Foundation Updates

The following is an article in the Pay It Forward column published in the Homer News. This column is sponsored by the Homer Foundation, a community foundation promoting local philanthropy since 1991. To learn more please visit us @ www.homerfoundation.org and like us on Facebook.

Recently, I noticed a few friends joyfully posted on the anniversary of their arrival in Homer. And just the other day a neighbor, fresh back from snowbirding, asked, “Isn’t this the most wonderful place?” Yes, yes it is.

There are those who arrived yesterday and those whose bloodline goes back many, many centuries who have a heart for this special place. The stories I’ve heard and the stories I’ve shared of arriving on the Kenai Peninsula are not at all typical for most relocating Americans. They are magical and they are heartwarming. Here’s my story. (Stop me if you’ve heard this one.)

In 1985, I traveled to California for a job interview and thought, since I’m close, I’ll visit my friend in Alaska. She was a new arrival who came up with a New England fisherman. One day, I went with a friend of theirs in his water taxi to take his friend to yet another friend’s cabin across the bay. As she got off the boat, I remember looking up from the dock to a beautiful cabin and felt an indescribable connection.

Months later, back in the D.C. suburbs, I woke at two in the morning, grabbed some paper and wrote, “I want to live in a cabin like the one I saw across the bay but in order to do that I’d probably have to live in Homer and work at the little college”. Being practical, I came back the next summer to see if I still felt the same. I met a charter captain and after a week of fishing and dinners out he said, “All week, every time I look at my watch, it’s 7:13”. “Well, that’s Sunday’s date, July 13th,” I replied. Sunday was a blowout – too windy to go fishing – so we sailed to the cabin he’d built across the bay and yes, it was that cabin, and the rest is history.

What’s your story? I’d love to hear it! It is our story that shapes who we are, our reason for being and doing what we love. It leads us to where we give our time, our talent, and our treasure.

As we come out of this long winter, take a moment to think about your past story and the story you will continue to write. Where will you share your talent? How will you spend your time? What is the best purpose for your treasure? What will be your legacy?

For me, I find the answer in heart and home. My heart is in knowing that my loved ones have what they need. But home is much more. It is our community, our state, our country, and this planet we share. While we may never feel that we give enough with so much that needs to be done, we can do something, one good thing.

What will you do? Will your gratitude for our beautiful home through your generosity? Will you leave something behind as your legacy for the next generation? Do you have just a little time, talent or treasure to share to make a difference? There are many worthy causes to support throughout our community. Contact a local nonprofit today to ask what they need. Not only will you make others’ lives better, truly, giving is a gift to ourselves. We are all the better for it.

Pay it forward.

Liz Downing is chair of the Homer Foundation Development Committee.

The following is an article in the Pay It Forward column published in the Homer News. This column is sponsored by the Homer Foundation, a community foundation promoting local philanthropy since 1991. To learn more please visit us @ www.homerfoundation.org and like us on Facebook.

“Make someone happy. Make just one someone happy. And then you’ll be happy, too.”  Those are the lyrics of a long ago 60s song by Jimmy Durante that gave me pause. When we give to a non-profit organization, we are making someone happy! We are usually making a lot of people happy. But even better, we’re making ourselves happy, too. Really!

Some feel that giving is an obligation. However, what they may not realize is that by giving, even if it’s because they feel it’s the responsible thing to do, they still are enhancing their own well-being along with those they are helping. When I take my dog for a walk, I do it because I know that he needs the exercise. It’s my responsibility. I also know it makes him very happy. And I want a happy dog. But I benefit from the walk as well: I get exercise that is healthy for me, and I get a tired dog that is good for everyone. (Those who have dogs will know what I mean!)

Does it matter why someone does a good deed, an act of kindness? Does it make a difference what their motivation might be? Some researchers would say the greatest benefit comes from genuine care and selflessness or pure altruism. Others would say that whatever the motivation, both giver and receiver benefit. For example: I’m dutifully walking my dog for half an hour so I will get some peace and quiet to finish my work. I’m undertaking this obligation, not because I love my dog, (even though I do) or that I know it will make him happy, but only out of self-interest. Does the dog benefit any less? He is still a happy dog and he gets good exercise. And I get to focus on my work. When we generously give to an organization at the end of the year because it’s a great tax write-off, does that reason diminish the gift in any way? The organization benefits and the community benefits as well. Do you feel good? Probably so! Whatever your reason for giving, our community says, “Thank you!”

Psychologists who study altruism have found that there is a relationship between giving and a general feeling of well-being or even happiness. Giving is good for those on the receiving end and it’s good for the well-being of the giver. Generosity has been found to lower blood pressure, enhance your sleep, and increase your feeling of happiness. Another surprise: Being generous with one’s time or resources early in life say, starting in high school, is a predictor of good physical and mental health much later in life. Good deeds foster more good deeds: if I see or know of someone doing a good deed, it makes it more likely that I will do a good deed in turn. Giving pays off in myriad ways!

This community has a reputation for its generosity. Perhaps knowing that makes it more likely that others in our community will be generous as well.  I know, or know of, dozens and dozens of very generous people who are invested in supporting our community. Generosity benefits everyone: the giver, the receiver and the community itself. As a result of your generosity, you are happier and healthier in mind and body. And the community is healthier and hopefully happier in its ability to provide for those who make their home here. 

Whether you donate your time or your resources, make someone happy! Make just one someone happy, and then you’ll be happy, too!

Chris Theno is a board member of the Homer Foundation and has lived in Homer for seven years. She is a retired associate professor of education and philosophy who loves to fill her days with family (including the dog), friends, books, enjoying the outdoors and traveling. She is hopeful and looking forward to being more socially engaged as the pandemic wanes.

The following is an article in the Pay It Forward column published in the Homer News. This column is sponsored by the Homer Foundation, a community foundation promoting local philanthropy since 1991. To learn more please visit us @ www.homerfoundation.org and like us on Facebook.

In the era of COVID, we have all faced many changes and challenges that have confronted what it means to belong.

When we think of community, it usually centers around the feeling that we belong to a group of people. As a relative newcomer to Homer myself, I have been asked by other newcomers how to become integrated. My answer is broadly echoed by those who have lived here for so long: Get involved!

We cannot hope to feel a sense of pride, ownership, or connection if we are not building relationships and improving each other’s lives. Whether it is through a local non-profit, your church, or a hobby group, just being involved has a dramatic impact on our mental health, social lives, and overall sense of belonging.

The global pandemic has certainly offered us barriers in a way that changes how we can be together, how we connect, how we communicate. So many are feeling spread thin, and in this process, we are evaluating what capacity we have for activities and reprioritizing our social needs.

As we determine what activities will get our time and energy, it has become clearer how little so many of us feel we have of either. Time and energy are indeed the resources we consider the most valuable, and when it comes to how we spend them, it’s only natural to prioritize our time with loved ones over participating in community activities.

It means we have to consciously focus our attention on our social groups, charitable causes, and each other in order to maintain the feeling of community and belonging. Identify that one cause that you feel strongly about and ask how you can be of help or if there is a need for volunteers. Check with your neighbor who has been feeling isolated and ask them how they are doing.

Likewise when we are short on time and energy, help out your community in the second-best way: A donation of your dollars. Please remember the role of philanthropy in the process of healing, of staying strong as a community, and reinforcing all those programs and organizations who work to support our wellbeing. Every dollar helps even more than it did in years past, helping to sustain organizations and services that may struggle without the ability to organize in-person fundraisers or traditional outreach.

It can be hard to feel like organizations are asking for money in a way that doesn’t leave us feeling connected right now, and sometimes feels transactional, but ask yourself this: How much is my time and energy worth to me right now? For the volunteers who show up and the community organizers who ensure people stay in contact, even a small-dollar donation goes a long way to ensure programs can keep running long into the future.

There will be a time when we look back on our pandemic days and laugh together, cry together, and wonder how we did it. We are doing this together, and it’s with your support today that our children will have active, healthy communities to grow up in. As an old Indian proverb goes, “Blessed is he who plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.” I think about this a lot when I lose track of time or focus.

This is our time to plant seeds for trees that we will never rest under. Our hardships today can be opportunities for tomorrow. Get involved, love your neighbors, volunteer. And of course, please give generously today to an organization that nourishes our community. Your participation builds the most important driver of society: Belonging.

– Jeffrey Eide is the new Executive Director of the South Peninsula Hospital Foundation, a newly created position. His background is in fundraising and community organizing.

By Terri Spigelmyer

The following is an article in the Pay It Forward column published in the Homer News. This column is sponsored by the Homer Foundation, a community foundation promoting local philanthropy since 1991. To learn more please visit us @ www.homerfoundation.org and like us on Facebook.

Recently in preparing to move from my office of 21 years, I was tasked with sorting through various file cabinets and happened upon a bright yellow folder filled with correspondence to my mother-in-law, who has since passed. Mary had printed and saved all of my email journals from our family’s trips abroad. And that set me thinking about whether our volunteerism was more about helping others or about teaching our children the value of charitable giving. Was the journey the travel itself, or was the journey the seed planted at home and abroad as a volunteer?

Throughout our children’s minority, Andy and I volunteered for non-profit organizations in foreign countries to share our expertise, and to learn. The first volunteer locale was a year in India when our 3 children were ages 6, 7, and 9. As I read through those journals anew, memories of joy as well as hardship flood back: the joys of walking in the actual footsteps of history, the victory of some small cultural understanding, or watching our young children acclimate with ease, as a contrast to the abject poverty, poor nutrition, pollution, and unclean drinking water. 

While Andy worked full-time in Dharamsala India, documenting human rights abuses in the Tibetan refugee community, the kids shared their daily learning space with Tibetan monks who wished to learn English and a young, impoverished Indian girl who did not attend school. There, the children followed Tibetan teachings and examples of compassionate giving, including daily trips around the temple to spin the prayer wheels.

India was perhaps the most profound of volunteer experiences; but by volunteering ever since, home and abroad, we hope to have instilled in our children empathy, cultural awareness, long-term planning, and the selflessness of helping others. Notably, after every immersion in a foreign culture, the return to Homer was ever sweeter, with a greater appreciation for the richness of our local volunteer community. 

Now, twenty-two years after our first stint in India, we are grandparents who are lucky to have a granddaughter living in Homer—a new generation who will benefit from the volunteers of the past. I relish the opportunities available to my granddaughter created by decades of volunteerism from individuals with creative, thoughtful, and selfless foresight. Like her mother before her, my granddaughter will enjoy marine science exploration and learn about the creatures under the dock. She will have multiple options to explore art in its every form and medium. She will learn stewardship of our natural environment, and the value of wetland and resource preservation. She will have outdoor adventures and learn to ski. She will have library resources, programs, and projects that will foster her curiosity. And all along her youthful journey, our granddaughter will encounter Homer’s volunteer backbone, the drivers of our economic engine, the givers… of their time, of their energy, of their expertise, and maybe of their financial support. And if we are lucky, she will volunteer as well. 

  And in occasionally failing, I hope that she and our children will learn the wisdom of TS Elliott, who once wrote, “If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather keep something alive than in the expectation that it will triumph.”

  Thank you to all the volunteers that have planted seeds, both for my family and our community.

Terri Spigelmyer and her husband have been attorneys in Homer for 30 years, and have raised 3 children in Homer.

The following is an article in the Pay It Forward column published in the Homer News. This column is sponsored by the Homer Foundation, a community foundation promoting local philanthropy since 1991. To learn more please visit us @ www.homerfoundation.org and like us on Facebook.

Watching the news and listening to stories of the aftermath of massive tornadoes that hit Kentucky and other surrounding states breaks a person’s heart, thinking of the families just before Christmas now homeless or having lost a loved one.

Then the stories of fellow Americans who give to help out as the money mounts into the millions becomes the next story. That’s what Americans do. They give to one another!

The other day when I returned home from running errands, my dear neighbors, who look out for me since the death of my husband several years ago, provided eight reflectors mounted on long slats to mark the path for the snowplow. With huge piles forming along the driveway and the street, finding places to push snow becomes harder. I called another neighbor who has a bobcat blower on a track to see if I could get his help. He came over 45 min later, removed an enormous amount of snow, widened the driveway, and reduced the feeling of being suffocated by the snow. Snow angels appear suddenly!

This is routine work during snow loads like we’ve been experiencing. Having been out of state for two weeks, returning to the kindness of neighbors during this deep winter condition in Homer makes life much easier. The snow is beautiful! The love and kindness of neighbors add warmth and quality of life and deepen the beauty of winter. This kind of neighborliness lasts long after the snow melts.

Having served on Homer Foundation and recently termed out, I chaired the 30 years committee. Homer citizens are givers! In 30 years, this community gave over $3.6 million for distribution in grants and scholarships, awarded 311 scholarships for $372,497, supported 88 nonprofits through grants with 1858 quick response grants awarded. A total of 1221 donors regularly give to the Homer Community Foundation to make this possible. Through the City of Homer Grants Program over $860,000 was awarded to nonprofits during the last 30 years. What a great example of supporting each other in our community!

Philanthropy comes in many forms. Small acts of kindness, monetary gifts given in scholarships and grants, a smile, assisting others who need a hand or meal…an endless list where every action counts to make this community, this world, our lives richer with deeper meaning.

As we come to the close of another pandemic year, we are left with memories. All we leave are memories when we exit this world. Serving on the Homer Foundation gifted me an education in philanthropy. Let’s continue in the next 30 years to build on what was envisioned years ago by several forward-thinking Homer citizens!

Flo Larson

A past trustee of the Homer Foundation

This month the Homer Foundation has turned 30 years old. For those of us
who remember the 60s, yeah, well, we’ve learned the truth. You actually
can trust those over 30.
Recently, I took on a project to collect some of the best pictures of the
Foundation’s last 30 years. As I sorted through hundreds of photos, I
became seriously overwhelmed – in a good way. Tears came to my eyes
seeing the incredible reach this organization has had in the lives of so
many of our neighbors. Here are just a few highlights:
High school girls traveling to India or Russia with experiences that have
changed their lives. Graduates off to college with scholarships leading to
amazing careers. Young kids learn to play the violin, not just for music
education but for the compounding benefit it has on developing brains.
Food and emergency support for those in desperate need. And then there
are physical manifestations of community in building the Karen Hornaday
Park Playground, the Homer Public Library, and the Boathouse Pavillion.
Oh, and there is so much more. Look around the efforts toward the new
Kachemak City playground, the skateboard park, music events, recreation,
conservation; little ones helped by Sprout, families by the Anchor Point
Food Bank, and elders supported by Hospice.
Yet, the Foundation didn’t initiate or carry out these projects. Our
community service groups did. Our neighbors did. Our nonprofit
organizations did. Very possibly you did.
You see, the Homer Foundation provides a place where we all can come
together to share our appreciation for this wonderful place we live. It is a
place where your generosity grows into a fund for the future. Then, as
funds are needed, when they can do the most good, requests are vetted
by our community grants committee and amazing things happen.
The Foundation’s trustees set a really big goal a few years ago. We want to
build our Vanguard managed funds to $20 million so that we can return
hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to make a significant and
positive difference in our quality of life here on the Southern Kenai
Peninsula. You, your friends and neighbors, give what you can so great
ideas can find seed money. So our nonprofits can not only have a source
of quick support but they can spend more time doing the work for which
they were created and less time fundraising. So groups from Ninilchik to
Nanwalek with a valuable idea can turn them into reality.
If you are already an occasional donor to the Homer Foundation, thank
you. If you are a monthly or annual donor, thank you twice. If you have
included us in your legacy estate planning, thank you thrice!
If you want to join in the great satisfaction of knowing that your generosity
is truly making our home a better place, accept our 30th Anniversary
Challenge. The goal is to add 300 new donors at $30 or more in our 30th
year. Just go to www.homerfoundation.org or call or come by the office.
We’ll thank you 30 times over!
Let’s celebrate!

Liz Downing

Liz is a member of the Homer Foundation Board of Trustees

My young son has recently discovered parks. If there is a slide, we are on it, a swing, get out of the way, toddler coming through! As we clamber over molded plastic and painted metal there is little time to think about anything but the fun he is having and all the potential for emergency room visits.  However, parks are not just about wringing energy out of the kids so they sleep better. As they play there is great potential for learning. My child is always learning new tricks from watching the other kids. He is continually trying to use the equipment in ways that we narrow-minded adults would have never conceived.  Also, he is getting social time that, for an only child born near the start of the pandemic, is in short supply. I too am learning as I watch the technique of other parents helping their kids navigate such territories as sharing and taking turns.

These slices of childhood heaven don’t spring up out of the woodchips on their own. Dedicated people decide to pour their time, energy, and resources into the project to enhance the quality of life in their community. Countless hours are spent finding the location and designing the park. Gathering the support of others to complete the construction is also no mean feat. Maintenance requires a special, sustained commitment lasting long after the more glamours work has been done.  In addition to the labor of many civic-minded volunteers, parks require the financial support of the community at-large.

Kachemak City has begun the process of rebuilding the playground adjacent to their community center. They hope to replace the existing, worn-out equipment and upgrade the facility to better suit the needs of area residents.  As more people move into the Kachemak Bay area, this is the kind of work that needs to be done to foster the community spirit that makes this a great place to live. Kachemak City is currently soliciting donations from the public through their fund at the Homer Foundation and I would encourage everyone to consider being a part of the project by making a contribution. This park, and others like it, provide a place for people to get outside and out of their phones. Parents can meet other parents, build their “village”, and find common ground watching the joy on their children’s faces while their kids can bond over the shared love of speed and outside voices.

Van Hawkins

Homer resident and member of the board of trustees for the Homer Foundation.