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October 31, 2009

STEPHANIE SALTER: Another fundraiser, another $30,000; this town knows how

By Stephanie Salter

TERRE HAUTE — As I was walking out of Wednesday’s Power of the Purse luncheon for the United Way, a woman said to me, “You know, for a small city, Terre Haute really does some amazing things.”

You know, it really does.

I am not certain whether well-attended and successful fundraisers is the sort of selling point the city and county dangle before prospective companies and businesses that consider locating in this area, but it should be.

Whatever the cause — the Children’s Museum, United Way’s many programs, the symphony, the Swope Art Museum, breast cancer and other disease research, the Council on Domestic Abuse, Junior Achievement, Chances for Youth, myriad kids’ athletic programs, historic preservation, street and tree beautification — people in this neck of the woods continue to show up and open their checkbooks.

And I mean lots of people, from the local merchants, restaurateurs and retailers who seem never to say no for yet another donation, to the individuals, couples and families who attend every fundraiser they can and buy tickets anyway to events they can’t manage to make.

Wednesday, I realized that this ongoing, generous support from so many segments of the Valley belies a popular belief about the area. It is a belief I heard repeatedly before I moved back to Terre Haute and one I have heard ever since on an almost weekly basis:

This town can’t do anything right.

Bullpucky.

Anyone who stepped foot in the sixth annual Power of the Purse event could see that something dynamic is afoot in this city.

Hundreds of women — 504 to be exact, a sellout — filled the cavernous Hulman Center in the middle of a work day. Each paid $20 for her lunch and most kicked in extra money for raffle tickets to fill out and drop into little buckets for the chance to win specific donated items.

Among other goodies, the items included Colts and Indiana State University gear, children’s toys and books, celebrity chef cookware and — the item over which I salivated — an assortment of fine wines.

The wine collection (which I didn’t win despite stuffing the ticket bucket) is a perfect example of the phenomenon of local business donors. It came from Baesler’s Market, perhaps the gold standard of generosity in this community. Not enough that the market included several excellent reds and whites, the star of the basket was a bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne with two glass flutes.

Baesler’s sells that little trio for $129. Add in the price of the rest of the wines, and that one raffle basket was worth hundreds of dollars — but it could have been won with luck and a $1 ticket.

The business generosity was on further display at either end of the center, where 21 area restaurants spooned and forked terrific food onto the attendees’ plates. If there was a significant local eatery not represented, I can’t tell you what it was. In the north-end line in which I stood, restaurants such as Sushi Umi, J. Ford’s Black Angus and the Saratoga teamed up with the likes of Rick’s Smokehouse, Bit of Britain Tea Room and the Coffee Grounds (for mochas and pumpkin lattes).

Watching the staffs of these many dining spots, who’d already labored mightily to schlep tons of food into the kitchenless big hall, the term “good will” kept coming to my mind. In a crowd like that — it took 15 to 20 minutes from joining a line to being served — a restaurateur can’t possibly hope to reap in future sales what she or he puts out in those few hours.

The restaurant folks did it for the same reason everyone else came together that day: to make their community a better place.

Despite the self-inflicted bad rap on Terre Haute’s cohesiveness and unity, the reality is we have an extraordinary commitment to community throughout this city.

Sure, we have plenty of problems. Who doesn’t? Some people choose to see nothing but those problems, arguing and criticizing at every opportunity and spinning their angry conspiracy theories over breakfast or beers. Meanwhile, though, hundreds and hundreds of folks just keep on keeping on — working, giving, donating, financing, organizing and attending events large and small that benefit somebody else.

The Power of the Purse lunch benefited the United Way’s “Success by 6” program, which provides learning tools and skills to help not-so-privileged kids get a bit of a leg up in life. Thanks to a breathtaking live auction, Wednesday’s lunch raised $30,000 for those children.

Again, the many big-ticket auction items were donated by some entity or person who had been persuaded by a team of local, phone-calling volunteers to kick in for a good cause. There were tickets to the Ellen Degeneres show and to “The Doctors,” expensive handbags and even a package offering a major cosmetic makeover that included Botox and laser treatments.

The biggest money magnet was a spa getaway at the French Lick Resort. With the expert urging of auctioneer Dan Tanoos — schools superintendent and husband of the lunch event’s creator, Claudia Tanoos — the getaway was bid up to an impressive $1,050.

My favorite live auction item, however, was a catered dinner for six at Condit House, hosted by ISU President Dan Bradley and his wife, Cheri. In Terre Haute only a little more than a year, the Bradleys already have established themselves as pillars of the fundraising community. They often open their home to strangers to promote the university and its place in civic life.

Dan and Cheri Bradley get it. They know that the only way to ensure you live in a great city is to personally work to make it so.

At week’s end, after all the counting was done, I spoke with Lori Danielson, an executive at Clabber Girl and the chairwoman of the United Way’s women’s professional business network. She said the small team of donation seekers had begun “beating the bushes” eight months before Wednesday’s lunch.

More than 60 businesses agreed to donate money, goods, gift certificates — or all three, she said. Of some 30 businesses that had pledged hundreds of dollars in donations for last year’s Power of the Purse lunch, only one was unable — not unwilling — to do the same this year.

“Two others actually increased their donations,” Danielson said.

As I mentioned before, don’t let the size of Terre Haute’s population fool you. This town can think — and act — big time.



Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.

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