Ashlyn Schultze
March 5, 2024
Data Analytics & Media Marketing
You might ask, what is OCCF? Well, OCCF is the Osborne County Community Foundation. The OCCF is a foundation that focuses on bringing small communities together to grow and succeed, particularly by raising money for schools, hospitals, parks, and other nonprofit organizations.
The Osborne County Community Foundation has made countless impacts on surrounding communities in Osborne County. OCCF has aided our county in replacing the floor at the Natoma Community Library, purchasing new tools for the Downs Fire Rescue team, and renewing the outside of the Marketplace in Osborne. These are just a few of the many things they help with.
So how does the OCCF get the funds and help sustain these outstanding investments in our community? After a little research, I found that they are in partnership with the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. During the month of February, the school districts in Osborne County raise funds for the OCCF. Once they get these funds, the Dane G. Hansen Foundation will match this amount. There are many ways that the school districts raise money, and some of these include class competitions during the school day. The OCCF will also ask for donations from surrounding individuals, businesses and organizations. With their goal being $70,000 for February of 2024, in just two days they had already received $13,245.00.
We know that OCCF partners with Dane G. Hansen, but how did he get all these funds? Hansen originally started his career in 1905 where he worked with his parents in a large mercantile store. Later, he began ranching and raising mules. Back then, most dirt work was done by mules. He was later inspired to get into road and bridge construction. This construction company grew and developed into the largest industry in Logan, Kansas. After the discovery of oil in 1941, he decided to pursue a path in oil development. He then became one of the largest independent operators in Kansas. Later on in life, he established the Dane G. Hansen Boy Scout Reservation at Kirwin Lake, where he gave scholarships to students graduating from Logan High School. When Hansen passed on January 6, 1965, which was his 82nd birthday, he had no family to pass down his businesses. So with his love of children and Western Kansas, the trustees decided to establish the Dane G. Hansen Foundation.
The first talk of an OCCF started with a push from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation (DGHF). In 2016, there was an article in our local newspaper talking about the DGHF giving $50K to other local foundations in our area. Shana Guttery, an original board member of OCCF, thought this could be an amazing opportunity for our community. “After reading that article, I called Nadine Sigle. I knew she had served on the grant committee that DGHF had formed several years earlier in each community. She felt as I did, that this was too big of an opportunity for our county to miss out on and had already been in talks with several others.” With a small group interested in pursuing an idea, they hosted a town hall meeting which was well-attended and led into establishing a county-wide foundation. It was a grassroots campaign that began blooming over the next six months and continues on still today. The foundation is an endowed fund, meaning the donations themselves are not spent, only the interest from those monies.
With the help of our community and generous donors, the OCCF has been able to give out over 200 grants. Shelley Neumann, current coordinator/administrative assistant for OCCF, is most proud of the grants that have helped children in the Osborne community. “As a mom of four,...I love seeing pictures of kids with the robotics kits we've helped with, upgrades to classrooms and playgrounds, library programs...I really loved seeing the YEC competition and the small businesses that the students have been running since then! But if I had to pick one out of all of them, it would be the 'Spot' Vision Screener that the Downs Lions Club applied for. It has been used on hundreds of children in our area to diagnose problems in young children that might otherwise go undiagnosed until too late for correction.” Guttery doesn’t necessarily have a favorite as the overall success of the foundation has been what’s mattered most to her. “The overall concept is so special. It's like planting a whole bunch of cedar trees and waiting for this beautiful windbreak that will protect your cattle and farm for many, many years to come. When those trees are little, you don't realize what an impact they will have in 50 years. That's the same beauty we get when creating a foundation for our county.”
Looking ahead, there are so many things happening in the near future for the OCCF. Neumann is excited for what’s to come. “With those matching funds from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation and our annual Love Your County Campaign, that endowed fund has now grown to over a million dollars in seven years. This past year, the Rothenberger family started the Rothenberger Scholarship Fund with us, and now we have the Osborne County FFA endowment fund, too.” Next up on the horizon for the OCCF is establishing a disaster relief fund, so they can offer aid to our community in case of an environmental emergency.
The Love Our County Campaign window has officially closed for the 2024 year, raising just over $120,000. However, it's never too late to donate to the OCCF. Contact an OCCF member today to find out how you can plant a seed in our community that will grow and develop for years to come!
Sources-
https://www.gnwkcf.org/foundation/occf