When you know the answers, which are at the end of this article, it becomes quite obvious that we simply could not accomplish all that we do without valuable help. If you’re interested, now is the time to get involved as we begin a new fiscal year July 1 and kick off our next campaign August 23.

Some of the changes we are excited to report for the coming year include our new Executive Committee leading our board. These members are: Tim Woodard, President (Commerce Bank); Brandy McIntire, Vice President (KBSI/Fox23); Jane Myers, Treasurer (The Bank of Missouri), and Quantella Noto, Secretary (Southeast Missouri State University). These volunteers devote a minimum of 4 hours a month to our organization, and we are grateful for their leadership.

We also are forming an Advisory Council of area representatives from the four counties we support who are knowledgeable in each of our focus areas—Education, Income, and Health. We won’t list all 24 of them here, but they include education administrators, city leaders, members of partner agencies we support, and former board members. Information from this group will be instrumental in guiding our Strategic Plan...