June 30, 2025 • 11 mins
The YES Fund supports Manhattan's youth through after-school programming, creating opportunities for young people and strengthening the community since its founding in 1993 following devastating floods.
• YES Fund originated when community leaders recognized that youth lacked meaningful after-school activities
• Annual campaign generates approximately $300,000 for youth programs across Manhattan
• Supports diverse organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club, the Manhattan Arts Center, and sports programs
• K-State education students volunteer with funded organizations, creating a university-community partnership
• Originally housed at the Manhattan Mercury through connections with the McCormick Foundation
• Now operates through the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation, with major donors providing matching funds
• Campaign runs publicly from July through the first Sunday in September
• Organizations rely on YES Funding as part of their annual budgets for sustainability
Support the YES Fund campaign starting July 7th through the first Sunday in September to help strengthen our community by providing engaging activities for Manhattan's youth.
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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.
Back with the GMCF CommunityHour and today we're going to be
talking about one of our annualefforts that has been around
(00:21):
for really about as long aslonger than it's been around,
longer than the GreaterManhattan Community Foundation
the YES Fund.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It has.
It's been, I think, 93.
93.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
That was kind of one of those things that came into
play following the flood in 93.
That's right.
It still gives me theheebie-jeebies thinking about
that because about this time,you know, 32 years ago we were
challenged.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yep, there have been a lot of kids that have
certainly been supported inafter-school programs Because of
this.
There's quite the story behindall of it and in past years we'd
have Mike Holden come in andkind of tell the story about the
history of this and how it allgot started.
And now Debbie, taking overMike's role as Dean of Education
out of Kansas State, she's kindof followed in his footsteps
(01:09):
and been really good abouthelping go through the grant
process and reviewing all thegrants from the organizations
for sure.
So we appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Her name is Debbie Mercer and she's joining us via
Zoom.
Good morning, Debbie.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, good morning, and walking in Mike Holan's
footsteps is a big job, and Iappreciate his mentorship and
his belief in this community,which was the founding of the
YES Fund.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
How did that get started actually?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
How did that get started actually?
So a group of very dedicatedManhattan community members
noticed that there weren't a lotof things for youth to do after
school and they were dealingwith some behaviors that we
wouldn't want to necessarily seefrom youth, as they were trying
to come up with their ownthings to do and youth didn't
(02:06):
feel like they had outlets.
And this group of communityleaders, very forward thinking,
said we need to address this nowso that we have a strong and
vibrant community, and so thatwas really the foundation of the
YES Fund, that they wantedyouth to be engaged in the
(02:29):
community.
So they started looking at whatthings would students and youth
be interested in doing and howcould we provide the
infrastructure within theManhattan community to allow
those activities to take place.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, let's talk a bit about the YES Fund and some
of the positive impacts thatthey've made on the youth and
community and there are a lot ofexamples, Debbie.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
There absolutely are After school programming in a
variety of areas and fields,from the Boys and Girls Club of
Manhattan to the Flint HillsVolunteer Center.
Lots of sports relatedactivities first tee, girls on
(03:16):
the run, basketball, swimming, astrong connection to the school
system and the their foundationto be able to provide things
through the Manhattan OgdenPublic Schools Foundation to
places like Pawnee Mental Healthand the House Cafe in Ogden
(03:39):
Wonder Workshop.
So a variety of organizationsthat are now mainstays in the
Manhattan community benefit fromYES Funding.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Vern.
Let's talk a bit about the YESFund and how it exists within
the framework of the GreaterManhattan Community Foundation.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, when this first got started, ed Seaton and the
Manhattan Mercury was kind ofthe location where it operated
out of, and that was because ofa connection that he had with
McCormick Foundation out ofChicago.
And that was a connectionbecause of a general that had
been here at Fort Riley in theprocess who happened to be on
(04:18):
the McCormick Foundation board.
And so when there was a needfor funds for after-school
programs, like Debbie said, theyhad done a survey and kids
didn't feel like they had enoughto do after school and so there
was a grant made to thecommunity and then they looked
towards individuals in theorganization to match this, and
(04:41):
so the McCormick Foundation hadput up some money I don't know
what the original amount was,but it was in the $75,000 to
$100,000 range in the latteryears and so they put up that
money, some locals matched itand then the community members
you know gave to it and all of asudden, before you know it, you
get several hundred thousanddollars to do some great things
for after school programs.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So you know, Debbie, this is one of the great
examples in our community.
And you know, when I lived here, prior to this, the
establishment of the yes Fund, Ihad this mindset that if you
weren't part of Fort Riley, ifyou weren't part of Kansas State
University, there really wasn'ta whole lot for you.
And as a parent of a youngchild, just a few years later
(05:25):
that became more and moreapparent that there just didn't
seem to be enough opportunitiesfor youth.
And the YES Fund seems to havediscovered hey, there's not
enough opportunities for youth.
And what's it like to gothrough that process?
You know, you help createthings, like you said.
For example, you know I'm justgoing to say one here Boys and
(05:45):
Girls Club.
How do you come to thedetermination within your, I
suppose, your board or yourcommittee on who benefits and
why?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Absolutely so we go back to the mission of the YES
organization itself of impactingyouth, providing opportunities
for youth that might not haveother types of opportunities,
and looking at a broad array ofoptions so that everyone can
find something in our communitythat interests them and that
(06:24):
benefits them.
So that's why you see such arange, from the public school
USD 383, to things like theManhattan Arts Center, for
example.
So the range is broad center,for example.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So the range is broad , Absolutely.
How do you?
You know you're with theCollege of Education, you have
faculty, you have staff, youhave students?
How do the experiences in theYES Fund, you know, with you
being serving in this capacity,extend over into the educational
, into the intellectual side ofour community?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Absolutely.
So there's strong partnershipbetween Kansas State University
and the Manhattan communityAbsolutely, and teachers are
known as community leaders inManhattan and we want to instill
that regardless of where ourfuture teachers go to begin
their teaching career, and so werequire that every student
(07:28):
going through our program hasvolunteer hours in the community
working with children and youth.
So all of these organizationsthat we've talked about this
morning have opportunities forvolunteer involvement and our
education students, regardlessof where they're from in Kansas
or beyond, volunteer right herein Manhattan to make our
(07:52):
community stronger throughopportunities for youth to be
involved after school.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What are some of your long-term goals for the YES
Fund?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
So many of these organizations in Manhattan rely
on YES Funding as part of theirannual budget, and so making
that as stable and sustainableas possible is important.
So all the people in theManhattan community that give to
the YES Fund are saying webelieve in our community and we
(08:25):
want positive things for ouryouth to engage in after school,
and so that sustainability isimportant, that stability is
important, because each of theseorganizations are counting on
us to fund their activities.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Vern, let's talk a bit about the campaign, because
it officially gets underwaytomorrow.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
The part that will come out of the newspaper will
be this Sunday, and so thecampaign runs publicly from the
July the 7th, I think, or July6th, whatever Sunday is, to the
first Sunday in September.
Okay, all right, so you'll seeit publicly in the paper talking
(09:11):
about all the programs andwhile they support the stories
of how it makes the impact andyou'll see the donors growing
through the summer as it goesthere.
But I do want to give a shoutout to all the $10,000.
(09:41):
Well, as the Master Teacher,the Goldstein Community Fund,
lincoln and Dorothy Deal AdvisedFund, they actually have taken
over the matching grant from theMcCormick Foundation, so they
give $75,000 to this Warden,brenda Morgan, russ Briggs, as
well as Briggs Auto Group, theHowe Family Foundation, ks State
Bank Memorial HospitalFoundation and the Ed and Karen
(10:03):
Seaton Foundation, as well asthe Manhattan Mercury.
So we've had a tremendousamount of support from these
individuals to really kickstartthe grant process.
And, generally speaking, youknow, between the deal funds
that are put up and these$10,000 givers and then the
(10:24):
donations for the summer, weusually get close to about
$300,000 for the year.
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Debbie, any requests that you'd like to send out.
You know we're going to befinding out a lot more.
You know when the ad comes outin the Mercury on Sunday more.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
You know when the ad comes out in the Mercury on
Sunday.
Absolutely.
My encouragement is just tokeep strengthening this
phenomenal community that welive in, and the yes Fund and
the grants that go out to theorganizations that provide
activities and engagement forour youth are so very critical.
So just encourage everyone tokeep making our community
stronger.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
All right, dean Debbie Mercer with K-State's
College of Education here onbehalf of the YES Fund, and that
Vern Hendricks dude is going tostick around here for a little
bit.
But, dean Mercer, thank you somuch, not only for joining us
for the show today, but for thework that you're doing on behalf
of the youth in our community.
My pleasure, thank you.
(11:25):
When we come back from thebreak we'll have gosh.
We got a lot of thingshappening on our calendar, so
we're going to run through thoseand also give you a preview of
next week's show here on theGMCF Community Hour on NewsRadio
KMAN.
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.
Back with the GMCF CommunityHour and today we're going to be
talking about one of our annualefforts that has been around
(00:21):
for really about as long aslonger than it's been around,
longer than the GreaterManhattan Community Foundation
the YES Fund.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It has.
It's been, I think, 93.
93.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
That was kind of one of those things that came into
play following the flood in 93.
That's right.
It still gives me theheebie-jeebies thinking about
that because about this time,you know, 32 years ago we were
challenged.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yep, there have been a lot of kids that have
certainly been supported inafter-school programs Because of
this.
There's quite the story behindall of it and in past years we'd
have Mike Holden come in andkind of tell the story about the
history of this and how it allgot started.
And now Debbie, taking overMike's role as Dean of Education
out of Kansas State, she's kindof followed in his footsteps
(01:09):
and been really good abouthelping go through the grant
process and reviewing all thegrants from the organizations
for sure.
So we appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Her name is Debbie Mercer and she's joining us via
Zoom.
Good morning, Debbie.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, good morning, and walking in Mike Holan's
footsteps is a big job, and Iappreciate his mentorship and
his belief in this community,which was the founding of the
YES Fund.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
How did that get started actually?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
How did that get started actually?
So a group of very dedicatedManhattan community members
noticed that there weren't a lotof things for youth to do after
school and they were dealingwith some behaviors that we
wouldn't want to necessarily seefrom youth, as they were trying
to come up with their ownthings to do and youth didn't
(02:06):
feel like they had outlets.
And this group of communityleaders, very forward thinking,
said we need to address this nowso that we have a strong and
vibrant community, and so thatwas really the foundation of the
YES Fund, that they wantedyouth to be engaged in the
(02:29):
community.
So they started looking at whatthings would students and youth
be interested in doing and howcould we provide the
infrastructure within theManhattan community to allow
those activities to take place.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, let's talk a bit about the YES Fund and some
of the positive impacts thatthey've made on the youth and
community and there are a lot ofexamples, Debbie.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
There absolutely are After school programming in a
variety of areas and fields,from the Boys and Girls Club of
Manhattan to the Flint HillsVolunteer Center.
Lots of sports relatedactivities first tee, girls on
(03:16):
the run, basketball, swimming, astrong connection to the school
system and the their foundationto be able to provide things
through the Manhattan OgdenPublic Schools Foundation to
places like Pawnee Mental Healthand the House Cafe in Ogden
(03:39):
Wonder Workshop.
So a variety of organizationsthat are now mainstays in the
Manhattan community benefit fromYES Funding.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Vern.
Let's talk a bit about the YESFund and how it exists within
the framework of the GreaterManhattan Community Foundation.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, when this first got started, ed Seaton and the
Manhattan Mercury was kind ofthe location where it operated
out of, and that was because ofa connection that he had with
McCormick Foundation out ofChicago.
And that was a connectionbecause of a general that had
been here at Fort Riley in theprocess who happened to be on
(04:18):
the McCormick Foundation board.
And so when there was a needfor funds for after-school
programs, like Debbie said, theyhad done a survey and kids
didn't feel like they had enoughto do after school and so there
was a grant made to thecommunity and then they looked
towards individuals in theorganization to match this, and
(04:41):
so the McCormick Foundation hadput up some money I don't know
what the original amount was,but it was in the $75,000 to
$100,000 range in the latteryears and so they put up that
money, some locals matched itand then the community members
you know gave to it and all of asudden, before you know it, you
get several hundred thousanddollars to do some great things
for after school programs.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So you know, Debbie, this is one of the great
examples in our community.
And you know, when I lived here, prior to this, the
establishment of the yes Fund, Ihad this mindset that if you
weren't part of Fort Riley, ifyou weren't part of Kansas State
University, there really wasn'ta whole lot for you.
And as a parent of a youngchild, just a few years later
(05:25):
that became more and moreapparent that there just didn't
seem to be enough opportunitiesfor youth.
And the YES Fund seems to havediscovered hey, there's not
enough opportunities for youth.
And what's it like to gothrough that process?
You know, you help createthings, like you said.
For example, you know I'm justgoing to say one here Boys and
(05:45):
Girls Club.
How do you come to thedetermination within your, I
suppose, your board or yourcommittee on who benefits and
why?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Absolutely so we go back to the mission of the YES
organization itself of impactingyouth, providing opportunities
for youth that might not haveother types of opportunities,
and looking at a broad array ofoptions so that everyone can
find something in our communitythat interests them and that
(06:24):
benefits them.
So that's why you see such arange, from the public school
USD 383, to things like theManhattan Arts Center, for
example.
So the range is broad center,for example.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So the range is broad , Absolutely.
How do you?
You know you're with theCollege of Education, you have
faculty, you have staff, youhave students?
How do the experiences in theYES Fund, you know, with you
being serving in this capacity,extend over into the educational
, into the intellectual side ofour community?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Absolutely.
So there's strong partnershipbetween Kansas State University
and the Manhattan communityAbsolutely, and teachers are
known as community leaders inManhattan and we want to instill
that regardless of where ourfuture teachers go to begin
their teaching career, and so werequire that every student
(07:28):
going through our program hasvolunteer hours in the community
working with children and youth.
So all of these organizationsthat we've talked about this
morning have opportunities forvolunteer involvement and our
education students, regardlessof where they're from in Kansas
or beyond, volunteer right herein Manhattan to make our
(07:52):
community stronger throughopportunities for youth to be
involved after school.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What are some of your long-term goals for the YES
Fund?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
So many of these organizations in Manhattan rely
on YES Funding as part of theirannual budget, and so making
that as stable and sustainableas possible is important.
So all the people in theManhattan community that give to
the YES Fund are saying webelieve in our community and we
(08:25):
want positive things for ouryouth to engage in after school,
and so that sustainability isimportant, that stability is
important, because each of theseorganizations are counting on
us to fund their activities.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Vern, let's talk a bit about the campaign, because
it officially gets underwaytomorrow.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
The part that will come out of the newspaper will
be this Sunday, and so thecampaign runs publicly from the
July the 7th, I think, or July6th, whatever Sunday is, to the
first Sunday in September.
Okay, all right, so you'll seeit publicly in the paper talking
(09:11):
about all the programs andwhile they support the stories
of how it makes the impact andyou'll see the donors growing
through the summer as it goesthere.
But I do want to give a shoutout to all the $10,000.
(09:41):
Well, as the Master Teacher,the Goldstein Community Fund,
lincoln and Dorothy Deal AdvisedFund, they actually have taken
over the matching grant from theMcCormick Foundation, so they
give $75,000 to this Warden,brenda Morgan, russ Briggs, as
well as Briggs Auto Group, theHowe Family Foundation, ks State
Bank Memorial HospitalFoundation and the Ed and Karen
(10:03):
Seaton Foundation, as well asthe Manhattan Mercury.
So we've had a tremendousamount of support from these
individuals to really kickstartthe grant process.
And, generally speaking, youknow, between the deal funds
that are put up and these$10,000 givers and then the
(10:24):
donations for the summer, weusually get close to about
$300,000 for the year.
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Debbie, any requests that you'd like to send out.
You know we're going to befinding out a lot more.
You know when the ad comes outin the Mercury on Sunday more.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
You know when the ad comes out in the Mercury on
Sunday.
Absolutely.
My encouragement is just tokeep strengthening this
phenomenal community that welive in, and the yes Fund and
the grants that go out to theorganizations that provide
activities and engagement forour youth are so very critical.
So just encourage everyone tokeep making our community
stronger.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
All right, dean Debbie Mercer with K-State's
College of Education here onbehalf of the YES Fund, and that
Vern Hendricks dude is going tostick around here for a little
bit.
But, dean Mercer, thank you somuch, not only for joining us
for the show today, but for thework that you're doing on behalf
of the youth in our community.
My pleasure, thank you.
(11:25):
When we come back from thebreak we'll have gosh.
We got a lot of thingshappening on our calendar, so
we're going to run through thoseand also give you a preview of
next week's show here on theGMCF Community Hour on NewsRadio
KMAN.
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