Ross and Christine Hartley of Jackson Hole, Wyo., just gave $1.8 million to Baker University to help with its $10.5 million campaign to renovate and expand a campus building.
The Hartleys know how to use their wealth well. They also have endowed a professorship at the KU School of Nursing and previously gave $1 million to Baker to improve its university’s library.
Every community offers similar opportunities for current and former citizens. Iola’s Bowlus Fine Arts Center will have a new sound system and a new set of curtains for the auditorium stage because Iolans such as Wayne Archer, God rest his soul, made generous gifts.
Just as kids need new shoes every year, the Bowlus Center never gets to the bottom of its to-do list.
Other thoughtful, generous citizens are out there, perhaps waiting for a certain cause to pull at their heartstrings.
Perhaps you are one of them. If so, respond to either the Bowlus or to the newly formed Allen County Foundation or to the USD 257 Foundation to benefit Iola schools.
The Bowlus and those foundations are great ways for a family or individual to give back. Take your choice and leave your mark of gratitude on a community that helped you along life’s path.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
