Grant Recipient Stories

Set in the heart of Wisconsin’s Fox Valley, the Trout Museum of Art (TMA) is a uniquely community-focused organization committed to inspiring and connecting people through creative experiences and the visual arts. The Trout is an innovatively designed gallery that hosts 12-15 exhibitions each year from local, national, and international artists. It’s also an educational resource providing studio classes and workshops led by professional artists and designed to give adults, teens, and kids opportunities to explore and engage their creativity through art. The Trout also facilitates community engagement through unique neighborhood events like Art at the Park, Finders Keepers (a year-long multi-city art hunt), Artist in Residence, and special partnership programs that create opportunities for people to process personal and emotional challenges through artistic engagement. “Art is a vehicle for healing,” notes Frankie Gilboa, TMA Development and Stewardship Manager. “Art helps you tap into the most human part of yourself by thinking creatively, learning, making tools for yourself.”

In 2024, Fox Cares Foundation provided a grant of $3,500 to support SPARK!, a free engagement art program for adults living with memory loss and their care partners. Led by educators trained to work with elderly populations and others experiencing memory loss, SPARK! gives participants a shared visual art experience that engages creativity, heightens mood, and fosters feelings of connection with the world around them. Art projects also give participants a means of communication through self-expression. SPARK! also benefits caregivers by creating a new level of connection with their loved ones, and creating a source of support from others facing similar challenges. The program serves around 20 participants per session, three times per month, with Fox Cares funding covering the costs of the educators, project materials, and refreshments. “We appreciate Fox Cares’ funding,” Gilboa notes, “because it enables us to give people tools to make their memory loss experience less scary and more manageable.”

The Golden House story begins in 1979 with the Brown County Task Force for Battered Women, an all-volunteer 24-hour helpline dedicated to helping domestic abuse victims quickly find safe places to stay. Responding to growing local needs, the agency was renamed the Family Violence Center, Inc., and began offering support groups, counseling, and children’s programs in addition to urgent shelter placement. The agency’s first permanent shelter came in 1984: a five-bedroom home donated by Thomas Lutsey, owner of Gold Bond Ice Cream, and named “Golden House.” The agency has grown into a comprehensive domestic violence program offering free and confidential services focused on safety, support, housing, and prevention education. The name was changed to Golden House, Inc. to reflect the organization’s positivity and pay tribute to the unwavering support of the Lutsey family. Today, Golden House operates from its newly built family residence and outreach facility providing housing, dining, and community spaces. Each year, Golden House responds to almost 12,000 helpline calls, shelters over 400 individuals, and provides over 5,000 services to over 2,500 clients.

In 2023, Fox Cares Foundation provided a $5,000 grant that was used to support a critical element of the shelter’s dining service: the Culturally Specific Foods Program. Developed to support the deep cultural traditions of the communities they serve, this unique program keeps people from having to choose between their heritage and their well-being. “It’s not something people ask for,” notes Development Director, Dina Borremans, “but it has a huge impact providing comfort that helps them feel better about staying in a place that’s safe for themselves and their children.”

BEAMING, Inc. is a unique kind of ranch, dedicated not to corralling cattle but, instead, to creating opportunities to experience the life-changing effects of interacting with horses. BEAMING was founded in 2004 by an occupational therapist and a group of horse enthusiasts who wanted to help veterans and children with physical, cognitive, and behavioral disabilities discover a better quality of life. Since introducing Wisconsin’s first equine-assisted program for veterans, BEAMING has developed a range of programs designed to enhance the quality of life for community members facing unique challenges. In addition to expanding support programs for veterans, BEAMING offers programs for individuals aged four years old and up living with physical, cognitive, and emotional disabilities; people with dementia and their families; individuals and families affected by suicide, cancer, and other crises; people searching for solace, support, and self-efficacy; and troubled and hurting teens in need of counseling, guidance, and emotional wellness. In 2024, BEAMING provided over 4000 life-changing equine-assisted experiences.

Fox Cares Foundation provided a grant of $2,160 to support BEAMING’s “Community Arts Network for Teens Empowering Resilience” program. Known as CANTER, this powerful program engages at-risk teens in an equine-assisted environment that provides guidance and encouragement to create art as a form of self-expression that reveals their talents and improves their emotional wellness. A powerful combination of counseling, peer support, and mentorship, BEAMING CEO, Katie Samuelson describes CANTER as providing activities and tools teens need to strengthen themselves. “In 2024, CANTER benefitted 58 teens from throughout the community,” Samuelson continues, “by helping them build interpersonal connections and identify their own, and each other’s strengths.”

In 1989, a group of community leaders started the Ecumenical Food Pantry as a way for Oshkosh area residents to overcome food insecurity. Recognizing the growing need for this critical program, Oshkosh area community members collaborated to transform the organization into a new non-profit organization named Oshkosh Area Community Pantry (OACP). OACP distributes over two million pounds of food to over 30,000 households or over 71,000 guests annually. Additionally, OACP works with Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), while supporting a “School Pantry Program” through the Oshkosh Area School District providing healthy snacks (fruit, fruit bars, granola bars) to approximately 4000 students per week.

In 2024, the Fox Cares Foundation provided a grant of $5000 to support OACP’s Kids Corner, a unique initiative that allows children ages 2-17 to “shop” in their own grocery area. Guided by OACP staff, children learn about nutrition (based on MyPlate principles) and foster a sense of confidence in their ability to make healthy choices. Additionally, Kids Corner shoppers can take home books and activities that nurture their knowledge of healthy foods. Kids Corner serves an average of 200 children per month.

DePere Christian Outreach began in 1990 with eight area churches working together to create a thrift store to provide low-cost clothing and household goods to community members facing financial challenges. In 2008, the group started a food pantry in the basement of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church to help low-income and in-need community members provide food for their families. In the years that followed, the organization built a new facility on the church grounds. Today, the DPCO Food Pantry provides pre-packaged cartons of canned and dry foods along with meat, eggs, butter, and milk to over 65 families (approximately 150 clients) each week. Additionally, DPCO partners with Feeding America, WalMart, KwikTrip, and Starbucks to stock a “free choice room” from which clients can choose additional items like prepared foods and meals and seasonal produce.

In 2024, the Fox Cares Foundation partnered with Fox Communities Credit Union to add a non-perishable food collection drive to the 2024 Bike to the Beat event. DPCO Food Pantry was one of the event’s first recipients, receiving enough food to feed a family of five for an entire week. “There’s no end in sight of where there’s going to continue to be needs in our community,” notes DPCO Food Pantry Outreach Specialist, Doug Bergan. “We’re very appreciative that Fox Cares was thoughtful enough to think about De Pere Christian Outreach.”