By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Giving in its most simplified form. In 2017, Julie Mazouch helped come up with the idea of gathering 100 generous people in a room. In under an hour, with a $100 check from each of those people, $10,000 could be raised for area non-profits. Wednesday afternoon, 100+ People Who Care Barton County reached the $200,000 mark in donations. Committee Chair Ron Koelsch calls it a simple way of giving.
"We almost meet about 5:30, and by 6:15 we're done," he said. "People just love it. They learn something about three organizations within our communities, what they're trying to do, and what their challenges are. Even if they don't win the money, they really are winners because they've educated people within our community."
At the first meeting in February 2017, the group selected Dream Center in Great Bend for its donation. The gift was based on Dream Center's need for a walk-in freezer for its soup kitchen. "That's what the people are looking at - the need of these organizations, what they really need," Koelsch said. "It's not that they're just throwing the money into their general budget."
Before each meeting closes, group members select three non-profits for the next quarterly meeting. Those non-profits are then invited to the next meeting, where they make a five-minute pitch about why they should win the donation, then take questions for five minutes. The group then votes on a winner.
"To this day, we've never had anybody turn us down," Koelsch said. "There's a one-in-three chance of winning at least $10,000-plus, so they're always willing to do that. They have to get pretty creative because they only have about five minutes to make their presentation to the group that's there."
On average, 50-60 members of the group attend the quarterly meetings. Other members will submit their $100 checks within the next few days. The goal is $10,000 for each quarter, but the group has donated as much as $11,000. The two groups that do not win in a given quarter are potential candidates for another run at the donation in future quarters.
"There's going to be one winner that wins the $10,000-plus, but the other two, we figure, are winners because they educated people on what they're doing within their organization," said Koelsch. "A lot of times, those people will come back and present in a future quarterly meeting and might up winning the $10,000."
Part of the pitch each quarter is explaining how the funds will be used. The following quarter, the winning non-profit returns to tell the group exactly how the funds were actually used.
The group last met on Feb. 14 and selected the Salvation Army as this quarter's winning. With the final checks funneling in by Wednesday, the group reached the $200,000 mark and handed a $10,100 check to Salvation Army Thursday.
The May meeting will feature the Ellinwood Hospital Foundation, as well as two new non-profits with the Great Bend Bat Cats and Barton Arts Movement. Koelsch said there are approximately 125 members in 100+ Who Care, and not all give every quarter. There's always room for growth moving forward.
"The more we grow it," he said, "the more money we can raise for the non-profit organizations every quarter."