NORMANITES IN THE SPOTLIGHT

This year’s United Way of Norman campaign features a trio of co-chairs: the Hopper brothers.

Kevin, Brian and Brandon Hopper grew up around the United Way of Norman through their mother’s involvement. After staying at home with her sons, Kathey Drummond went back to work as the director of Helpline in 1985 before moving into the executive director role for United Way. Drummond later joined the Norman Regional Health System, where she retired as vice president in 2011. Her career was spent in the not-for-profit world and this service-oriented life rubbed off on her children.

The Hoppers recalled early memories of joining in their mom’s volunteer efforts, whether that was attending United Way kickoff events or delivering flowers to shut-ins after Sunday church services. Drummond explained that when her family lived in Texas before moving to Norman, she was a Meals on Wheels driver. Kevin and Brian were around 4 and 2 years old, respectively, and would ride with her, one being in charge of getting the food out of one cooler and the other grabbing the dessert.

Drummond said her parents were sweet, caring people who taught her to care for others, and she thought it was important for her children to do the same thing. Now, Drummond sees her sons raising their children to help people, too.

“My heart is just full looking at these three boys, and knowing that they’re sort of service above self, that they’re looking at other people and raising their children that way,” Drummond shared. “So, here we go with another generation of people who will care, which is good.”

All three Hopper children decided to stay in Norman to attend the University of Oklahoma, and so far their college-aged children have done the same. Kevin and his wife, Shelley, have two children, Fletcher and Ryan Paige; Brian and his wife, Stephanie, are parents to Caleb, Claire and Patrick; and Brandon and his wife, Traci’s, kids are named Taylor, Jake and Avery. Professionally, Kevin and Brandon are both commercial lenders, for MidFirst Bank and First United Bank, respectively, while Brian is a partner in a commercial landscape business, Landscapes USA.

Currently, the United Way of Norman funds 39 programs and 27 organizations in the area and serves nearly 60,000 people each year. Because of their mom, the Hoppers have been involved with United Way through direct and indirect ways since they were kids. As adults, Kevin and Brandon have been active volunteers with United Way for several years, while Brian is newer to direct involvement with the organization, joining the Financial Stability Impact Council last year.

“People sometimes want to give a single cause, which I totally respect, and I do give to some specific causes,” Brian stated. “But if you want to impact a community, United Way sees where the greatest needs are among a whole partnership of agencies and specifically targets how to best impact the community.”

For the Hoppers, chairing the United Way campaign together allows them to have a bigger impact. They said they are going to make an effort to have at least two of the three of them at every event and kickoff throughout the year.

The trio started planning in January and over the last couple of months has been meeting with the CEOs of the pacesetter companies that do drives for the United Way. They will continue to meet with coordinators of some other workplace campaigns between now and when the campaign officially kicks off on Aug. 11.

Kevin said their hope is that companies will start running their drives around that same time, and their goal is to wrap up the campaign around Thanksgiving. Brandon added that in the meetings so far, there has been a lot of energy and excitement about the campaign, especially as people are looking forward to being able to be in-person with their employees and to do events again.

During one meeting, a CEO shared that he was going to talk to his employees about if they are someone who is doing well following the COVID-19 pandemic, to be thankful and consider helping those who are not doing as well. Kevin said he wants to encourage others to take a similar approach.

“I want to bring that up as well as we go through this campaign, if you’re somebody that has a job, or you’ve made it through this pandemic and you’re doing well, then we’d love to have you help us give back to those that are not,” Kevin explained.

One approach to donating is Fair Share giving, where people are encouraged to donate either 1% of their annual salary or one hour’s pay each month. Workplace donations were down last year with a lot of people working from home, so Brandon encouraged people to also consider being part of the 110% Club if they are able. The 110% Club donors are the ones who give at least 10% more than they did a year ago.

“We’re encouraged that it’s going to be a good year, and we’re excited about it,” Brandon said. “The other thing I’m excited about is getting to see these two guys more over the next year as we’re doing these events for United Way because I think we’re going to have a blast.” – BSM