By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Community members in Andrew County are working to protect the future of the county and have developed the Andrew County Foundation.
The funds raised by the Andrew County Foundation will go towards community improvements and will allow community members to cement their legacy within the community.
Foundation Trustee Wakefield Hare says the fund that are raised by the foundation can be used for anything in Andrew County.
"It is unrestricted so it's not like oh here are the strict parameters and we think that's one of the main benefits of the fund just because the community needs are always changing, they're dynamic," Hare tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "And so, that's why the trust part becomes so important to say how and what, who can we trust to make sure good decisions are made with community assets."
The foundation was created in 2021 by Leadership Savannah Alumni. Hare says the foundation helps fund good ideas for community improvement
"Well, there might be 100 good ideas to do that but then how does somebody go from idea to actually implementing a great idea?" Hare asks. "And we know that resources often will help people otherwise (they) say nope ideas dead there's just not enough to get it done, now we're saying the foundation provides capital resources to maybe spur and grow some of those ideas, foster some of those ideas."
Hare says the foundation doesn't exist to come up with those ideas, but rather to help people in the community fund their ideas.
Recently, the foundation received 15-thousand dollars from the Gary Taylor Trust and the Harry and Helen Messick Trust to launch into its next step in fundraising.
Hare says one project the foundation wants to focus on is connecting youth to their community. He uses Brookfield as an example of that, with the city giving their high school graduates mailboxes
"That help them tie their roots and their identity back to their hometowns," Hare explains. "And so, as much as we want many of our young people in our community to go out and see what this world has to offer, this country has to offer, we also want them never to underappreciate what our particular hometown communities can do for them."
Hare says there are many good ideas of how the funds could be used towards youth in Andrew County.