Tim Hale, Chairman of the Board for the LCSD2 Education Foundation, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Monday, April 13 to discuss the latest in this year’s senior scholarship drive.

(0:00) Dal and Dan, this is the weekday wake-up on SVI Radio. (0:07) Hey, let’s make it happen. (0:08) Let’s go.

(0:09) Good morning. (0:10) Ladies and gentlemen. (0:11) Get up, get up.

(0:13) Hey. (0:14) 8.37 this morning on SVI Radio, SWIFT 98 and the SPUR. (0:19) Now joining me live in studio this morning is Tim Hale.

(0:22) He is the chairman of the board with the LCSD II Education Foundation, (0:26) and in for his quarterly report from the foundation. (0:30) Tim, good morning. (0:30) How are you today? (0:31) Hey, good, Duke.

(0:31) How are you today? (0:32) Absolutely good. (0:33) Appreciate you stepping in studio. (0:34) That time of year, we start talking graduation already, (0:38) and about a month and a half away.

(0:40) And that means scholarship drives for the foundation. (0:42) Give us an update on how things are looking so far at this point in the year. (0:45) Yeah, we’ve just had a tremendous year.

(0:49) We’ve had just a wonderful turnout from our donors. (0:52) And our donors in the community are both individuals and small businesses. (0:58) We even have people from well outside of the community (1:01) that turn up wanting to support our students.

(1:04) So the turnout as far as the donors showing up saying, (1:08) yes, we want to put some dollars toward this scholarship (1:11) or that scholarship has really been tremendous. (1:13) And then on the other side is the students, right? (1:16) We need those students to show up and put in those applications. (1:20) And that’s been a wonderful response as well.

(1:22) We had a surge of student applications come in, (1:26) the deadline being the Monday after spring break. (1:30) So we had a lot of students, rightfully so, they want to get out, (1:34) enjoy time with their families and vacationing. (1:36) Then they came back, and we just had a ton of applications come in.

(1:41) So really a great response overall from our student applicants that are graduating, (1:46) wanting to apply for some of these dollars to go toward their college education, (1:52) maybe a trade program, something like that. (1:54) So we’re really thrilled overall with the success this year. (1:57) Now, of course, the board that which you sit on for the Education Foundation (2:02) is kind of overseeing all this, but you have a director (2:05) that’s really spearheading the whole thing.

(2:07) And Kim Dockstader has done a fantastic job. (2:10) She’s just really remarkable. (2:11) Kim has, you know, when you’re in a chairman position, (2:16) you’re kind of just overseeing things.

(2:17) And you hope that that executive director that you have (2:20) is going to be the one to really do the day-to-day, right, (2:24) to actually do the work. (2:25) And that, to a T, has been Kim. (2:27) I was chuckling with Kim.

(2:29) We meet her and I once a month, and then our board meets once a month. (2:34) And I just kind of laugh when Kim comes in, and she’s just like, (2:38) here’s the agenda, here’s what we’re doing. (2:40) And it makes me look good as the chairman, (2:42) when in reality it’s really Kim doing so much of the work.

(2:45) So she really has been, over this last three or four months, (2:48) pounding the pavement, so to speak, (2:50) reaching out to individuals in the community, (2:53) our small businesses. (2:55) And not with a pushy approach, (2:57) but just simply an open invitation to say, (2:59) hey, would you like to support our students? (3:01) And again, the response from the community (3:02) year after year has been overwhelming. (3:05) And Duke, I’ve been doing this and this (3:07) with this foundation for eight years now.

(3:10) Not in the chairman position that whole time, (3:12) but I’ve been involved for a long time. (3:14) And it’s just been incredible year after year to see its success. (3:17) Absolutely.

So, of course, we’re coming down the homestretch (3:21) here for businesses and individuals to get involved. (3:24) And so when are the deadlines for donations, (3:27) and how do people do that? (3:28) Yeah, so we’re actually past the deadline. (3:31) So we had a deadline about a month ago (3:33) for businesses to come to us and say they want to donate.

(3:36) And then students have, all those had come in, (3:38) and then students, that deadline was last week. (3:41) So we’re done, in a sense. (3:44) Really, now we’re in sort of the, (3:47) I don’t know if the victory lap is right, (3:50) but we’re kind of in that phase now of, (3:52) hey, let’s review the applicants, right? (3:55) Who’s applied? (3:57) Many of these applications have survey, (3:59) or essays that need to be reviewed.

(4:01) And so we’re now kind of organizing all of that effort. (4:05) Several of these businesses that come to us and say, (4:07) I’d like to do a scholarship, (4:08) they review their applicants and decide on, you know, (4:11) who are their one or two recipients. (4:13) But then a whole bunch of those fall to the Education Foundation (4:16) for us to go through and say, (4:17) okay, let’s review these applications, (4:19) and then to decide on who’s going to receive those awards.

(4:23) So that awards ceremony will be later in May, May 19th. (4:28) And so at that time, we’ll kind of hand out those awards, (4:31) the students will be notified, and so on. (4:33) So really now, we’re just kind of in that time (4:35) of getting things figured out, (4:37) and who’s going to be receiving the scholarship, (4:39) and moving on in that direction.

(4:40) So Tim, are you at a point where you can announce (4:43) the total amount raised, or not quite yet? (4:45) You know, I think I could if I knew the number. (4:47) I don’t know it exactly. (4:49) If Kim was here, she’d be able to tell us.

(4:52) But we know that it’s been, you know, (4:54) I can confidently say it’s over $100,000, (4:57) just like it is year after year. (4:59) And so, and then on top of that, again, (5:01) just to have a response from several new donors (5:05) that have been significant. (5:08) So it’s just been really thrilling.

(5:10) And again, I can’t speak more highly of Kim, (5:13) as well as our board. (5:14) Our board is so supportive, just tremendous. (5:18) We have tremendous experience (5:19) from all sorts of different individuals (5:21) in their own respective professions.

(5:23) We have great support from Superintendent Erickson (5:26) and the school district. (5:27) They’re at our meetings, just despite their busy schedule. (5:30) Meeting after meeting, they’re there at the table, (5:32) helping give us direction, and giving input (5:35) on what the needs are of the school district (5:37) that we can potentially help fill at the foundation level.

(5:39) So as a business, maybe, is looking forward (5:42) to the next school year, 26, 27. (5:44) At SBI, we always make a donation that goes directly (5:47) to some of our employees or interns that we’ve used. (5:51) And it’s fantastic, because we can say, (5:53) all right, we want this scholarship (5:55) to go directly towards this kind of angle.

(5:58) And a business can do that, (5:59) or they can keep it wide open and just say, (6:01) you know what, here’s some money, we need a tax break, (6:04) do with it what you will, right? (6:06) Yeah, exactly, yeah. (6:07) We will hear all different options (6:10) and how a business or an individual or a family, (6:13) a family trust, however they want to support it, (6:16) however they want to donate, let us know. (6:19) Our job is to identify ways that we can further help (6:22) and support the school district specifically, (6:26) but also the broader community when it comes to education.

(6:29) So a couple of examples would be, (6:30) sometimes people come to us and they’ll say, (6:32) yeah, we have a very specific criteria. (6:34) We want the scholarship to be for the arts, (6:36) or we want the scholarship to be for engineering. (6:39) And Kim can work with that individual (6:41) or those individuals or business and help put that together.

(6:44) And then something else that I think is important to note, (6:49) the work that Kim does is supported by funds (6:52) that we have with the foundation, (6:54) but we’re always open and would love (6:56) to encourage individuals to support us (6:58) through what we would essentially call (7:01) an unrestricted donation, right? (7:02) Where you’re giving funds to us saying, (7:04) hey, this doesn’t have to go to a particular scholarship. (7:06) We just want to support the administrative cost (7:09) that inevitably comes with doing the work (7:13) of raising these funds, of getting all this organized, (7:15) of reviewing the applications and so on. (7:17) So if anyone wants to support us (7:19) through a donation in that way, we welcome that too.

(7:22) We’re a 501c3, we’re a nonprofit, (7:25) so those are potentially tax deductible. (7:28) And as a financial planner person, (7:30) I’ll also just note that people can give in other ways too. (7:33) So there are, in some cases, (7:37) you can give through a retirement account, like an IRA.

(7:41) If you’ve reached a certain age, (7:43) you can actually give your required amount (7:47) that has to come from your IRA, (7:49) can actually go to a charity and it can go tax-free. (7:52) So you don’t owe any taxes on that. (7:54) You can give appreciated investments.

(7:56) So investments that have gone up in value (7:58) that would otherwise be taxed or land or things like that. (8:02) You can donate those to a charity (8:04) and then we can sell them and not have any tax owed to us (8:08) and you won’t have any tax owed to you. (8:10) And then on top of that, (8:11) you get a potentially charitable deduction.

(8:13) So there’s some really interesting ways (8:15) that we would invite you to reach out to us (8:17) if you want to support what we’re doing, (8:19) if you want to support students in this community, (8:22) let us know and we can have a conversation (8:24) about what do you have to give, (8:26) what are the different, is it cash, is it something else? (8:30) And we can have a conversation about you, (8:32) how you can help support the foundation. (8:33) That’s Tim Hill, chairman of the board (8:34) with the LCST2 Education Foundation. (8:36) Tim, appreciate your time as always.

(8:38) Anything else about the foundation you’d like to mention? (8:40) No, that’s all, Duke. (8:41) Just I really appreciate your time (8:43) and giving us some airspace here (8:45) and the community just their support. (8:47) It’s really appreciated.

(8:48) Absolutely. (8:48) You can find the LCST2 Education Foundation online as well (8:52) and of course we’ll touch base with Tim (8:55) at a future date this morning (8:56) about once per quarter here on the Weekday Wake Up. (8:59) It’s all part of the SBI Radio Network Hunt, (9:00) SWIFT 98 and the SPUR.