Diana R. Sieger is the president of the Grand Rapids Commmunity Foundation. For more information, visit Diana's President's pages or view her biography.

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President's Point of View: The Reward of Philanthropy and Storytelling

November 19, 2006

At the Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) annual conference held recently in Kalamazoo (a great city by the way), a former trustee and I had the experience of participating in an oral history project recorded by StoryCorps. This is a new, long-term initiative of CMF in partnership with StoryCorps, Michigan Radio and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University.

For the past four years, the board of trustees of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation has included a member of our Youth Grant Committee selected by that committee with formal approval by our board. They serve for one year when they are in their senior year in high school with the next youth trustee serving as a “trustee in training” attending board meetings as well. Andrew, Katie, Joseph and now Ryan, have served as trustees - complete with all voting privileges including participating in my annual performance review! Each of them has risen to the occasion providing the valuable perspective from a young person still learning about the world (and who isn’t?) and going through the thought process of making substantial decisions affecting life in our community. Information on our Youth Grant Committee is found on our website.

Joseph and I were asked to participate in the telling of our story at the CMF conference recording our conversation for possible future broadcast on Michigan Radio and for the archives of the Johnson Center. StoryCorps records interesting stories about people generally who are related to one another or close friends. While Joseph served as a trustee and has become a friend, we were a tad unsure about what was expected of us when we were seated in front of a StoryCorps staff member in an “impromptu” recording studio set up in a hotel room. Well - - - - as our story unfolded I continued to be so proud of the lessons that Joseph recounted of his experiences as a trustee and a member of the Youth Grant Committee. Such maturity - such perspective - such poise - I was impressed. He is a leader.

His parents, Linda and Edward, while proud of their youngest child Joseph, are also proud of their other two children who are quite accomplished as well. Joseph recently received the Youth in Philanthropy award from the West Michigan chapter of the Association of Fund Raising Professionals and his parents were front and center applauding and honoring their young leader.

Hats off to you Joseph - and thank you to StoryCorps for inviting us to tell the story of how a young man discovered the joy of learning about community needs and helping to distribute close to $70,000 back out to the community. What joy and what learning we all share!