Leavenworth Assistance Center, Inc. distributes funds
by Peggy Bair
Four Leavenworth charities were surprised with large donations Monday as the dissolved Leavenworth Assistance Center, Inc. took the final steps of transferring its donation funds of nearly $1 million.
The LAC director Rose White and president Joseph Dressler made the rounds with each of the non-profit recipients, careful to guard the amount of the donation until it was revealed at each in-person presentation.
The LAC by-laws required that the funds stay with other non-profits within Leavenworth County. Choosing which ones was a thoughtful process by the LAC board of directors.
“At our last board meeting when we had the decision to dissolve, we discussed all of that and went around the table, throwing out ideas,” Dressler said. “I wanted to give a smaller number of organizations a substantial amount that would assist them in their endeavors. And these were all organizations that were struggling. They are all worthy organizations.”
HOPE, Inc., the Leavenworth County Humane Society, Inc., the Alliance Against Family Violence and Horses & Heroes, Inc. each received checks of $225,414.21.
Crystal Blackdeer, director of the Leavenworth County Humane Society, shared her reaction to the donation.
“They came in and said ‘Hi’ and then I walked outside and they said, ‘Let’s go take a picture,’ Blackdeer said. They had the check pointed towards the highway and then they turned the check around and I went, ‘You’re gonna have to give me a minute.’ I had to sit down. I’m reliving it. I have chills.”
Blackdeer said the donation was impactful in many ways.
“It changes our world because we can put some money in the bank and let it make money for us, which we have never, ever had,” Blackdeer said. “We’ve always lived hand to mouth here, always. Now the board has to really decide what we’re going to do.”
Two of the ideas Blackdeer said are under consideration are expanding to put in more dog kennels and making a covered area in the back of the building.
“We keep putting shade cloth on and I’d like a real roof on it so the dogs can go outside even if it’s raining, just to get some air, instead of just walking and putting them right back in,” Blackdeer said.
Don Brown, founder president of HOPE, Inc., was also pleasantly surprised with the donation.
“I knew something was coming but I didn’t know it was that amount,” Brown said. “I was gob smacked. This is going to make a huge impact.”
HOPE Pet Rescue was founded by Brown, owner of Kansas Country Store, 728 Cherokee St., Leavenworth. Brown had opened a cat rescue in 2014 but expanded to a dedicated shelter building in 2019 for dogs and cats. HOPE stands for “Help Overpopulation of Pets Economically.” HOPE, Inc. has three tiers, including HOPE Spay and Neuter, the pet rescue shelter, and HOPE Thrift Store, 101 N. Broadway St., which donates its profits to support the clinic and the shelter. Donations also support HOPE, Inc.
“I don’t want to spend it all in a week,” Brown said. “I want to leave it alone and as needs come up, we’re more capable of hitting them head on and taking care of it. There’s going to be some thoughtful spending because we’re not going to get that much again next year so we better make this stretch out a long time.”
Horses & Heroes, Inc. was founded in 2014 by executive director Julie Baker. The non-profit provides trauma recover through Equine Assisted Therapy. Formerly located in Shawnee, they moved to Leavenworth in February 2023. The program serves military, first responders and their families. The program owns 12 horses.
“The majority of our horses are either rescued from the slaughter pipeline, or they were injured in their previous job or physically incapable of their performance as a jumper or reining horse,” Baker said. “Instead of having them destroyed, we gave them the option to have a different job. For a lot of our police officers and military folks that get injured in the line of duty, that part is really critical because they often times feel like they’ve been put out to pasture or thrown away and feel that sense of loss. They’ve lost their identity; they’ve lost their mission.”
This loss often leads to a high risk for suicide.
“Many of them through the testimonial letters have indicated that they have a plan, they have a date and they have a means,” Baker said. “So, we know that the work we’re doing is literally saving lives. That’s not something that needs to be exaggerated. We do on average of 300 sessions a year and the clients don’t pay. Everything is either funded through grants, corporate sponsorship or private donations like the amazing donation we just received.”
Dressler said presenting the check to Horses & Heroes, Baker shared her gratitude for the timing.
“She said, ‘We were just talking about how we’re going to have to get some hustling to make things work. And then your phone call came,” Dressler said. ‘She said it was like an answered prayer.”
The Alliance Against Family Violence executive director Elaina Crenshaw said that, at first, she was skeptical about the donation.
“When they went through the presentation, they had the check so I couldn’t see the amount because I was standing behind it. When she said ‘225’ and then ‘thousand’ – my knees buckled. My ears were ringing. My assistant was over there taking the picture, and her jaw had already dropped because she was speechless. It took me a full day to even come to the realization this actually happened. Because we have struggled so much in the last six months with the government shutdowns and the pullbacks and restrictions they put on grant funding. It’s been harder and harder to rely on that. So, for this to come in to us at this time, it could not have been a bigger blessing.”