pandemic was such a trying time in so many ways we looked for anything to brighten our days as the Health crisis just drug on well in 2022 one of the bright spots in Kansas city was the appearance of 156 five foot five inch three-dimensional Hearts uniquely designed by local artists these Hearts popped up all over the metro and eventually were auctioned with proceeds benefiting local charities the parade of Hearts has helped our region become stronger to say the least these Lively sculptures captured our hearts and

(00:56) they’re back this Year’s parade of Hearts features 40 Hearts scattered throughout the metro and among those who’ve been involved from the get-go is Eileen Weir the former mayor of independence with her leadership as the community engagement committee chair Eileen is at the Forefront of this year’s effort pulling in all aspects of our community how does she do it well let’s find out because Eileen is joining us today Eileen it’s so great great to have you oh it’s great to be here it’s

(01:23) good to see you again the same here so I I have to own up I’ve had uh connections with Eileen and her official elected capacity and I little did I know you had this whole background thing going on you’re a lady that does incredible things including jumping out of planes and skydiving onto the Presidential Library Lawns and everything else so we appreciate the time but talk a little bit about how you became engaged with parade of Hearts okay well um it’s a very interesting story and uh yeah I’ve had a very interesting life

(02:06) and career so um there’s a lot to talk about um so when I was mayor of Independence the parade of Hearts public art experience was launched and um it was presented as you know this was going to be a regional event that was to celebrate you know all of the communities within our region through this public art experience um and I was also at the time serving on the board for Arts KC our regional Arts Council so Arts KC was involved as well so I kind of was involved in in a couple of different ways so parade of Parts was

(02:53) the idea actually went back several years and then because of covert it got put on hold and then you know as we were coming out of covid uh starting to come out of cobit the idea of resurfaced to say why don’t we go ahead and and and try this out as a way to really recover from covid uh we had been so disjointed so isolated that it was you know really presented as a way to bring our communities back together and not only the pandemic but also an enormous amount of other types of civil unrest um were certainly happening politically

(03:40) um racially civically there were it was a it was a hard and and dark and difficult time so it was it’s really to celebrate our diversity um to celebrate our connection as the communities of the Kansas City metropolitan region and so I was approached um to participate as were you know nearly every mayor in um our region and I really challenged the idea of this being a regional event um as the mayor of Independence which is this similar to city in Jackson County in the fifth largest city in the state of Missouri I

(04:30) often found that Regional initiatives ultimately did not include the region um you know we live next to the largest city in the state um obviously Kansas City Missouri attracts most of the attention as it should um as the heart of our community but yet you know I and other Mayors on both sides of the state line both sides of the river often felt that Regional efforts were not Equitable across all of these cities and communities um so I was given a personal pledge by Jen nesbeck who’s the executive director

(05:16) of prairie departs that this would be different and it was um it was executed and continues to be executed in a way that really values and respects all of the communities equally in our great Carlton area and really guides people to learn more about some of the communities that they may not be as familiar with but also you know to learn about things that they think they know but maybe they don’t you know explore some areas of Kansas say Missouri and of you know the larger Overland Park and some of the Leewood

(05:56) and um you know some of the larger cities on both sides of the state I think it’s so interesting that you talk about how Regional efforts really aren’t Regional but you all have been able to do that what’s the secret how were you able to kind of keep that fair field you know bringing everyone to the table yeah um it’s really just a commitment from first and foremost the board of parade of Hearts um and then all of the people who work on committees all of the volunteers and the artists um this couldn’t happen without the

(06:45) artists and every single one of these Hearts is designed and created by a local artist we had hundreds of submissions for a small number of hearts that we were able to select um so it’s really just a constant and deliberate intention to say are we meeting our goals are we staying true to what we promised and um you know my role as the community engagement chair is to make sure that we are thinking about the those things and reaching out um into you know all the nooks and crannies all around our region we have a

(07:40) committee of about 40 people from you know we can’t have somebody from every town and and Village and city um but we are very deliberate in being inclusive of communities and there’s a very large public engagement component to parade of Hearts we have available now a form which people can fill out and suggest locations for 2024.

(08:10) this year is a little bit different and we’ll talk about that and why that is but next year we’ll go back to 100 plus Hearts um all over the region so we’re encouraging people right now to um you know fill out that form send us suggestions of places where you would like to see hearts and it’s really helped us to discover uh communities that may have not been well represented in in various ways and meet people and build those relationships well let’s talk about how this really was so Grassroots with Jen we’ve been

(08:52) lucky to have her on the show before and and it just seemed like it just blossomed be very transparent with us so you get these nominations or applications of designs for hearts and yeah so what’s the process of choosing what you choose um well there’s a committee who does that it’s you know we have a jury uh committee made up of artists uh Civic leaders Business Leaders um part you know people who know what they’re talking about and looking at uh art and um you know they review them and um make their selections there’s is

(09:40) obviously certain requirements since the hearts are displayed out of doors for several months so there’s you know some requirements about those types of things um but you know it’s really just a um Judgment of concept uh execution um you know the story behind the the creation you’ll see you know this year there’s several hearts that celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs for various reasons and um you know so it’s just uh you know it’s just a process and there’s there’s tons of submissions that we just don’t

(10:28) have enough Hearts to be able to do them all so we just encourage people they are artists to submit again next year and the 2024 submissions will be opening up later um early this summer so it’ll give people another opportunity um to submit their designs now there’s a whole charity component to this and talk a little bit about that and was that intentional as well yes it was very intentional um initially the um beneficiary was um going to be the University of Kansas Health System um that was when it was you know

(11:14) ultimately launched after covid that was expanded to really take into consideration the industries that were so severely impacted by the pandemic um because we use the heart um a large portion of the fundraising effort is focused on heart health and the University of Kansas Health Center our health system I’m sorry um so they are beneficiary there was um in 2022 the artist Community was a beneficiary and that was administered through Arts KC which I mentioned earlier um the hospitality industry are you know

(12:06) servers and um food service hospitality service workers um so those were all very intentional the Mid-American Regional Council assisted us with that in 2022 to help administer that so a huge shout out to the greater Kansas City Community Foundation who’s been just an incredible partner with parade of Hearts um they assisted Us in selecting the recipients for this for 2023 and 2024.

(12:45) so again the payu health system is a beneficiary uh Children’s Miracle Network and the artist Community continues to be a beneficiary as well then there was a open call for applications for the fourth beneficiary so as you can imagine we got hundreds of submissions right non-profit organizations of which we have so many incredible ones in our area and um The Family Conservancy was selected as the fourth beneficiary so um you know we were very excited about that and it’s an outstanding opportunity to learn about the great work that the

(13:31) Family Conservancy does so how is the fundraising done obviously the artists create these Hearts I understand they receive a stipend so it’s not just give us these wonderful hearts for you know with no remuneration but so how’s the other component component so then we have incredible sponsors um you’ll see as you travel around and scan your hearts and take photos of the hearts as they’re on display that each one of those hearts is sponsored by a local company um then at the end of parade of Hearts

(14:10) we have an auction last year it was a big event down at the Midland Theater um and there’s an online component where people bid on Hearts online and then we reserved a certain number of parts for a live auction so then those proceeds um benefit the uh chariable causes as well this year we are only going to do an online auction we are not going to do a live auction um because of you know what we’re calling our limited edition of having 40 Hearts this year um and then next year you know we’ll go back to a larger

(14:57) um number of parts and you know do the auction so you know there’s sponsors there’s auction we sell merchandise um so there’s a whole lot of merchandise available online for people to purchase and you know show their pride and our Heartland and the parade of Hearts program are compensated um and we did something we added something uh this year there was a public reveal of all 40 Hertz that was held at the American Royal um and the artists were there to interact with the public and they had the opportunity to also settle there were

(15:51) there are each one of them got uh you know a space that they could display and and sell their art which was phenomenal we had hoped to have a thousand people attend math there was a lot of family activities but going on around that one of our sponsors um you know wrapped Commerce and left kids and people doodle on the cars um and we had over 4 000 people attend so it was an incredible incredible success um and a wonderful opportunity for these artists um you know to show there are sell their art and interact with

(16:33) um the public it seems like such a natural thing yet you and your creative Team all came up with this Concepts I remember the cows and a lot of people probably remember the cows and it was wonderful at the same time I think some people may have cringed a little bit and said do I want to be a cow town so yeah having a heart in the Heartland is phenomenal why did you all make the decision this year to only do 40.

(17:00) oh wow um it was never supposed to be an annual event I mean originally it was going to be a one-time event but the response was so incredible that um the decision was made to extend it um for a few more years uh so it’s a mammoth undertaking you know my little lane is you know this but just the sponsorships you know producing the hearts selecting the artists finding the locations all the logistics around getting the locations and this year we are doing work what I’m calling a heart transplant where they’re in one location

(17:57) um they were in one location through May um and then then they are moving to different locations through the Fourth of July holiday so there’s a lot that goes into it um so the decision was made that in order to be able to do it in 2023 we needed to shrink it but with um the NFL draft happening in Kansas City in April we just felt you know the decision was made that we just couldn’t miss the opportunity to do parade of hearts you know in the same time frame as all of these people are you know were coming

(18:43) to Kansas City for the NFL draft and our our community was in the National Spotlight once again and um so in order to be able to pull it off we had to do this limited edition but we’d like to say the only thing that’s limited about it is the number of Hearts um they creativity the number of things being on this team that we come up with and create and try almost on a daily basis there’s always another why don’t we do this why don’t we try that I’m a little surprised that that’s coming that wasn’t planned and just this

(19:29) amazing team of energetic creative people just make it happen we’ve got to talk about how do you run something like this is anybody paid oh yeah I mean yes so there is staff that is working on this and is yes okay yeah there are there is but it’s um you know there’s contracts for different aspects of the parade of Hearts uh to handle the promotion Logistics events um all of those things but you know that’s a very small portion I realize so much on just incredible volunteers the community our sponsors our beneficiaries

(20:22) are critical to all of that as well they just um you know lend us so much support um you know the the financial backing the expertise um so yeah it’s it it takes a lot of people um and we wanted to and we want that to be ever expanding it’s it’s critical that people all in and around our region um participate in many ways um just going and looking at the hearts posting it you know engaging with us on social media and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter um you know we have Media Partners who help us incredibly to get the word out and

(21:14) you know it is a fundraiser but it’s just so much more than that I mean it’s just an experience um and the cows I do remember that that was gosh you know I feel like I was just new to Kansas City when that happened and it was a really cool project [Music] um but it was a pro you know it was a project that happened into lots of different communities for you know Hearts is just uniquely hours um you know it was born and um created right here in our um community and just as very very unique well I give credit to you all it it

(22:01) doesn’t it feels like that it doesn’t feel like well this is a Kansas City Missouri project or this is that you know Independence project and I think it’s really fun when you drive around town and you’d see these out of the corner of your eye you’re trying to be mindful of where you’re driving that you see right and and then when you see somebody stop there and it’s obvious that they’re taking a picture or they’re reading about the heart I mean that’s just what’s so joyful and what a natural we

(22:30) are the Heartland so it is you know you just created and landed on such a wonderful thing continuation I know 2024 we’re not far away but what is the plan for this wonderful project so um 2023 will wrap up um you know around Fourth of July ish you know in that time frame and um we have a little something special planned after that and then the hearts will be auctioned um and then right away or you know gearing up for 2024.

(23:16) um to you know go large again there’s a big International Event happening in 2026 in Kansas City um so there’ll be some you know thought and consideration about what we do moving forward but it will it I mean there is a it’s there is an ending time for parade of hearts and um you know it’s not gonna be something that’s gonna you know go on for decades uh which you know we want to keep it special and um so you know there’ll be more to come I you know I can’t say specifically we’re gonna you

(24:08) know re we’re always trying to keep it fresh be creative come up with new ideas and ways of doing things um so you know we’re definitely feel like we’re you know building the planet as we’re flying it a lot of the time um but you know we just have we have a wonderful um you know just product I would say and concept and um principles behind sorry to heart so that won’t change uh we’ll just favorite new and creative ways to to share the stories I I will say there’s just been things that nobody could have

(24:57) anticipated these just incredibly heartwarming stories about people in our community individuals who found a special connection with one of the hearts um and went to see them at places where they had never been um Jen may have shared this story with you previously but one of the most touching stories from last year was and Chris good who owns Ruby jeans Juicery down on 30th and Troost uh there was a heart at his business and one morning as things were sort of you know the story of Hearts was wrapping up the public part of it he

(25:48) knows a woman um outside you know trying to get a selfie with the heart early in one morning while he was opening up and so he went out to talk to her and she was a elderly woman in her 80s and she said I’ve lived in South Johnson County um for 30 years and I was always afraid to come down to this neighborhood I never felt like this was someplace where I would feel comfortable or safe or be welcomed and she said but I’ve wanted to see all 150 654 whatever that number was I wanted to see them all and this is my very last one

(26:38) um and it’s just as such I mean that’s it that just says it all that you know a woman who had lived in this community um all these years and because of this project went intentionally to go see all of the hearts and visit places where she had never been um and never thought that she would go and you know so you know that relationship built and they you know or somebody understand it like still staying contact and that’s what we really want to um encourage is um know your neighbor love your neighbor and

(27:25) um this is a great way to do that we’d be very remiss without giving you the opportunity where can people go and find all the information for parade of hearts and even maybe volunteer as you get rolling towards next year yeah um so the website uh parade of Hearts website is a great resource that gives you a lot of information um that’s where you can also buy uh merchandise and the mobile app is the best and most fun way to experience um the heart you just download that on you know Apple Android whatever you have

(28:06) and um it will you can see the map where all the hearts are you can learn about all of the artists you can that’s how when you go to the heart you can scan the QR code to just hit scan on the app and it will pull that up and you scan it and it’ll check you in um so you can keep track of all the hearts that you’ve seen that you know that’s how we collect the data where we know how many people visited each heart um which does help us you know as selecting locations for the future is you know if a heart didn’t get

(28:46) very much you know as many uh check-ins than you know we sort of evaluate that location maybe it wasn’t ideal um and then of course you know Facebook Twitter Instagram uh follow on social media there’s always I mean there’s news every week about new things and interesting things and fun things that are happening uh so um you know those are the resources and I would say you know let us reach out let us know where you’d like to see a heart um and you know we’ll include that in for next year obviously we can’t put one

(29:35) every place but um you know we’re always looking for those suggestions as well and it’s paradeofhearts.com yes and there’s all kinds of colorful information there for sure and shopping is lots of fun and it all goes to support Charities and and the ongoing idea of you know having these hearts in the Heartland you’re having the beat goes on to uh swipe a song from uh the 60s and 70s as it were Eileen how lucky they are to have you as part of this this whole Endeavor and your creativity and your energy and your commitment and

(30:12) thank you for spending a little bit of time with us to share all the great stuff about parade of hearts well thank you Ruth it was it’s a it’s a great project to work on it’s a joy to be a part of it and thank you for having me today and uh Happy heart hunting absolutely thank you for joining us for the KC cares Kansas City’s non-profit voice we’re produced by charitable Communications which is also a non-profit this KC care segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

(30:44) www.huffman.org if you’d like to be a guest on KC cares please visit our website KCcaresonline.org and spread the love you’ll find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC cares Radio and on Instagram at KC cares online don’t forget you can catch us on Saturday mornings at 8 A.M on ESPN 15 10 a.m 94.

(31:06) 5 FM thank you for joining us on KC cares

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Also available on

Itunes || Spotify || Stitcher || Soundcloud || Youtube 

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, tells the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and connects them with the community.  

Produced by Charitable Communications 

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

In partnership with: 

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Take risks. Own success. Be Uncommon.

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[Transcript]

(00:00) theirs is the intersection of the non-profit and profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live work and play this KC care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation www.kauffman.org I’m Ruth Baum Bigus. Horses are magnificent animals often large and statuesque horses often evoke power and strength and freedom they also possess an ability to connect with humans and help them heal from trauma that’s the focus of horses and heroes a Kansas City nonprofit established in 2014 to offer trauma

(00:39) recovery with equine assisted and alternative therapies for veterans active millimers of the military their families First Responders and their children and it’s free so how does this all work well joining us today is horses and hero founder Julie Baker and she’s going to tell us all about this really interesting and incredible non-profit Julie thanks for joining us well thank you Ruth and thank you for having us on today so uh quick little history of horses and heroes um I started rescuing horses when I was 12.

(01:16) um quickly discovered that you know their trauma is similar to our trauma you know they they heal in very different ways um and so that was one of the kind of what laid the foundation for horses and heroes and we’re a military family so the the two entities kind of came together so all of the horses on our team are rescued and yes we served the military population and their families at no cost thank you for to all the donors that to help make that possible you were seven years old and you were rescuing horses

(01:50) 12 12. I’m sorry I was in sixth grade it was kind of a um I had a horse I was showing at that point but then my mom kind of announced hey we found this horse he was in a dry lot we were in California at the time he didn’t have any water and I don’t know if I don’t know the details of how they acquired him but they acquired him and announced that he was my horse and so the first time I met him um I couldn’t get closer than five feet you would start to sweat and tremble and just he was terrified of people you

(02:27) could see visible scars on his back legs where somebody had physically beaten on him and so um you know being a naive 12 year old I just thought well maybe if I just let him get used to me and you know take my time go real slow he’ll learn to trust me and that’s basically what happened and so that laid like I said a foundation of what we do today all right so from a 12 year old who loved a horse and was still yet a little afraid it sounds like both of you were afraid of each other in the beginning way back then you obviously got over

(03:05) that fear bring us up to what led to you creating this non-profit in 2014. well um a lot of Life Experiences I was wife of a Marine Corps um veteran so we lived active duty lifestyle for 14 years had three little kids while we were moving from Base to Base and you know I love the Marine Corps but they thought well six months is probably a good time to move a family um across you know from east coast to West Coast north and south and so that was our lifestyle um and really it wasn’t until we got to Kansas City that I I experienced my

(03:48) first what I call transitional phase of um being a military you know spouse and then coming into the civilian world I mean I had a conversation with another military spouse yesterday and there is this transitional struggle you know because you’re used to the camaraderie you’re used to the support everybody speaks the same lingo and you made really quick friends you know and when you’re living on base um when you live off base or when you move into the civilian world you know oftentimes that reality is really

(04:20) different depending on where you move obviously but we discovered that you know the neighbors just weren’t outside you know we were the youngest family on the Block so there just wasn’t that that instant connection and so you really do feel a loss you do feel that gosh you know where’s my mission where’s my purpose where’s my support system and so you know unfortunately that’s that’s got a very prevalent um struggle for active duty people when they transition um you know they think that they can

(04:52) come home and have this wonderful life and get a great job and it the reality is it doesn’t happen like that in most cases and so it leads to a lot of depression and anxiety and you know abuse of alcohol and drugs and unfortunately that’s the highest population of death by Suicide and so you know um to wrap around to your question when I was um back in 2013 I was working a corporate job and I knew just in my heart that that wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing you know I had all the bells and whistles in the car

(05:26) and the expense accounts I’m like you know this just is not my this is not where my heart is you know what what is it and so I kept going back to that memory of of rescuing that first horse and and that Rehabilitation and you know the trust in the bond that happens you know once once that Rehabilitation has happened and so I thought gosh it would be really great if I could bring the rescued horses in and utilize their healing stories with the veteran population because we had we had gotten out of the service at that point

(06:01) and my two oldest daughters served five years in the Marine Corps together and they were out now too and so we were watching a lot of their family and and Friends struggle that same struggle that I had experienced um and so I thought well it would be great to to do that and I didn’t I didn’t know what it looked like I didn’t know where to start or even how to begin and so I was taking a lot of long walks and going on jogs and just trying to figure this out in my head you know what would this look like and how would I start

(06:32) and then one day I was sitting on my couch and I just had this very strong nudge to go Google it and I was like Google what I don’t even know what to Google and so I typed in Equine Therapy and up popped this association called egala they’re the equine assisted growth and learning Association they’re a global entity and much to my surprise I discovered that they they do this you know and they they had a program for military and so really on the spot and it was a very a kind of a surreal experience but that

(07:07) vague idea of what what is it and what would it look like went to instant Clarity and I knew the name I knew all of the steps of okay I have to set up the corporation it needs to be a 501c3 we’re going to serve veteran population so I’m writing this list of everything um went ahead and filed for the corporate name and got that secured and so that’s how horses and heroes started it was just that culmination of those two things that were very um personal and special to me you know that saving those rescue courses and

(07:41) helping helping people transitioning that are struggling and so that’s how it started and here we are today talk about a leap of faith it was tough you know um I have to laugh but it was also very scary and my my business coach at the time when all of this was happening she kept asking me why are you doing what you’re doing and I’m like oh no because I I can yeah I was very lukewarm about it like I said and she said well when you find your why two things are going to happen it’s gonna scare the you know what out of you

(08:18) and it’ll probably make you cry and so you know I’m like great yeah but bring it on it sounds like a great time and so I kid you not when I found the gall Association on the computer that day and I noticed that they had a military program I just started weeping it was just uncontrollable weaving weeping and um I was terrified my husband as a pilot was gone so he was on a trip and he came home that Sunday and he said what’d you do this weekend I said well I started a non-profit called horses and heroes and he said what

(08:53) I said well trust me it’s terrifying I don’t I don’t really know everything I need to know obviously you know people are going to show up and we’ll figure it out but it was scary and you know we do have scary moments but it’s it’s very worth it well given our audience I would love for you to share how you got from the scary and emotional moment to actually then creating an organization you mentioned this National Organization that’s focused on the therapy aspect but how did you move things forward in terms of

(09:28) structure in terms of your programming Etc well I I did have a framework in mind like I said I wanted it to be a non-profit so we could get funding to help support it because I realized that um you know being a military person if your insurance doesn’t cover it you probably can’t afford it and so that was that was one of the key elements I knew it had to be you know funding coming from outside to help military families because military families struggle they don’t make a lot of money um and so you know just knowing in the back of my

(10:05) mind that these elements have to be in place um it has to be accessible it has to be affordable it has to be confidential because if if those elements aren’t in place then somebody probably will not have the trust to come um and in spite of being scared I mean you just have to make a plan and you just have to stick to it you know and um I guess all of my corporate training and sales training you know you just you just you can’t you can’t fold or Shrink away from those challenges you have to just go ahead and and do them even

(10:39) though they’re scary um and I I still have mornings where I wake up and I’m like oh what the heck you know but again you just have to continue to push forward so um how this all transpired is like I said I’ve set up the the corporate entity got got the all the requirements and filings in place for the state um and then went through the process of doing the 501c3 application which you know it was long but it wasn’t horrible um then I took myself to training and so that egala Association offers um trainings throughout the world and so

(11:16) I identified the first training which was um in Nevada I believe the first one was and so I bought a ticket to Nevada and signed up for the training and got the certification required to be the equine specialist and so and and all of our sessions we uh we approach it from a team approach so there’s always a licensed clinician and a certified equine specialist and then the team of horses and so um you know again I just had this list of things I know had to be had to be done you know to to make it work um and the rest of it like I said people

(11:52) showed up you know um one of the stories that we like to share how I met our our lead clinician Rachel um I had a um a client at that time and she was a psychologist and and I was sharing with her you know I just started this non-profit and I was excited and but I don’t know any clinicians in town who would I reach out to you know they would be interested in working with us and so she gave me a list of about five people and I knew kind of instinctually it wasn’t time yet because I was still going through that certification

(12:26) training still had some you know the 501c3 things to finish and so I kind of stuck that paper in my notebook and then one day again I had a very strong nudge to get paper out and so I’m looking at this paper and there’s five names on them they don’t mean anything to me I didn’t know one from the other I literally went beep think and put my finger on a name and I’m typing this email introducing myself here’s what we’re doing you know if you’re interested great if you’re not

(12:55) would you please forward this information to somebody who is and so I hit send the button and so later on that afternoon I get this call from the woman I sent the email from she’s like you are not going to believe what just happened it’s like what do you mean she goes well this morning I’m meeting with my with my professional advisor and he’s asking me what my flight my Five-Year Plan is for my practice she just graduated from you know getting her all of her licensures finished and um she was saying that she wanted to

(13:30) work with somebody to do Equine Therapy but she didn’t know who in town was doing Equine Therapy and um the advisor says well just put it out there and then you know something will connect and they leave their coffee meeting and I’m not kidding you the minute she walks out the door into the parking lot is when she received my email and she just about fainted because they just had this conversation about how she wanted to connect with somebody to be a clinician for Equine Therapy and in comes my email inviting her to be our

(14:03) clinician and so you know literally things have happened like that um throughout the eight years where people just show up and um there’s no explaining it and I don’t ask questions I just give a lot of you know gestures of gratitude um and that’s really how how all of the structure came to be is we just identified the elements we we work through the the fears that have tried to hold us back and we just kept moving forward now through this training that you took did they have a structured program that

(14:38) you could kind of model after or were you kind of creating really your own kind of curriculum we had to create our own there’s really I mean they they do and they don’t um the licensed clinicians go through their training already our state licensed um and then the equine Specialists have to have six thousand hours of equine experience and beyond that they don’t have a lot of like models to share for your business structure because it’s you like I said it’s youth all over the world and inpatient outpatient food

(15:11) addiction sex addiction uh human trafficking you name it um it’s the Equine Therapy piece is used all over the world and so it looks looks a little bit different but they do have a structure of their their mode of therapy that it’s a team approach it’s solution focused the clients have all of their own answers um and we follow a code of ethics other than that um especially here in Kansas City there was really nothing to model from and so we literally you know we’re plowing a path um through the woods

(15:48) um some of it was easy some of it wasn’t easy but um you know in terms of a non-profit business structure I mean we have to function as a business you know we we have to make business decisions like every other business needs to do um otherwise you know we wouldn’t survive but beat a non-profit it’s a challenge and that we um you know we’re constantly having to find funding you know offering these sessions to um our population at no cost you know is expensive it costs our program about two thousand dollars for an eight-week

(16:23) program so um yeah I mean that’s just to offer the program at no cost so you can imagine the expenses of of everything involved especially you know everything has increased in prices and so yeah again it’s not easy but you just have to find a way you have to find Creative Solutions and um go with your plan so tell us about exactly the I believe you have like several buckets of sessions and directed for particular people and then how you work with the horses well um it really depends on the person and their their trauma

(17:03) um you know each person has to be approached from a different different aspect and the clinicians you know they they build their own treatment plan so you know one one treatment plan for one person might include what’s called equine assisted EMDR so EMDR is eye movement no let’s see if I can remember this right eye movement um never mind bmdr okay so EMDR is a evidence-based protocol for people with acute traumas so you know if you see something and you just can’t get it out of your head EMDR is uh modality that’s

(17:42) very effective to help the brain process um that memory into long term so it’s not you know keeping you awake at night or hyper Vigilant and so um one person might be getting the equine assisted EMDR and another person might be just doing the regular what we call equine assisted Psychotherapy um so it does have its own platform and format but it’s also very loose within that format again depending on what that person might need we do body work as well because trauma affects the body the nerves the muscles

(18:16) I mean down to the cellular level and so um in bayster Kansas we have our therapeutic and business center and that’s where we do our office-based Body Therapies um so it’s a combination of corrective massage and pulse electromagnetic field therapy through a device that’s been used for decades and it has a lot of white papers and peer-reviewed articles about its Effectiveness but it reduces pain inflammation it optimizes circulation and really just brings a better sense of well-being to the person by

(18:52) creative negative ions within the body and so it helps just reduce a lot of the inflammation that causes systemic disease so how do we get the horses in there then if we’re are we riding the horses what are we doing with your horses well the horses are not in base or Kansas they’re we just bought property in Leavenworth and so they’re there and it’s ground-based so we don’t have the clients ride the horses at some point at some point we might um add a mounted piece for with the populations that we serve

(19:30) um you know just sometimes with the level of trauma that they’ve been exposed to you know if they’re having a disassociative episode we don’t want them on top of a 2 000 pound animal um and so every all of the programs that we do right now are all ground-based so that means that you’re not riding the horse um horses are ideal for this type of work there are prey animals so they’re hardwired for survival and they’re very in tune with their environment um and it’s all through non-verbal

(20:00) communication and so um through the eight week process we like I said we do have a model that we follow but it’s loose because people respond and interpret things differently but the gist of it is um the horses do act uniquely to each person um so we could have a you know one person come out and then an hour later the horses will be completely different in doing different behaviors with the next person and so we find that very relevant and we watch for repeating patterns and shifts and what they’re doing and really it’s just the function

(20:38) of um having the person identify the things the goals that they want to they want to work on and then we’re observing the horse’s behaviors during their session and we’re asking a question about what are the horses doing over there or you know what’s coming up for you now I mean because the horses do elicit um some deep deep emotional responses in our nervous system responds to the horses as well um and through their interpretations and their answers it brings really fast breakthroughs of what it is that as at

(21:11) that core of their what’s going on with them so and why they’re there so it’s hard to explain in words people look at me funny and they’re like do you pet them do you brush them like well yes and no um it goes much deeper than that like I mentioned there’s some physiological benefits um that happen that go kind of deep scientific stuff I don’t necessarily get into now but um when you’re with a horse we’ve seen Grown tough men convinced that they’re not going to get anything out of their session and by the

(21:45) end of the session they’re weeping and they’ve connected with the horse and we don’t know how to explain that how do you get your um I don’t know whether to call them clients or patients or customers how do clients yeah well they find us usually through our website we get a lot of clients through our website Word of Mouth we do a lot of work in the community so peer support groups in the different departments whether it be police or fire you know they’re coming out for their leadership trainings and so

(22:22) they’re being exposed to the benefits of Equine Therapy we work twice monthly with the Whole Health at the local VA in Kansas City Missouri and so you know it’s just a again a function of people are starting to understand and get that this modality works it’s confidential it’s not going back in their record you know it’s not going to affect their career um it’s no cost and you know they’re not being put on any medications that might be addictive and so I think a combination of those attributes are

(22:58) starting to make it more popular we do have a waiting list right now actually um we’re kind of waiting for some of the rain to stop before we we can start full force but um yeah I don’t we don’t have to convince anybody to come they’re they’re knocking on our door right now but she said funding is challenging so how are you trying to meet that challenge and and keep the service free for people as you say really are in need um we are supported through a couple of um grants one through the associate

(23:32) Association so the VA adaptive Sports Grant they they fund a certain number of clients every year um they’ve reduced that number though this year unfortunately so you know our need is rising and that fund is diminishing and so we’ve been having to do more grant writing we’re reaching out to different corporations and and be like yo you know you’re you’re a good Corporation you’re local you know why don’t you help us out in um you know help some of our our families that are really struggling

(24:04) um and families everywhere are struggling it’s not just limited to military first responder I mean populations fam we get calls from people who aren’t associated with that we do have a for-profit that we service those clients under um but yes funding is always a challenge and so we’re always looking for different fundraising avenues that don’t cost us a lot of money um and like I said more corporate support private foundations so yeah one of our one of our frequent asks is for funding for for services for sure

(24:42) well where’s the best place for people to find out more information or even perhaps to donate to what you’re trying to do um probably the best way to find out information is our website which is www.horses andheroes.org it’s all spelled out we have a donation platform there we have a venmo um platform as well um I’d have to send you the QR code or that link I don’t know that’s right ahead but sending folks folks to your website is perfect because I’m sure all the details are there how many horses do you have and how many

(25:20) people on the team so teammates that are horses I guess and teammates that are humans yes so we have eight large four-legged team members um all but two are rescued um either through the kill pen pipeline or uh we have two that were former athletes and were one was injured one developed arthritis and couldn’t perform and so instead of destroying those animals um they decided to give them a second chance and a different job um you know and that’s key too for our population you know who are unfortunately if they’re medically

(25:55) retired or were injured on on the job and they can’t perform anymore um you know the ability for them to connect with with these particular horses is um is really important for them to see that you know there is hope and there is maybe a different different job for me we have five miniature horses um and they don’t know their Miniatures and they they beat up on everybody well I say beat up but they um I I can tell you a whole story on that but I won’t it’s just it’s funny to watch them interact with big horses

(26:32) um we have two staff members that are paid and we have four or five clinicians that work with us um contractually and we have four equine Specialists that work with us and um probably a half dozen volunteers and you use more volunteers we could always use more volunteers yeah um since we just moved to the Leavenworth County area some of our volunteers were driving up from like Stillwell when we were in Shawnee and so they’re like oh that’s just too far for me so yeah we are in the midst of doing a volunteer Drive of having some new

(27:12) volunteers more in our general area um interested in helping and we have volunteer positions for being on the board helping with the horses you know if you like to mow we have lots of Mowing and groundskeeping and um data entry there’s always there’s always jobs to do for a non-profit well it’s very exciting that you continue to grow this out of your own passion and kind of your own story to to create something that’s having this ripple effect and just what a wonderful thing to provide for a particular set through the

(27:48) non-profit and then that you have this profit arm so it’s horses and heroes Julie Baker is founder executive director I would imagine walking horse person and a few other jobs as all non-profit leaders seem to have to do so we thank you so much for sharing your story and and how you’re moving things forward well thank you again it’s been a pleasure thank you for joining us on KC cares Kansas City’s non-profit voice we’re produced by charitable Communications which is also a non-profit this Casey care segment was

(28:22) brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation www.koffman.org if you’d like to be a guest on KC cares please check out our website at kccaresonline.org and spread the love and find us on Facebook and Twitter at Casey cares Radio and on Instagram at Casey cares online and catch us Saturday mornings at 8 A.M on ESPN 15 10 a.

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