All Episodes

May 6, 2025 13 mins

ECM at K-State creates an inclusive campus community through student-driven programming and a mission of "all humans welcome, no strings attached." The organization fosters belonging while addressing important topics like sustainability, community building, and inclusive dining.

• Friday Real Food Lunches provide vegan, gluten-free meals for 20-30 students weekly
• Student-driven programming allows participants to create the community events they want to see
• Retreats focus on practical sustainability actions like creating bee watering stations and native seed bombs
• ECM building at 904 Sunset Avenue serves as both event space and open study area for students
• Organization's flexible structure accommodates changing student populations and interests
• Board involvement provides valuable nonprofit leadership experience and deeper community connection

Want to get involved? Visit ECM at KSU on social media, stop by the building at 904 Sunset Avenue, or check out their website at ecmatkstate.org to sign up for their monthly newsletter with upcoming events.


GMCF

CFAs

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater
Manhattan Community Foundation.
In this episode we feature arecently broadcast segment of
the GMCF Community Hour, asheard on NewsRadio KMAN.
We return with the GMCFCommunity Hour here on NewsRadio
KMAN.
Good morning, it's 1022.
I'm Dave Lewis, and joining usin the program is no stranger to

(00:24):
those that are affiliated withthe Community Foundation in any
way, shape or form.
Mckenna Eilert is here.
You are the GMCF, you know, fortransparency purposes, the
marketing director.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, is that the appropriate title for you here
at GMCF?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I think technically it's director of marketing.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't get the preposition in
there.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yes, so sorry, yeah, it's very specific.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Director of marketing .

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Is that what?

Speaker 1 (00:53):
your business card says yes, it does.
Okay, all right, good.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
And online and stuff like that.
So if you look me up, that'swhat it says.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Okay but you handle a lot of things, including the
scheduling of this show.
But you also are working with agroup called ECM, which we're
going to talk about.
That today, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
No, and ECM.
It stands for Ecumenical CampusMinistry and technically ours
is ECM at K-State because thereis an ECM at KU and they're the
same kind of organization justat different campuses.
So I mean the K-State one isobviously better, because

(01:31):
K-State is better.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Always.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
No stranger to that.
But yeah, I am the boardpresident for the ECM board and
it's been quite an interestinglearning experience.
I've never been one.
I had never been on a nonprofitboard before.
I'm not a stranger tononprofits, but never been on a
board and then I became thepresident and it has been a wild

(01:58):
ride as ECM goes through thingsand I'm learning literally
everything firsthand.
Um, and I feel like I am nowprepared for any sort of
nonprofit board that I am everon Now.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
you just opened yourself up to a lot of
invitations.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, I I don't know about uh invitations but um
maybe when, when I get off thisboard, I might look into more,
but this one's that I'll justsettle with one for now.
Okay, all right, but yeahthat's good.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Well, congratulations , you know, and that's one of
the things when I first movedhere in in 91, um, I met Lori
Bishop, you know, through thework I did at the radio station
and and, uh, she asked me tobecome a part of the RSVP, then
now Flint Hills Volunteer Centerboard of directors and, you
know, and that was a great start, it was a great start to get me

(02:49):
involved in, you know,understanding the nonprofit
world and how things work, andeventually I became president of
the board and you know, andserved in that capacity for a
couple of years and it was athere was a seismic change in
what they were doing during thattime and Lori, of course, you

(03:09):
know, is a driving force behindit.
And you know, I've always beenthankful for that first
opportunity to get involvedbecause it really builds your
community net worth and yourengagement, not so much just in
the nonprofit world, but youknow, you have, I think, a
greater vested interest in thebetterment of the community when
you are involved in a nonprofit.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Definitely and it kind of gives a better
perspective of what you know,what they do every day, what
they're kind of involved in andthings like that.
Like you know, I've always beeninvolved in nonprofit Obviously
I've worked for GMCF butanother kind of level of
understanding of you know thethe process that nonprofits go

(03:47):
through and things like that, sodefinitely a deeper respect for
everybody in the nonprofitfield of what they do and you
know how hard they work.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
So Were you involved in ECM when you were a student?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
I was.
Yeah, I started in 2021 waswhen I first went to like a real
food lunch event and from thereI just kind of attended
everything that they had goingon the retreats.
The real food lunch, they hadsome like gardening events and
some book studies and thingslike that and I personally loved
the community and I loved thethings that they were hosting

(04:21):
and it was very open to.
If there's something that isn'thappening at ECM and you want
to help make it happen, you know, reach out, start planning and
kind of make it your own.
It's not so much a you can onlygo to the things that they have
.
It's what do you want, what dothe students want, which I
really appreciated, because someof the stuff that I wanted to

(04:45):
see on campus wasn't there, so Icould go to ECM and kind of
involve myself there and withother K-State students as well.
But one of my favorite events isthe Real Food Lunch that we
host on Fridays.
Every semester we start thoseup and currently we have a
really great RFL coordinator.
Her name is Campbell and shecooks every week a different

(05:10):
meal for the real food lunch andthey're always so delicious.
So the premise of real foodlunch is that it's vegan and
gluten-free, so it includeseverybody.
So if you have those kind ofallergies, you're more than
welcome to come join us andthere will be food for you and
you don't have to worry about,you know, feeling like burden,

(05:31):
like a burden or anything likethat.
Like we want to make sureeverybody's included and I am
not vegan or gluten-free and itit's amazing food, like it is
delicious.
Campbell does such a good job.
I wouldn't even know that those, those were a thing Like she
finds the best stuff.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Don't feel like you're missing out.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
No, not at all, and I never feel like she does a
really good job of incorporating, like other kinds of proteins
and being super healthy about it, so you're not missing out on a
certain food group.
So you feel unsatisfied whenyou leave, which is honestly
amazing to me, because you knoweverybody's like well, I need
some sort of protein with mymeal and I'm like well, there's

(06:08):
other sources of protein.
But you know, you learn whileyou're at real food lunch,
because you start eating it andthen she starts talking about it
and, um, it's just an amazingevent in my opinion, and you can
stop by and pick up food.
You don't have to stay ifyou've got like class or
something like that.
Um and, but it's just a cutelittle community.
We all sit down and have lunchon Fridays and chat and then we

(06:32):
go off and do our own thing, goback to class, I go back to work
, stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
So I really appreciate it, organization that
really has no boundaries or orguidelines as to what your
belief system is or what your,your sexuality, gender issues,

(07:00):
whatever the case may be.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yes, absolutely.
We, um, our mission statementis all humans welcome, no
strings attached.
Welcome, no strings attached.
So come as you are, you'reaccepted, we're very open.
If there's a lot of ourstudents in our community who

(07:22):
have questions and things likethat and this is a place where
you can ask those questions andnobody's going to, you know,
make you feel bad, make you feeluncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
It's a safe place.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, it's, it's so safe and it's so just.
It's like it's comfortablebeing there.
Everybody understands eachother and, yeah, you don't have
to worry about feeling like youdon't fit in.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Do you have an idea of how many students participate
in ECM activities?

Speaker 2 (07:46):
You know, it kind of ebbs and flows with the seasons
of K-State because as we havegraduating seniors and then we
have incoming freshmen, it'sjust an adjustment each year.
So I would say like on a usualbasis, we have anywhere from
like 20 to 30 students who joinus for RFL on those Fridays
during the semester.
And it I say 20 to 30, they'renot the same Every time.

(08:09):
We've got new students who come.
Maybe somebody can only comeone Friday, but then they come
to other events.
But I would say that's about,and honestly that's about as
many people as we can serve withour space.
So it's good that it hasn'tgotten too much bigger than that
at the moment.
And then for like retreats andstuff, we have anywhere from
usually like five to 15 studentsjoin us for these retreats,

(08:33):
which it makes it a lot morelike meaningful and more of a
community based learningexperience, which makes it just
so much easier to connect witheach other.
And, like for other events,they're very up to who's excited
and the event resonates withthem.

(08:55):
So a while ago we did a bookstudy and there were four of us
who did it because we were allinterested in this one book and
we wanted to get together everyother Sunday and talk about it.
We were all interested in thisone book and we wanted to get
together every other Sunday andtalk about it.
And, um, that was the perfectamount of people in my opinion,
because once you get more thanthat, it becomes difficult to
plan.
Nobody's able to get togetherand then it kind of just falls

(09:15):
apart.
You know, um, but it's, it'swhatever the students want.
If they want to read a book andtalk about it, they get
together and they do itthemselves, and the ECM
building's available for themand we'll buy them all the books
.
That's the kind of situation.
So there's always programsgoing on and ECM.
We want to provide the thingsthat you need for those programs

(09:37):
and then let the students dowhat they would like to do.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
We got about five minutes to talk about the spring
sustainability retreat.
Yeah, it goes fast in here.
You should know that.
Yeah, I forgot it's been awhile since I've been in here.
I know Spring sustainabilityretreat.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Oh yeah.
So I hosted our springsustainability retreat this year
and it was so fun.
We usually have two retreatseach year, one in the spring and
one in the fall, and this yearthe spring one was in Manhattan
and we held it at the ECMbuilding, and part of our theme

(10:12):
this year was pollinate change.
Small actions create big impact.
So basically what we talkedabout what you can do, just as
yourself, in your own daily life, to promote the well-being of
our butterflies and our bees.
So one thing that we heavilytouched on was basically the

(10:38):
availability of water for beesand butterflies, and through
that we created bee wateringstations.
So it's essentially aterracotta pot upside down with
a saucer on top.
We spent some time painting it,talking about the importance of
it and allowing our native beesand butterflies to thrive in

(10:59):
this environment that wecontinue to change and not have
be beneficial for them, and thatwas a super fun event.
Everybody had a great timepainting these and filling them
with rocks, so that way they cankind of put some water in it,
and they can the bees andbutterflies can drink from them.
And then another thing that wedid was seed bombs, and it's

(11:20):
essentially just, you know,blended up paper soaked in water
and native Kansas seeds, and wedid that in the morning and
that was a fun little relaxingthing while we talked about you
know what we were going to dowith the seed bombs.
Where were we going to put them?
Um, we're going to put them inthe ECM garden.
We're going to throw them outthe window when we're driving to

(11:41):
Kansas City, so that way, whenit rains next, there'll be
native Kansas wildflowersgrowing on the side of the road
type situation.
And it was just.
It was kind of great to seestudents having the opportunity
to be creative in almost likechaotic good you know, like they
got excited.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
How can individuals get involved in ECM?

Speaker 2 (12:04):
So we're on Facebook and Instagram I believe it's ECM
at KSU is our handles.
Our website is ECM at kstateorgand we also have a newsletter
that goes out monthly with theevents that are happening and
just updates on ECM in general.
If you go to our website andscroll to the bottom, you could
sign up for that and we alsojust the building 904 Sunset

(12:27):
Avenue you can stop in.
It's usually open for studentsto study in and stuff like that,
so you might meet some friendswhile you're there and we always
like post flyers on the doorsand stuff of the events that are
happening.
So if you want to stop by andjust look there and yeah, if you
want to stop by, our last RFLof the semester is on Friday, so

(12:49):
that's from noon to 1.30.
And we just meet at the ECMbuilding, sit down, have some
food and hang out, so you canjoin us there.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Thanks for joining us and congrats on getting
involved in a non-profit from avolunteer perspective.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, no, it's been great.
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
It's the GMCF Community Hour.
Jim Chinette's going to bejoining us next.
He's with Manhattan Area TechCollege and always excited to
hear what he's got to say,because there's some great
things happening there.
This is the GMCF Community Hour.
You can always find out moreabout the work that is done here
within the foundation on ourwebsite.
Always find out more about thework that is done here within
the foundation on our website,mcfksorg.

(13:28):
Oh and, by the way, if you wantto check out the leaderboard on
Grow Green Match Day,growgreenmanhattancom has all
those details Back on K-Man in amoment with Jim.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

United States of Kennedy
Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.