The dialogue presented within the podcast encapsulates a profound exploration of the significance of community and personal narratives in relation to philanthropy. The conversation is initiated by host Jim Ranft, who, alongside co-host Sarah Gillenwater and guest Heather Bailey, reflects on their shared experiences in Tipp City and the importance of local philanthropy. A salient theme emerges as they discuss the evolution of community engagement, particularly through the lens of generational shifts in leadership. Sarah, being one of the newest board members, offers insights into her upbringing in Tipp City, emphasizing her deep-rooted connections to the community, which have shaped her commitment to local initiatives. The podcast also delves into the personal stories that underscore the act of giving, highlighting how individual experiences and familial histories inform philanthropic decisions. Sarah recounts her family's legacy of generosity, illustrating how these values are transmitted across generations, thus reinforcing the narrative that every contribution is intertwined with personal histories that resonate within the community.

New York may be nice.

Give me paradise.

Give me my own hometown Tip City.

It's really rather small.

Its buildings aren't so tall.

But it's my own hometown Tip City.

Welcome to so Far so Good.

I'm Jim Ranft.

And I'm Sarah Gillenwater.

Every grant has a story and every.

Story leaves a legacy.

Also with us today is our fund development and past president, Heather Bailey, and Greg Enslin, our producer and host from Clock Tower Media.

Thanks to everybody for being here.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So for those of you who have not heard our introductory podcast, our hope with this podcast is to bring the stories of the people behind the philanthropy to the forefront and maybe inspire a few more people to become part of that story.

So, Sarah, you are one of the newest members of our next generation of board members.

We've had kind of an exciting turnover where our demographic has shift to a little younger group.

And so tell us a little bit about you grew up in Tipp City and how you got here and why.

Yeah.

Grew up in Tipp City.

Have never lived outside of Miami county, which astounds people that are not from here.

Like, I can't believe you never left.

You've been outside of the county, though.

I have traveled, yeah.

You've been on an airport.

Never lived outside of Miami County.

Only when she takes the ankle bracelet off.

Are you allowed to Troy for a little bit.

Okay, good.

Yeah.

I didn't know you lived in Troy.

Really?

Yeah.

For seven years.

Well, when we first got married, we.

Our first apartment was in Troy.

Really?

Yep.

Classic.

Hard to afford a house in Tip City.

Honestly, Like, I should have advised.

Got advice from anyone buy it now.

Like, don't live in that house.

But we did.

We rented a house in Troy and then actually we bought a house that Heather ended up buying later on.

Our first house was on second street here until you bought that house.

Later on you and Frank bought the house.

Is that the house on North 2nd?

Yeah.

That the one that was a brothel?

Is this.

That's not the one with.

Is this over here?

And that is not the one with the meth dealer.

Oh, man.

Okay.

That's a different house.

Different house that.

The stories you're going to hear on this podcast.

I tell you, 217 was a tremendous house.

It was excellent.

That's where Zeta.

We brought her home to that house.

Oh, that's nice.

We quickly outgrew it and moved to Troy for seven years.

She always went to Tip schools because he was a Tip City school teacher.

Oh, that's right.

So kindergarten first, second and third.

And then.

But then.

And then we came first.

Yes, we did.

And then I moved back and lived two houses down from Heather on West Broadway Street.

Broadway is a nice street.

It was a very lovely neighborhood.

Is it true there's a tunnel between those two houses?

That's what I heard.

That we could get to each other.

Yeah.

So you could get to each other's houses under that road?

That's what I heard.

If there had been, it probably would have blown up when the Varvels lived there and they had the big explosion.

Oh, that was just before Sarah.

Fred Gillenwater bought their home.

But when we moved in, we did put a gate between our neighbor's yard.

So you could walk straight from our yard through our neighbors and straight to Heather's.

Yes.

Gin and tonic.

And watch movies.

Movie night.

Back patio.

Yes.

The kids were little.

Tell us about Fred, otherwise known as Freddie by some.

Where did you meet Fred?

We met in eighth grade in tip schools.

We were not high school sweethearts, but we did go to prom together our senior year and started dating after that.

Dated for four, got engaged, and the rest is history.

We got married, as we already determined, on the 13th.

On Friday the 13th.

That's crazy.

It was actually crazy.

It is crazy.

And so Fred's had a career change, though, because.

Yes, he was a teacher.

He was actually known by my daughters as the hot teacher.

As a matter of fact, we're not going there, Jim.

There is a website called ratemyteacher.com hot teacher.

Is he on the COVID He's got good reviews.

Okay.

That's what you want.

I'm a little afraid my.

My middle daughter may have sexually harassed him on the trip to Washington D.C. with some off color, like.

Luckily, he doesn't remember that.

He has no recollection of that at all.

He was known as the hot neighbor when he lived on Broadway.

So Freddy's mowing the lawn without his shirt.

Is this about Freddy or is this about me as a board member?

I'm trying to.

Apparently, the direction we're going.

It's about your husband mowing with no shirt on.

And it's sweaty and he's hot.

And then.

Yeah.

I have a mantra for volunteering for anything I do.

It needs to be positive, meaningful, and fun.

And the guy has to have no shirt on.

No, no.

But this is.

This is the fun.

Well, it helps.

It doesn't hurt.

But we have to have fun doing what we're doing because we're not paid.

Right.

This is a all volunteer gig.

And we can't even count how many hours.

We all do.

And we do it because we love our community.

And if we didn't, we wouldn't be seated here.

But we have to have fun while we're doing this.

That would be nice.

Ye.

So you grew up here, but now you are a small business owner downtown?

Yes.

How did that happen?

How did you morph from what you maybe trained for in college to what you're doing now?

So I went to college for graphic design.

Worked in the Nonprofit world for 18 years.

12 In the office, and then the last six as a contractor, freelance contractor.

So picked and choose the last three of that.

I actually worked for Pink Ribbon Good.

As their marketing director.

While I was working there, I started taking classes at the Y and my fitness instructor there.

I love her, so this is going to come out bad.

But was kind of a flake.

And so she was like, hey, can you sub this half of my class?

I got to leave early.

Nice.

And she did it so often, the Y actually approached me, and they were like, can you just take the class over?

Hey, you're here anyway.

Yeah, why don't you just do the class?

You're doing a great job.

We can't get a hold of her.

Her phone's been cut off.

Can you just take care of it?

Started working there and then picked up another couple studios.

Then the pandemic hit, and my clients were like, what are we going to do?

We can't.

Fitness center's closed.

So I said, hey, give me an hour, and I'll get this set up, and I'll just do it online.

So I started teaching online classes out of the living room during the shutdown, and I quadrupled my clientele that way.

And my husband was like, you're not going back to making 25 cents per person.

So one of the studios that I worked at, I was friends with the owner, and she said, I just can't float the rent anymore.

Would you want to take it over?

And so that is how I ended up in the space.

During the pandemic.

The first day fitness centers could reopen was my first day of business, and I've been there six years.

So where is your space?

Right above bodega downtown.

Okay.

Do you get free meatballs?

I get to smell them for free.

Does that count?

The garlic bread would kill me.

Remember when Tip City used to smell like garlic bread every three days in the summer?

They were making the.

They were making the pasta sauce.

Oh, at the Tip Canner, at the Tip Cannery.

And every, every third day it was like marinated.

I think if you grow up here, you don't have as good of associations with that smell.

Every, every eighth day SM horrible.

Like a rotten tomato.

But all summer it smelled like tomato sauce and garlic bread.

And then, yeah, every eighth day you stayed in your house and you never went out.

They had this sludge pit out there in Kyle park and every fall the cross country team had a meet out there and they at one point called it two by the Pooh because it was a two mile.

It's terrible.

It was so funny to see the visiting teams come in and they were like, what is that?

I know as our kids all put Vaseline or Vicks in their nose before they knew.

You grow up here, you're trained to learn how to deal with it.

How is your, how's your business going?

It's going great.

You happy?

When I, when we first opened, I say we because it was a family decision, you know, like are we, are we taking this risk?

He, he, was he in all the classes with no shirt on and is that why so many people came?

No, he had actually just started a brand new job.

He was, his first job outside of teaching.

Worked there a month before the shutdown.

So he was in the house, I was in the house.

The kids were taking school in the house.

That's when we had to make the decision that the house was way too small.

There was not enough room for all of us and it was either add on or move.

So we had to, we had to leave Heather.

But yeah, he said what's the worst that can happen?

We.

We lose everything.

And I was like, well that sounds terrible.

And he was like, it's not really that bad.

Like take the risk.

He supported the risk and honestly it's just been better than I could have imagined.

We have a wonderful community that supports each each other.

I say it's really, I just am there teaching the classes and they all support each other.

They know the hardships, they know the laughter.

They, you know, it's, it's really, it survives because they are just awesome.

And I say they and it can be one person starting a class tomorrow and they become part of they.

I saw a. I was delivering papers the other morning at 9am that's in the morning.

Yes.

I don't like that.

But I saw a gaggle of people running down the street at 8:58 with their rolled up yoga mats and I'm like, I know where they're going.

The 9am is the tardy crew is they.

They get there late, the 5am man.

Sometimes they're walking up the steps with me when I.

There's a 5am yes, sir.

Every day.

Are you joking?

No, 5am and they are my die hards.

They.

They have their spots now.

My 9am I'm coming.

I'm going to be late.

Like, I'm like, it's nine.

We are halfway through the day.

5Am I didn't know that existed.

So demographically, I'm presuming mostly female.

Do you have classes with many men in them Saturdays?

We do have men.

Just Fred.

No, he does not come.

Thank you.

It's mostly women.

The age range is 17, sometimes 16 or younger.

17 To 70.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

So we do have a very large age range and I love that there are so many different seasons of life in the studio and they offer so much to each other.

Yeah.

Can I ask a question?

Sure.

Because I think if I understand correctly, you get up at about 4:30 every morning.

You have a busy day.

I do.

You have a busy life.

But you've chosen to fit the Tip foundation into your life.

And I'm sure that that was a consideration.

Like, how am I going to fit one more thing.

But I think my question is, why did you choose to do it?

Well, Heather, you called me.

Oh, and you told her she had to.

She did not.

Actually.

We had a lovely almost two hour phone conversation.

I should have recorded that.

That would have made a great podcast, actually.

Probably.

I mean, that might have filled our jar a little bit more for swearing.

But again, Heather and I have known each other a long time and our families have known each other a long time.

Our parent, Our parents, well, her parents and my grandparents were very close, so.

My father loved your grandfather Bill.

And her father knew me as a little girl at the Farm Bureau meetings.

And yeah, we have history.

So when she called and she asked me, anytime Heather calls, I know I need to just consider what she's saying.

So she called and I did say I'm not a hard no, but I'm not a hard yes.

I need time to think about it.

I'm very busy.

I had already been asked to come onto another nonprofit board and turn them down.

And so I needed to weigh how that, you know, might weigh out with relationships and things.

And then that very week, my family, who has a donor advice fund, the Lesher Fund, sent out the family email and my mom and my uncle were ready to pass it down to one of us.

We, we need somebody else to be the advisor.

And I thought this is just uncanny.

They had no idea.

I had not talked to any of them about being asked.

And I thought this is probably a sign that I should do this.

And so that I am.

It just made sense for me to be upfront on the knowledge of the grants to know how one, our money could go to work better and two, just be a part of the community that I grew up in.

So fill us in on the Lesher connection.

Your mom, there's a lot of history,.

A lot of history.

So generations back, Leshers are farmers.

They owned a dairy farm over in Elizabeth Township.

My great grandparents did.

Dairy farm is still in our family.

So I think that's really fun.

Bear truck farms that do the organic and raw milk over there.

So my grandparents are Bill and Sally Lesher.

My parents are Marilyn and John Richards.

I remember very vividly as a child, a young child, my mom's dad saying when my ship comes in, you guys will be set.

And I thought what a flippant comment to say because he's a farmer.

But he really did.

He was the millionaire next door.

Like he was the epitome of that.

You know, like to look at him, you would never have thought he's making the correct choices with his money and he's setting his family up and setting his community up.

But that is exactly what he did and he instilled that into us like generosity.

My granny, my mom's mom carried white envelopes in her purse with hundred dollar bills in them.

So when we went out to eat, the server got the hundred dollar bill not on.

She still tipped on her the credit card statement.

That was a bonus.

She, they just instilled this lifestyle of generosity.

You cannot take the money with you so you better put it to work and you better be kind and you better just go give it away like it serves no good to save and save and save if it doesn't go to work.

So I have three siblings, there are four of us and then three cousins that are my mom's nephews.

And now we are kind of in charge of making sure that money is still working in our community.

And it's awesome.

So when, when you and Fred's ship comes in, is it going to be the hundred dollar envelope fund?

We do try like that is still in the back of.

We're not quite to the every meal but we definitely say like do you guys want to be extra generous with this?

Or that was a great service.

Or maybe the server has shared something really personal, you know?

And you're like, hey, let's help them.

Yeah, like that.

We could.

We could change their.

Maybe not their life, but we could change their day.

I know.

So many times that the server has come back in tears.

Just saying, you have no idea how much I needed this today.

That's great.

And, you know, $100 doesn't sound like much anymore.

It's kind of crazy that we live in a time where you spend about $100 every time you leave your house.

Like McDonald's.

Yeah.

I mean, you can't feed a family of four for under 50 at fast casual.

So that a hundred dollars doesn't seem like a lot to us, but it is a lot to a lot of people.

Yeah.

That's a great thought.

So how old are your children now?

My daughter is 22.

Oh, my gosh.

I know what happened.

Yeah.

Good Lord.

Yeah.

And my son is 16.

Okay.

So do you foresee them wanting to come back and live in Tipp City?

I think if given the opportunity, my daughter would be out of here in a heartbeat, but may come back.

I think given the opportunity, my Velcro child of a son would probably stay near me forever.

Yeah.

And I've seen that a lot, you know, because I see a lot of patients now, disturbingly, like, three generations, and they'll be that kid that's just like, I can't wait to go to college in California.

Elsewhere.

Right.

Gotta get out.

And then all of a sudden, they're married and they're gonna have a kid, and they're like, you know, that's not such a bad spot.

Yeah.

I really was the only one that stayed.

Out of all of the siblings, everybody fled.

My brothers first moved to Columbus, then they moved to Florida.

One brother moved to Charlotte after that, the other Atlanta.

I have one out in Seattle now.

Sean is now back probably 10 years maybe, and he had no intentions of coming back.

He just was here for a summer, and he saw just how great it was to be around my parents again.

And he was like, I forgot what it was like to have this relationship.

And so he stayed.

My sister lives in Charlotte.

She cries every time she leaves, but doesn't want to move back.

She cries literally every time she leaves to go home.

Yeah.

There's places you can buy here.

Yeah.

Cheaper than Charlotte, but I am the only one that's been here for the long haul, and so that brings a lot of blessing and a lot of responsibility.

Yeah.

So of the.

Of the leisure fund, you know, meetings that you've had Is there any particular grant you can think of that really like, okay, that fits grandma and grandpa to a T. We've absolutely got to do this.

Yeah.

What is your focus?

Do you have a thought process there with your family of like, we.

If something comes up along this line, we're definitely interested?

Sure.

I think in the past, it wasn't until maybe five years ago that we started really being in the know of where the money went.

I think it was really between my mom and my uncle making decisions, and that was fine for where we were in the season of our lives.

And then, you know, then it became a little more.

Do we all agree with this?

Where's this money going?

My favorite one actually happened, I think, two years ago, maybe three years ago.

And this wasn't directly for honoring my grandparents per se, but we'll talk about this more.

But there are multiple ways you can find where money needs to go.

And my mom and I were sitting down and she was like, we.

We need to donate this money somewhere.

We need to put this money to work somewhere.

And so I texted Lisa Santucci and I said, hey, how would you use X amount of dollars if you got it?

And she, without hesitating, she said, I need this line of books for dyslexic.

Read my dad's dyslexic.

And so we just looked at each other and we're like, done.

Yeah, that's a weird coincidence.

Like, okay, write it and we'll fund it.

So it's moments like that that I think it's either like, oh, my gosh, that was meant to be.

I mean, it happened in a matter of minutes.

It was a quick text, a quick decision, a quick like, okay, that's where the money's going.

Where other times, it's a struggle to figure out, like, what feels like a good match.

So do you just kind of, you know, maybe walk around town, talk to your clients, Kind of all of a sudden, you see, oh, man, there's something going on here.

We could help.

I mean, I don't know how my mom and my uncle were doing it in the past.

I.

For me, especially this being my first year here, having the grants in front of me and being able to read through everything was never presented that to us that way.

And I thought, this is mind blowing.

All these people need money.

Okay, let's just sort through this what feels like the best fit.

I think in the past, we were looking for those little bits of information that, you know, I w. Those.

I wish.

I wish we could do this and Then we were like, okay, let's try to make that wish come true.

But now we do get those grants ahead of time, and we can look through them and see if anything feels like a good fit.

Yeah, I know.

Your mom, Marilyn, had kind of a warm, fuzzy spot for Roger Presley Trail.

I mean, she championed getting him weed whackers and all kinds of things because I think she loved that location and what he was trying to accomplish.

Yeah, yeah.

The Leshers were and are a really community centered family.

I have one great aunt left.

My grandpa's sister is still alive.

She just turned 100 this year.

Wow.

The legacy is thick and the roots run deep.

And so I think it doesn't just honor my grandparents, but the generations before them.

Did we land on what year you think your family on either side actually came to Miami County?

Oh, my mom would know that in a heartbeat.

And she's going to be so mad that I don't know.

Marilyn, we miss you.

She'll be here.

She's yelling at the radio right now.

She totally is.

She's like, you should know this.

I can't believe it.

She's calling you right now.

Family tree.

Every three days, she unrolls the.

You said you have a family newsletter.

Maybe it's time for her to write the.

Write a little date.

There you go.

And she would say, if you get into that, I sent that out, like, I guarantee it's information that she has already given me and I have not.

You've got a gigantic ancestry.com file somewhere.

We do, yeah.

We definitely do.

Both sides.

My husband, she does all of the ancestry for everyone.

That's true.

Because that is a common thread for most of us.

We're all.

Haven't been married to the same Indian princess.

They probably all came out of the same family.

Probably.

We're all related at some point.

So a main reason, Sarah, we wanted to feature you on this early podcast is we're just so happy to have you join the board, have you be willing to come in here and be a co host.

You provide us with the inquisitiveness we need.

You kind of help us stay on the rails.

Also help us keep from, you know, thinking about, okay, I'm this age and these guys are really boring me.

So she's going to keep it relevant.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's part of your job too, Greg.

Oh, God, no, I definitely have the.

Hi, I'm new here.

Name tag.

And a curiosity to know things.

So.

All right.

Well, we want to thank you all again for listening to our podcast.

Thanks again to Greg Enslin and Clock Tower Media, to Heather Bailey for joining us on these early podcasts.

Thanks for listening and thanks for being part of our community.

I'm Jim Ranft.

And I'm Sarah Gillenwater.

Every grant has a story.

Every story leaves a legacy.

Keep listening as we continue sharing the people and stories making a difference.

So far so good.

It's really rather small its buildings aren't so tall but it's my own hometown tip city you know your next door neighbor your friends are always true if you have need of favors they'll do their best for you when you get back home now we never mother ro you'll never get lost so think of the cost when you in your hometown I was trying to settle down I know I hit this town for it's my own hometown.