By KALIN KROHE
Panhandle Post
Eagle Radio in Alliance/Chadron and the Robert E. and Patricia Schmidt Foundation donated $15,000 to the Alliance Recreation Center (ARC) on Aug. 8.
Bob Schmidt, founder and original owner of Eagle Communications, through the Schmidt Foundation, left a legacy for Eagle employee-owners and communities. Bob and his wife Pat believed in giving back to the communities in which they did business, including all media markets across the Eagle footprint in Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. Bob and Pat valued the areas of health care, economic development, the arts and education. The Schmidt Foundation has been honored to give back to communities; everything from college scholarships to local donations, healthcare awareness and equipment, and funding for local small businesses in the area.
"What a legacy from Bob Schmidt," ARC Director Mara Anderson said. "And the story of, you know, starting with one radio station and building and building in it, you know, that kind of chain reaction of sowing good seeds and doing good things in the community; to know he sold [Eagle] to his employees. You know, that just speaks to who he is as a person, him and his wife. And as a team, their donations and their dedication to serving the communities that they service is an honor and a legacy that we are proud to receive."
The $15,000 check gifted to the ARC is the second installment of donations from the Schmidt Foundation. In 2021, the foundation donated $15,000 as well.
"We're so excited," Anderson said. "So, you know, when we come out in April, and we have the Make More Possible campaign and we've got this dollar amount that we've started from and people are thinking, Where did this come from? Well, the seed money that we started this last campaign with was Bob and Patricia Schmidt, Schmidt's donation of $30,000. And so, that is going to be invested in our classroom expansion project that we hope is completed by summer of 2023. Hopefully sooner...working on some details there. But we have all of the funds received that we need so far to complete that project."
"It has been a real pleasure working through this process with our community leaders, local businesses, and the Schmidt Foundation," Nebraska Regional Manager Olivia Hasenauer said. "To be a part of giving back to a community who has given so much to our company, and allowed our Media Center, radio stations, websites, digital and video product suite to serve this area for so many years, is an honor. The Schmidt Foundation will continue to give funding to non-profits in our area, we're so excited to continue on this journey to sustained growth and development in our communities."
The classroom expansion project at the ARC is needed because the youth programs have become so popular. ARC After School serves Kindergarten through fifth grade students year-round.
"I'll just tell you, from my perspective, as someone who receives grants...that I really appreciate in a funder is when the funder is so invested in the community...that isn't so much just writing checks and walking away," Anderson said. "But doing your research, they wanted to find out, how would dollars be maximized in the community. And so, like I said, thanks to Mayor Dafney and to Chelsea Herian at Box Butte Development Corporation, they said, hey, there's some things going on at the ARC that we really think your donation would be worth considering the ARC and what we have going on. And so, in due diligence, they came out, Olivia and Mikala [Toedtli] came out and met and we talked about the capacity issues. It's a much-needed program. We started that answering a decade long gap and after school programming, and we know especially in the climate that we live right now, expanded learning opportunities beyond the school bells. You know, it is so important. It's not just the school's responsibility to educate our children. I feel so passionately about that. And so, when a funder comes in and they want to know how to maximize dollars, especially this foundation with their tenants of wanting to invest in education and wanting to invest in the arts, and economic development, I can think of no better project...no better worthy program to invest in than the children in our community."
Anderson said learning is vital for children.
"It supports a whole family, you know, in being able to provide these opportunities for kids," Anderson added. "And we know, programs like ours, impact an individual's...one child's academic progress. It also impacts their social and emotional development and physical well-being. I mean, it's everything across the board that you could want for a child. And that impact is also that chain reaction that the foundation was really concerned with. Our program keeps kids active. I just finished serving parents of our summer camp. They loved that this program keeps their kids active, it keeps them off the Xbox, off the PlayStation, off the devices, and it puts them into a context and it gives them unique learning opportunities that they probably wouldn't get otherwise. The things that we've been able to do this summer with the kids have been so exciting and so rewarding. You know, we talk about capacity issues, we always at pretty much every season of the year, we've got a waitlist of at least 15 to 20 students. We need to do something about that. And, you know, building outdoor classrooms, which we've done, by gracious donors on on the other side of the state, you know, that helps us during the summer months. But what about during the school year, you know, when outside isn't always an option year-round. This donation that they have given is going to blow open the doors on what we can do capacity wise."