Foundry Magazine | Spring 2020

SPRING 2020

lincoln, ne

magazine

Give to Lincoln Day: Helping Lincoln Grow

FOUNDRY PHOTO ALBUM

May 28th marks the ninth year of our city's giving day

We are celebrating five years of giving back to our community

PENGUIN PROJECT CONNECTS THROUGH THEATRE Lincoln Community Playhouse creates a safe space for people with special needs

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 staff Graphic Designer Jordan Geisert Editor + Contributor Olivia Layne Contributors David Bartle Evan Dondlinger Community Builder Randy Hawthorne Chief Operating Officer Jesse Bergman

FOUNDRY PHOTO ALBUM We are celebrating five years of giving back to our community. Join us as we look back on our journey.

by Randy Hawthorne

7 Give to Lincoln Day: Helping Lincoln GrOW May 28th marks the ninth year of our city's giving day.

by Olivia Layne

9 PENGUIN PROJECT CONNECTS THROUGH THEATRE Lincoln Community Playhouse creates a safe space for people with special needs.

by Evan Dondlinger

13 LEADING THE GOOD LIFE Highlighting our Lincoln difference-maker this quarter.

by David Bartle

LETTER FROM THE FOUNDRY STAFF Dear friend, We know things have been pretty strange lately. For most of us, the most exciting thing we do all week is a run to the grocery store where we can finally see the eyes of some new faces ― from six feet away of course.

We miss seeing you in the shop and the coworking space, and we can’t wait until “unprecedented times” can go back to “precedented times.” But until then, know that our community is still going strong, even if we can’t see it.

2020 is a special year for us at The Foundry as we celebrate our 5th Anniversary! We wouldn’t be where we are today if we didn’t have so much support from people like you.

Check out the spread on our anniversary celebration for how you’ve helped us build the Lincoln community.

From now until May 28th, you will be able to donate to any of your favorite local nonprofits through Give to Lincoln Day. We know there are many great organizations you can support! We’ve appreciated your help in keeping The Foundry as an affordable option for local nonprofits, and we hope that you keep us in mind this year.

These times have been hard for us all, and your generosity will help us to be able to continue our mission to give local nonprofits a place to meet, work, and grow.

To help out our community, go to www.givetolincoln.com/nonprofits/foundry. Gifts of any size are appreciated.

We can’t wait to see you again! Stay healthy and safe, we’re gonna get through this.

THE FOUNDRY STAFF Kaitlyn, Jesse, Jordan, Olivia, & Randy

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FOUNDRY PHOTO ALBUM

by Randy Hawthorne In olden times when we could gather in groups, you could have counted on us celebrating our 5th anniversary in the true Foundry Style—building community. The first five years of a humans life are the most formative. The Foundry’s first five years have certainly been impressionable on Lincoln.

We’ve seen hundreds of nonprofit professionals find their place at The Foundry, if for just a meeting or to call us home. We’ve even learned how to make a latte. We have met so many interesting humans doing amazing things. We’ve guided them from known land-mines of the nonprofit sector. We’ve grown them to be on their own.

And just like humans continue to morph and adapt to be the best version of ourselves, The Foundry will too. And once it makes sense to be together as a community, you can bet that celebration is happening. Please enjoy these photos we put together to celebrate five years of building community.

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A volunteer crew paints The Foundry coworking space in early 2015.

Randy Hawthorne cuts the ribbon to open The Foundry on March 25, 2015.

The Foundry staff's favorite game, "Spot It!".

National Hug Your Boss Day in September 2017.

The Foundry staff and members celebrate Halloween in 2019.

Members and staff enjoy a meal together for Thanksgiving.

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Jesse and Randy give the "thumbs up" with a couple of our members.

The team runs The Foundry booth on Give to Lincoln Day 2019.

The Foundry Coffee Bar is open on March 22, 2019.

Our community enjoying the ribbon cutting party.

Randy and Mick take the opportunity to test out the new yellow outdoor seating.

Shop Manager, Kaitlyn, dresses up as Edna Mode from the Incredibles for Halloween.

Our Foundry sign is installed and looks amazing!

Randy Bretz enjoys a cup of Foundry coffee, he's a regular in the shop.

Cole shows off his barista skills while sporting a pair of silly glasses for Halloween.

An Irish band performs on an open mic night for our patrons.

A group enjoys a drink and each other's company at our community table.

A button with our favorite phrase, "Lincoln, I love you."

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Give to Lincoln Day:

Helping Lincoln Grow

by Olivia Layne

Every year, for one whole day, Lincoln comes together to support their community in ways they need it most. Community giving days have been on the rise for a few years now, and ever since 2012, Lincoln has had one of their own.

It took about six months from idea to launch, and the staff of the Lincoln Community Foundation couldn’t wait to get started.

“The staff and a couple of board members were really excited about bringing a giving day to Lincoln,” said Michelle Paulk, the Vice President for Community Outreach at Lincoln Community Foundation.

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Many of us reconnected with the humans who have been living under our roof and maybe had dinner together the most we ever have.

But, not all of us had this opportunity. Some new normals involved major stress and anxiety. Some who were self-sufficient and making it on their own suddenly found themselves standing in lines for help they thought they’d never have to ask for.

Give to Lincoln Day is always an important day for our local organizations, but in the wake of the pandemic, it’s even more essential.

Rightfully so, the nonprofit sector in our community turned its attention to our immediate needs. The Lincoln Community Foundation took the lead and started the Lincoln COVID-19 Response Fund. Several of the community members we can always count on came through again to give. A group of community members, led by our own board member Bryan Seck, has granted hundreds of thousands of dollars to those causes on the front lines.

Much, if not all, of our attention as a community for the past several weeks has been focused on

This virus has denied everyone of some events they were looking forward to, but it can’t take away Give

Thanks to the Lincoln Community Foundation, Give to Lincoln Day is still going strong and growing as time goes on. In its first year, it raised around $1.3 million, and just last year it raised $5.6 million.

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COVID-19. We collectively hit the pause button on our busy lives. Society took a deep breath, stopped, and just took notice. What a perfect time too.

to Lincoln Day. Thanks to the Lincoln Community Foundation for taking the lead once again to head up the largest match fund ever of $500,000. From now until May 28th, you can give to your favorite nonprofit in our community and they will get a portion of that match.

“We haven’t set a goal for 2020 since it’s a different year with the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Michelle Paulk of LCF. “But we are hopeful that donors will support the causes they care about through Give to Lincoln Day this year. It’s an event where everyone can be a philanthropist, and gifts of all amounts are meaningful to our local nonprofits.”

This year more than ever, your nonprofit community needs your support. Think about donating to your favorite nonprofits and not just the front line organizations. Our community is going to need to band together to get us through this “new normal.”

People know how much local organizations need their support right now, and Give to Lincoln Day is a perfect way to show that. “I think our community will show up and exceed expectations,” said Randy Hawthorne, Executive Director of LAUNCH Leadership and Community Builder at The Foundry.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Give to Lincoln Day Totals by Year

$5.6

Dollar Amount in Millions

$4.6 $3.7 $3.3

$3.1

$2.7 $2.1 $1.3

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

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PENGUIN PROJECT CONNECTS THROUGH THEATER

by Evan Dondlinger

The Lincoln Community Playhouse is providing a unique experience for kids and teens with special needs through their program called Penguin Project.

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Lincoln Community Playhouse and Penguin Project Executive Director, Morrie Enders poses with some artists

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“Penguins may not be able to fly, but they can do a lot of amazing things that birds can’t.”

The Penguin Project is a program run through the Lincoln Community Playhouse that helps kids and young adults with special needs spread their wings through theatre.

The Penguin Project got its name because “penguins are birds with disabilities,” but they can still do amazing things. Though the program started in 2001, the Lincoln chapter was created in 2014 and has been touching the hearts of everyone involved since ― cast, crew and audience.

The original Penguin Project was created in Peora, Illinois by Dr. Andy Morgan. Morgan was a pediatrician with a love for musical theatre, so he combined the two to give kids with special needs a taste of the performing arts.

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Morrie Enders, the executive director of the Penguin Project, has been putting on one show per year since 2014, and has brought shows like Beauty and the Beast Junior, Annie Junior and High School Musical Junior to the Lincoln Community Playhouse stage. These productions are put on by the artists, kids with special needs with ages ranging from 10 to 22 years-old, with the help of volunteers, known as mentors by the cast.

Artists with autism, blindness, or those with a wheelchair have all been able to participate in shows, and this past year, the Penguin Project had their first artist with a hearing impairment.

Auditions are held in February, and they rehearse until their debut in June with the

final product put to stage. The show this year, Willy Wonka Junior, was cut short and had to be canceled due to safety restrictions with the virus. But, Enders said he hopes they’ll be back on track next year for another show.

Throughout the years, the Penguin Project has created many incredible moments for its participants. In their production of Little Mermaid Junior, there was one artist with autism who was playing Triton, and he was severely afraid of touch. At the end of the script, Ariel is supposed to hug Triton, but Enders and the other mentors had decided it wasn’t essential, and he didn’t even discuss it with the two. Towards the end of the production, the artist playing Triton became so comfortable with his cast, that he went up and hugged Ariel in that moment. There are quite a few of these “little miracle moments,” as Enders describes them, such as nonverbal kids being able to speak up more ― and more fluently ― after being surrounded by so much love and care allows them to be more comfortable with talking.

These miracle moments aren’t just reserved for the artists with special needs. Being in such a supportive environment and seeing the cast members grow has made lasting impacts on

the mentors. Enders said that, by the end of these shows, mentors are able to “come into a room full of people with special needs and see the people first,” not just their disability.

Enders said that these mentors obviously come in as very giving people ― volunteering their time for a good cause ― but he thinks that they come out much more compassionate and loving. Another miracle moment Enders witnessed was when a mentor was working with an artist who was hard of hearing, and they said they wanted to learn sign language to be able to communicate with their artist.

The Penguin Project has made a huge impact on everyone involved and it has given people a place to express themselves without judgment. Elizabeth Blanker, an artist who participated in the CWCT Penguin Project in 2016 said, “It’s magical, your program, how it changes people and brings us all together into something like a family. You don’t judge me, you’re not hard on me, and you care.”

You can read her story and many other testimonials on The Penguin Project website at penguinproject.org.

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by David Bartle

Leading the the Good Good Life Life Leading

It’s incredibly important that members of our community be recognized for all the good they do. Of course, they wouldn’t dream of recognizing themselves, so we’re going to do it for them. Each quarter, The Foundry will recognize an outstanding leader from the nonprofit community to be featured. This quarter, The Foundry spoke with Shams Al-Badry over the phone to talk about her community involvement efforts.

Shams Al Badry Over the past six years, Shams Al-Badry has been dedicated to community development, whether in her hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, or across the country.

After moving to Lincoln at the age of two from a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia, Al-Badry has made an impact in Lincoln through her organized volunteering through organizations or by herself, all while being a full-time academic advisor for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Education and Human Services and a graduate student pursuing a master’s of applied sciences in community development.

She served as a board member of both Lincoln’s YWCA and Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Lincoln, and she served on a subcommittee for the Lincoln Public Schools’ Superintendent’s Facilities Advisory Committee. Additionally, Al-Badry was appointed by Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird to serve on a City-County Planning Commission.

This sometimes meant Al-Badry went straight from her 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. advising job to a 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. board meeting. It’s a lot to handle for one person, so she was able to work out a schedule with her supervisor while working from home in order to attend planning commission meetings every other Wednesday.

“To me, that was something that was important is to have a voice in that room,” she said.

She recently stepped down from all of these positions, except the commission, as she is getting married and moving to Michigan later this summer.

might not be seen as traditional leaders — to see if they're interested in future participation.

“It was really daunting to kind of see how we weren't supporting our students past the classroom,” she said.

“I like to think that I'm a connector a lot of the time,” she said. “Connecting people who don't have the same social capital as yourself with one another is really important.”

After teaching in the Kansas City area, AlBadry moved back to Lincoln and became an academic advisor, and later started pursuing her master’s degree. For Al-Badry, coming back home to Lincoln meant being a part of the community that helped shape her.

She recalled a situation when she helped organize a MENASA (Middle East, North African, and South Asian) community forum at Lincoln North Star High School, where she and other organizers invited Lincoln City Council members and LPS board members to speak about housing, employment and education.

“It was the first time we've ever done something like that,” she said. It was so amazing to kind of see some of our elected officials, even though the Middle Eastern community doesn't make up a big voting chunk, they were still willing to come out and speak to the community.”

Al-Badry said that they had also invited the Women's League of Women Voters to help people register to vote.

“Especially if you think about the backgrounds that a lot of refugees come from, voting isn't something that they typically do willingly or are able to do,” she said. “So it was very beautiful.”

According to Al-Badry, her nearly two years teaching in the Kansas City area with Teach for America helped inspire her to pursue a graduate degree in community development.

Prior to her teaching experience, she said she used to think of education as an equalizer.

To her, community involvement means contributing to the success of others, similarly to how other people contributed towards her success, as well as elevating voices of marginalized people.

“Unfortunately, once I was in the classroom,” she said, “There were a lot of issues that were affecting my students and it wasn't just in the classroom, it was what was happening at home”

“It's as simple as just bringing people along with you,” Al-Badry said. “And I think that's something that's overlooked.”

According to Al-Badry, many of her students grew up in low-income families and she was concerned about the lack of support, such as adequate housing or employment opportunities and educational courses for their parents.

She said that when she attends workshops, she’ll occasionally bring a couple people within the Middle Eastern community with her — that are strong advocates but they

“I want to be part of the community that helped build me and helped support my family when they first arrived in the United States,” she said. “I didn't realize how lucky [my family] was, being in Lincoln, until I grew older and realized the different social services that were provided to myself and my family.”

According to Al-Badry, these included educational opportunities available through Lincoln Public Schools and her scholarship to attend UNL. “And all of those opportunities typically aren't really provided to a lot of students who have my background,” she said.

Nationally, Al-Badry participated in the New Leaders Council’s 2018 cohort, where she attended a six-month educational experience to develop tools to better off her community. New Leaders Council (NLC) is a 501(c) public charity dedicated to educating young leaders and helping them connect their activism with their communities and workplaces.

After participating in the 2018 cohort, AlBadry helped co-organize NLC’s MENASA caucus with the purpose to educate and empower young leaders and the national NLC community, by focusing on issues and policies that directly impact the MENASA community in the U.S. Despite moving to Michigan, Al-Badry said she will always be a Nebraskan.

“The people here are truly invested in the success of their neighbors and the success of others,” she said. “People say that about a lot of different places as well. But I think for me personally, just seeing how much work we've done in the past few years, and how much work the city's willing to continue to do.

I think that's truly beautiful.”

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Give to Lincoln Day is May 28th!

We know there are many organizations you can support in our great city! Please consider The Foundry on Give to Lincoln day.

With your help we can continue our mission to give local nonprofits a place to meet, work, and grow.

Make your gift today at givetolincoln.com/nonprofits/foundry.