The desire to “give back” is strong and deep within all of us who love this place in a special way. This is why the Community Foundation has placed the phrase “give back” at the center of its new mission statement. It is easy to see the profound difference between a sports team with spirit and one without it. The same is true for communities. It is the Foundation¹s role to tend to the spirit of Door County. Some say that gratitude is a natural human response to beauty. It is easy to see, then, why gratitude is such a strongly felt dimension of the spirit of Door County. We nurture that spirit of gratitude. Out of gratitude we “give back.”
When you “give back” through the foundation, you also are “looking forward.” The Community Foundation holds Door County’s future in strong hands. Like a parent we protect its future with caring and foresight. By its very structure, the Foundation makes sure that each individual gift continues to give in a vital way, year after year into the future. Grants go to human needs, the arts, the environment, education and other charitable causes. There is something in each of us that wants to be immortal. We want our gifts to keep giving after our own lives end. People give to capital fund drives for new buildings because they feel these gifts will endure beyond them. But even buildings and memorials have a life span that is limited. The Community Foundation’s life is unlimited, and the grants it will make the grants it will make every year will be alive, touching and sustaining the lives of people, organizations, the land and the water of Door County. Tom Torinus
Board of Directors, Retired
Door County Community Foundation
