Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today Gateway to Giving GMCF Scholarship Stories (Ken Culbertson and Monroe Say) - Episode 173
Today, we chatted with Ken Culbertson Monroe Say, about the motivation behind establishing the Home Care and Hospice Employee Education Fund scholarship. Ken opens up about the journey that led to the creation of this scholarship, fulfilling his wife Rhoda's final wish to support the compassionate hospice staff. Over the past eight years, this scholarship has paved the way for ten recipients, including Monroe, to achieve their educational and career aspirations, underlining healthcare providers' critical roles in offering holistic patient care and grief support.
Join us as we explore the broader impact of this scholarship on the community and its significant legacy. Ken discusses his family's unwavering dedication to growing the fund to enhance its reach and sustainability.
Welcome to Philanthropy Today. We are excited to share information on ways you can support the charitable causes of your choice. My name is Mitzi Richards and I look forward to being with you today on our GMCF Philanthropy Today podcast series. Today our topic is the impact of scholarship in our series Gateway to Giving GMCF Scholarship Stories. Gateway to Giving GMCF Scholarship Stories. I am so excited to have you both here today. You are the first podcast in a series that we are doing. It is called the Transformative Power of Scholarships, so you might hear me repeat that a couple of times as we have our discussion today. But first I just want to welcome you. Ken Culbertson and Monroe Say and you are here to discuss with us the Home Care and Hospice Employee Education Fund Scholarship. That's kind of a mouthful. So before we dive into questions, ken, could you give us a little bit of background, because you are the gentleman who established this scholarship. Give us a little bit of context. What's the history behind or the motivation you had?
Speaker 2:Okay, first I'd just like to thank you for having us, monroe and I, here today to explain this. This is kind of close to my heart, but also close to my kids, in that how we got it started, and Monroe is the reason, one of the reasons, why we have the scholarship to be honest with you, and I think probably first I should give a brief background into how it came about. My wife was diagnosed with cervical, ovarian and peritoneal cancer in a series of events that happened in 2005. She lived nine years after that diagnosis and actually did pretty well, but toward the end we knew what the end would be, and so we were living in Arkansas City and we moved up here to be close to our youngest daughter, teal, who was finishing up her degree in biology and she had already been admitted to vet school. The boys one boy lived in Texas and the other one was serving in the Navy in Pearl Harbor, so those were not options of places to move. So we came here and in the end, rhoda ended up in the hospice house.
Speaker 2:It was on the second morning that I came and she just reached out her hand. I think she'd been up all night talking to someone like Monroe and had found out about their past and their history and what their ambitions were. And she said they love so much, they care so much, we need to do something. And, uh, I kind of knew then what she meant was you need to do something because I'm not going to be here. And I said well, what she said, I'm sure you'll figure it out.
Speaker 2:So after she died, um, and I I I wish I could remember I think it was in the fall she died in June and I think it was in the fall. I come to Vern and we started the conversation and made decisions that this is what we should do. I'd already talked to Christina Nolte at the hospice house and so we decided to start this scholarship fund, and that's the how and, like I said, the why is because school's expensive and I was an educator, and so we just wanted to help young people with a little money. But we're here so we can earn more. I can tell more about that later, maybe.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, growing that opportunity to make sure that education and that is available to those providers? Absolutely Wow. So how long has the scholarship been established?
Speaker 2:Well, I think the first scholarship was given to Sarah Swicegood, who was from Alma, and she I actually knew her and she cared for Rhoda, so she and she received that, I believe, in 2016. Okay, and she went on to Washburn to become a registered nurse. So I think it's been about eight years that we've given scholarships. So in that eight years, I believe Monroe is the 10th recipient, and so that's when it started.
Speaker 1:So 10 people's lives you've changed. How does that make you feel?
Speaker 2:Well, it's good, I'm very happy. I think my children, who all live out of state, are even more happy about it.
Speaker 1:And you have a son in the medical field.
Speaker 2:I have a son who's a PA in Colorado Springs yes, and he's been doing that now for seven years.
Speaker 1:So Wow, yeah. So being close to that field, they know what a difference it makes when someone steps up and helps someone obtain their dream to be a health care provider.
Speaker 2:Right, and when we set it up it's not just for health care. I think all but one have been in health care. But when we set it up we said if there's someone at hospice house who is in the business department and wants to further their training in business, or if there's anyone else, they can do that. And I think I wish I could remember the social worker at that had received the scholarship, I think two or three years ago. Wow, and she was working on her master's, I believe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So, so, because all of those individuals I know for a fact at the hospice house are important to everything, it's the, it's a team approach You've got to have, you've got to have excellence at all levels important to me personally and we had some real interesting conversations.
Speaker 2:This is all new to me a spouse dying and I was only. I was in my middle 60s and she really guided me through. So I was real happy when the social worker and I don't know if she's a counselor or what- but that's an important part of that whole process.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, the grief and the support after the loss of someone you love is critically important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, not just while they're at the hospice house, but also, you know, going into the weeks and months and years after that. Yeah, I think it's also really important. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good point, monroe. Yeah, grief is an interesting emotion. It's a state of mind for a while, but it in the loved ones I've lost, I still have my moments, absolutely, you know, especially music. Music seems to spark things. My mother loved to put on Elton John when we were cleaning house. So if I hear an old Elton John from the late seventies I immediately tear up and great memories of of my mom and and those fun music and dancing and doing a little bit of dusting and vacuuming.
Speaker 3:It's funny how we associate a song or something like that with like a time in our life. I definitely relate to that too.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well, Monroe, I'm going to segue to you and ask you a little bit about you know how this scholarship, kind of what, motivated you to apply? And, um, tell us that story. How did, how did you find out? You received it.
Speaker 3:So, um, I just want to say first thank you for having both of us on this podcast and um, I also just want to say to Ken, it's so interesting because, I mean, you can read about a story like that and it has an impact on you, but then, when you hear from it firsthand, like these are real people that we're talking about, um, and so it's, it's so cool to hear that story and how you've continued, um, just that legacy, um, of Rhoda, and she knew that you would do it. And look at you know, 10 years later, still doing it, so doing it. So I'm super grateful to receive that scholarship.
Speaker 3:But I learned about the scholarship first at my interview at the hospice house. The interviewer was talking to me and she was like I think that, because you know, I was planning on going to school whole time but then also work as needed at the hospice house, so she, so she was like I think that you would be a great applicant for this um, for the scholarship. And so from there, you know, when the time rolled around, I started to read about it and, as you know, school is very expensive, um, and so any extra help is just amazing. It allows me to on my studies but then also gives me a heart for still working at the hospice house at the same time. So I decided to apply for it and was blessed enough to receive it last year. So I'm super thankful for that and just definitely takes a burden, a financial burden, off of me for just different tuition books, all the college things.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, how do you see yourself? Let's just go 20 years into the future. How do you feel that receiving a scholarship maybe impacts the way you give back in the future?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Um, I would say so. Right now I'm on the pre-physician assistant track. I'm studying kinesiology and integrative physiology at K-State. This will be my senior year and then I'll start applying for schools next spring. So you know, more school is coming for me. I can't say that I know exactly where that's going to take me in the future, kind of what field I'll be in or what specialty I'll end up doing, but I do know that just the lessons and just from observing the different nurses at the hospice house and just providing the compassionate care that we do Every time that I work at the hospice house, I feel just this fulfillment and it just it makes me so, it just fills me up every time I leave, cause I know that the people that I am working with there, just like Ken and his family, they're impacted by us, not just our clients, but also the families, and it just makes me so passionate about what I'll end up doing in the future and how I'll end up giving back to my community.
Speaker 1:Well said, well said. So, ken, seeing the impact your scholarship has on recipients like Monroe, does it affirm your commitment?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Just what Monroe just said commitment Absolutely Just what Monroe just said. Two things One, in the interview process, that she was approached with this as a possibility and that if you go and read the story, we have that in there. That that's one of the goals is that it would be a hiring tool for good. Yes, for good, yes, um, and so it is. I had never asked, but you confirmed that. And number two, uh, deserving people. I know rhoda felt so loved. She knew her end was near, but she felt so much care from the people there and she just confirmed that and what she said. So, absolutely and I know, like I said, I can't speak for my kids, but I am when I say I know they're very excited to have this opportunity and that's one of the reasons we're here today is the future.
Speaker 1:Well expound on that for me.
Speaker 2:Give me a little bit more information, you spent an hour with Zoom in March, I think, and Taryn the boy, the son, who is a PA in Colorado. He called one day. He said, dad, this thing, we have to get this scholarship fund to grow and I think it sits at around $45,000 now, depending upon the market. And he said I would like to see it grow to $100,000 in the next five years so that we can give $4,000 or $5,000 and it can kind of perpetuate itself without all this. You know you having to. We were doing cookies at a thing called Hearts and Barbecue at Cox Brothers.
Speaker 1:Yes, many years. You did that for several years.
Speaker 2:We did that for about six years and then we missed for COVID and then we did two years, I think, at Kites and Bob and Bud Cox were so good at first at Cox Brothers and then he, bob, was over at, or, yeah, bob was over at or Bud was at Kites for a while. We went there two years. The first year Winnie Shadle and my daughter made cookies and the second year that, after spendings that took a lot of work, those special cookies, that heart-shaped cookies, and so we then we had people build, make cookies and and gave them and that was pretty labor intensive for us and it was well worth it because that's where we are today. And there have been private donations also along the way. Our family donated and then the I can't remember the name that donated a considerable amount also have funded it. But we would like to see it grow.
Speaker 2:My son is kind of funny. He says the emotion of mom. He said I still think about mom, but the emotion of all that is kind of subsided. And he said I kind of know you're next and I want to get this taken care of before we lose contact with Manhattan, because I don't see my children moving back to Manhattan.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure. Well, I think that's one of the things we take a great pride in at the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation is we're here to support these kinds of initiatives. Scholarships, of course, are critical to scholarships of course are critical to as you mentioned, Monroe, making sure that you can achieve that educational goal and who knows the impact that will continue to have as you pursue your degrees, continue your professional life at GMCF. I feel like that's what we can do. We can really shine a light on the opportunity for community members to make a contribution to this scholarship. And we will have a very important opportunity coming up the Good Shepherd Home Care and Hospice is having their Flint Hills Wine Festival. That is coming up on August 24th at 7 pm.
Speaker 1:I know Christine or one of her staff members will be here, probably on one of our Monday morning GMCF radio shows to give us more details. But I know at that auction there is an opportunity to give as well, so that and there's all sorts of you know we're open all day long to accept contributions. I literally think this is something that people listen for. Our community members oftentimes think, you know, I want to make a difference. I want to not necessarily establish my own scholarship, but if there's one out there that really speaks to me, I'd like to make a gift to that. So I hope that we're encouraging people as we visit today.
Speaker 2:Yes, because it goes to real people doing real things and it's important for their future. Future. And I might add also one of the things when I talked to Vern now eight years ago or nine years ago about this, I said, well, what happens if something happens to Hospice House? I pray that it doesn't. He said, well, that money and that scholarship would go to a like scholarship in the community, and so we know that this money is going to. It sits there and each year it generates interest and then people like Monroe get the benefit to buy books and help them along the way.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's wonderful, Absolutely Well. Once again, I want to thank you both for being here today. I know you've inspired people. Our listeners out there are going to be inspired to see what they can do, not only to support professionals that you will become, but mostly because you have a heart for this community. You've made a difference. You've created a legacy for your Rhoda's wonderful life. You're hopefully making your children happy, Ken.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I think Rhoda would be satisfied. She'd be very proud of Monroe and everyone else that's earned a scholarship.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she'd be satisfied, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:Well, we will look forward to seeing you in late August at the Flint Hills Wine Festival and hopefully we'll raise a lot of money to make the dreams come true for future students. Thanks, guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us today where we look inside the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. You can always learn more about GMCF at our website, mcfksorg. We invite you to subscribe to Philanthropy Today. Wherever you get your podcasts, I'm Mitzi Richards and have enjoyed hosting our Gateway to Giving GMCF Scholarship Stories series in the Ad Astra Cast Studios here in downtown Manhattan, kansas.