- This month on The SPARK, our theme is "A Home for Inclusion".

We'll learn about a women's volunteer organization providing advocacy and support to enhance the quality of life for children and their families in our community, a nonprofit creating homes that strengthen independence, and an organization creating a recreational destination for individuals with disabilities and special needs.

We'll also share a special moment from our Spark Awards 2023.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity, and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

- (male announcer) Additional funding for The Spark is provided by United Way of the Mid-South, EcOp, The Memphis Zoo, and by My Town Movers, My Town Roofing.

- Have you ever been excited by a new idea?

Inspired by watching someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way, so we can learn and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park, and this is The SPARK.

- They're a women's volunteer organization providing advocacy and support to enhance the quality of life for children and their families here in our community.

We're here with the 2024 President of Les Passees, Karyn Whittington, over 110 year legacy.

Give us some history for Les Passees.

- Yes, and that was basically our mission statement.

That is what we're here to do, is to support the children of Memphis families, but mostly, the children is what we're here for.

And it's looked different.

We have been loving Memphis for over 100 years, and when we first started in the early 1900s, our efforts were with the war, making bandages for soldiers, and then we saw there was such a need for help with tuberculosis.

It was such an epidemic.

And so we not only worked with children with TB, but their mothers and also anyone affected by it.

And then in the 1950s is when we really found our sweet spot in working with cerebral palsy.

And we built a facility that really was there for about 50 years.

And we not only worked with children with cerebral palsy, but we worked with adults, the families, and then it became more special needs oriented.

So, really, that's where we were for a long time, is working in that genre of help.

But the last couple of years, we've been more on a grantee basis where we have other nonprofits in town come to us with their needs, and the money that we raise, we select which programs they come to us with.

And that's what we've been doing since 2022.

- Let's talk about one of the programs that's unique to Les Passees, "Les Passees Kids on the Block".

So talk about that program.

- Yes.

Our funds also help fund "Kids on the Block".

And in the 1990s, about 30 years ago, we adopted this program and it was started by an educator who really wanted to be able to talk to children on their level about children with special needs.

She had had a handicapped student and felt like kids were scared, they didn't understand.

So she basically made a wheelchair out of PVC pipe and had a life-sized puppet.

Our puppets wear like a 4T, four toddler clothing size.

And started talking to her kids with this puppet.

And it grew from there.

It's actually a national franchise that we became involved with and we have just kept it ever since.

And they're very special part.

And for a while, they were really busy working at the Les Passees Children's Rehabilitation Center that we had, but then they branched out and have been going to schools and libraries.

Hundreds of thousands of children have seen their performances since they've been part of us.

And our executive director, Aliza Moran, is amazing and creative and she's just found all sorts of new ways for the children to communicate with children, with the puppet to communicate with children, with things that are going on.

Used to be we would do fire safety, but now we do bullying.

And then even during the COVID time and talking to kids about, you know, their fears.

So it is growing by leaps and bounds.

So we're real excited.

- Let's talk about Les Passees Stock Exchange, a big opportunity for all of us to plug in.

So go ahead and dive in on the Stock Exchange.

- So this is how we make it all happen.

Stock Exchange is an upscale consignment, home goods, whether it's furniture, lamps, rugs.

We even have furs and jewelry, china, crystal, silver.

And we have been doing this since 1987 and it is a 70/30 consignment-type situation.

So 70% goes back to the consignor, and then that 30%, that's what helps fund our grantees and our "Kids on the Block" program.

And it has grown this year.

We have well over 20,000 square feet of items for sale.

This is just a little bit of it, but it's real exciting.

It's a lot of fun, it's a lot of work, but we love it.

And it's not what we're known for, but it's what makes us who we are right now because that's how we're able to raise the fund.

And like we like to say, it's shopping for a cause, and who doesn't love shopping?

- Absolutely.

Talk about the timing of it.

- So we start early in the year trying to find a location.

Like, this year, we were so blessed that the Bells Corporation was able to give us this beautiful facility to have it in.

So once we find our location, that's when all the hard work starts, is setting everything up.

Because it's like relocating a business every year.

And we opened to the public on September the 6th, and we had a preview party that evening before, which people can purchase tickets.

And we do it that way every year.

And then we will actually be open until the end of October, October the 31st.

And then we have a 50 and 75% off sale November 2nd and November 3rd.

- So for women who are interested in joining Les Passees, what does membership look like?

- Oh, so we have membership parties in the fall and you can go to our website, lpmemphis.org, for more information.

But being a member is fun.

It's a commitment.

There's work involved, but it's wonderful to be working side by side with like-minded women who, the same thing, they just wanna give back to the community.

And we have women that work, we have women that are older, younger, women that don't work, people that are passionate for it.

We just, we all find a way to make it work.

And within it, we all find our gifts and our strengths.

So some are all about Stock Exchange, some like to help with, you know, be a liaison like with our "Kids on the Block" puppets.

Then we, you know, we have treasurer, we have all the other sorts of things that a club needs.

So we all are able to kind of get in and use our skills and gifts to work together to make it successful.

- So where do we go to learn more about Les Passees and the Les Passees Stock Exchange?

- So you could go to our website, which is lpmemphis.org, and we are on social media, both Les Passees itself, Stock Exchange, and even the Les Passees "Kids on the Block".

So we are on Facebook and on Instagram, so you can find us there.

- Well, Karyn, thank you for all you and your amazing team due to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you for what you do, Jeremy.

[upbeat music] - They're a nonprofit creating homes that strengthen independence.

We're here with Earl Schwarz, Executive Director of Intunity, the Housing Foundation of West Tennessee.

And let's start out, Earl, give us some history and background for Intunity.

- Well, thanks, Jeremy.

Thanks to cityCurrent and thanks to Higginbotham for their interest in what we do and their support of us.

Intunity was initially created in 2012 as a result of an agreement arising out of litigation to create the opportunity for low income persons with intellectual disabilities to live in comfortable neighborhoods, in residential settings as opposed to the institutional settings where they were living.

And we have been since, over that period of time, we have acquired 37 houses, fourteen in Jackson, Tennessee and 23 in Memphis, Tennessee.

And we are a, to say it a slightly different way, we are a solution for low-income persons with intellectual disabilities and perhaps soon to be branching into the senior housing market as well.

- Talk about the feedback you get and the higher purpose of this.

- The feedback that we get is, I mean, you can measure it in numbers.

Number one, we never have a vacancy.

And the providers with whom we work, and by providers I mean those who are providing the support services, the staff, the clinical therapies and so forth to those living in our homes as well as some of our residents, the feedback is all extremely positive.

You mentioned independence.

Certainly, it helps create a sense of independence, but just think about how the pride that you have in the home that you own.

It's no different from the folks who live in our houses.

And because they live there on a long-term basis, they really, our tenants tend to think of these houses as their own and they take pride in these houses the same way you and I would take pride in the houses we own.

- I know that you are venturing out as a next phase to design your own homes.

Talk about what that's gonna look like and the power of that in terms of energy efficiency.

- What we hope to achieve is to implement a design that we created with the help of Ludy Ricks and Kiss, now LRK here in Memphis, Tennessee, with a lot of input from stakeholders and some additional input from other not-for-profits to develop and build a home that is not only energy efficient, but is from ground up built to be fully accommodated, barrier-free entries, wide hallways, roll-in showers, energy efficient, as we talked about, using appliances that are energy efficient, using HVAC systems that are energy efficient, materials that help protect, you know, the cost of utilities of the homes.

And in that way, it's a change, as you mentioned, because prior to now, we've been acquiring houses in the open market, varying in age from, you know, fifty to maybe twenty, twenty-five with their own built-in deferred maintenance and the like.

We hope to avoid all that by building our houses on the front end.

And so, at this point, we've got a great concept, we got a great design, we think.

We have no idea what it's gonna cost.

We'll find out.

- When you look at how the community can help Intunity, the Housing Foundation of West Tennessee, give us some ways that we can help.

- The strategic plan that our board has developed is a five-year plan that has us moving from our current census of 37 houses to 50 houses over the next 5 years.

And we anticipate we'll need about $5 million to do that.

This will be primarily, we hope, again, hope, these new homes that we have designed, the design of which can be, you know, modified to fit any vacant lot, but we still have the possibility of acquiring homes and rehabbing those homes and retrofitting them in a manner that's similar to the home that we hope to build.

And it's going to take about, I think as I mentioned, five million dollars or so, we hope that's all, to accomplish that plan.

So any financial support, any donation of construction materials that would be consistent with the design, anything that helps us, you know, obviously build these houses without going too deep into our corpus would be terrific.

- Give us one more thing that you wish everyone knew about Intunity.

- It would be terrific if folks were familiar with, it would be great if made a household name.

That may be a little ambitious, that may be a little ambitious, but the industry in which we work, the families who we serve who live in our houses, they know us well, we'd like folks to know that we are, I think without exaggeration, the best solution for low-income individuals with intellectual disabilities, and soon to be seniors, to have the opportunity to live full and productive lives in the community.

- We'll wrap up with where we can go to learn more about Intunity, the Housing Foundation of West Tennessee.

- The best way is on our website, intunityhomes.org.

That sells our story pretty completely.

But there are also links on that site to our profile with Community Foundation, the live give portion of the community foundation, as well as our profile on Guidestone, which we have a gold star, from whom we have a gold star.

And there's always Earl Schwarz, eschwarz@intunityhomes.org or 901-216-4790.

- Well, Earl, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thanks for having us.

[upbeat music] - The Spark Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2023 Nonprofit Award for organizations with a budget between $1 to $5 million went to SchoolSeed Foundation.

[bright piano music] - My name is Vincent McCaskill, and I am the founding Chief Executive Officer, President of SchoolSeed Foundation.

SchoolSeed Foundation was formed as a funding intermediary to support public schools in Memphis, and we have worked very closely with traditional and non-traditional schools.

Over the years, our efforts have broadened.

We wanna work with not only schools and classrooms and teachers, but we're also now working with organizations in the community that impact our kids, our families, and so forth, which gives us a much larger footprint in Memphis.

And even since 2009, we have expanded our work to include so many other things, including working to support and help with the homelessness situation, eighteen to twenty-four year olds through the Opportunity Youth Program that we have, we work with school pantries.

There's just so many things that the community wants to support.

And SchoolSeed Foundation has been tested, it's proven and trusted so that when individuals want support various causes, they can trust the SchoolSeed name because we've been there, we've done that.

Well, SchoolSeed is the only source for raising funds for the construction of the future Jim Herbert STEM Building in Whitehaven.

We just finished a capital campaign raising far above our initial goal, which initially was like $6.2 million and we were able to raise now $8 million.

Right now when students from that school and other schools enter college and they are exposed to a college-level STEM lab, they are 40 years behind in terms of having that sort of exposure to their counterparts who might have come from private schools who have access to 21st century STEM labs.

So we know that that will instantly be a game changer for them and also put them in position to be able to get a degree in a STEM-related field and stay in Memphis and create wealth for themselves and also to enhance the community.

If we want our children to succeed, if we want our children to dream big, they have to see it.

But we know that the sort of work that takes place by giving kids exposure to STEM, giving kids exposure to other things may not manifest for several years.

When I think about impact, I just think about the kids being exposed to these opportunities and what that may look like in 10 years in their individual lives and for their children's children.

[bright piano music] - They're an organization creating a recreational destination for individuals with disabilities and special needs.

We're here with the Executive Director of Miracle League of Memphis, Eddie Hatcher.

And let's start out, give us some background on Miracle League of Memphis.

- Jeremy, what happened was I found out about, a gentleman was telling me he was gonna build a baseball field for kids with disabilities and special needs.

It was gonna be called The Miracle League.

I didn't know anything about it, so I researched it.

I love baseball, I love kids.

Got into it, found out that they're nationwide.

They're like 200 baseball fields nationwide, about 150 playgrounds.

Looked into it, prayed about it, and it's like, okay, let's get rolling.

Got with Nick Walker, who's the director of Parts and Recreation.

He said, "Yeah, I've really been wanting something like this."

And he said, "Where do you want it?"

And I said, "I want it at Toby Field," 'cause it's right near the Liberty Bowl, Children's Museum, The Pink Palace, the zoo.

It's right in the heart of Memphis.

And he said, "I got just the field for you."

And he pointed to one.

It's right behind the Board of Education and right near the skate park.

Looked at it, got with some designers, talked to some people who were special ed teachers, got with people who specifically designed special needs playgrounds.

And we came up with a great, what I think is a great design.

The baseball field is specially designed.

It's a rubberized surface.

Kids with any kind of disability can play on it, wheelchairs, walkers, autism, down syndrome, doesn't matter.

They can play baseball.

But then if you visualize the entire outfield, that's gonna be filled with playground equipment that is designed specifically for kids with special needs and disabilities.

Most playgrounds that are inclusive are gonna have three, four pieces of equipment designed for it.

There'll be maybe 4,000 to 8,000 square feet.

Ours are gonna be about 27,000, 28,000 square feet of spinners, slides, swings, zip lines, all designed for kids to be able to play with the playground equipment.

- Talk about collaboration, because I know that you're already working with different organizations so that it has year-round programming.

- Yeah, we're partners with a disability network here in Memphis.

They've got a number of organizations dealing with individuals with special needs and disabilities.

And it's everywhere from like the Down Syndrome Association to Madonna.

We're just developing one with an amputee organization.

But we're involved with all of these and we want all of 'em involved.

We want 'em be able to come out and play.

And I think that's really good.

It's kind of where if one group like us succeeds, they succeed.

Everybody gets involved and everybody gets to play.

It's a great way to do it.

- Talk about the ripple effect of what you're creating in terms of kindness and love and empathy.

And so talk about the bigger impact of what you're doing and building.

- Well, I'll give you an example.

The Miracle League just built a facility in St. Louis.

So we went up there and I've got a grandchild who has down syndrome.

So we went to the playground.

We're all out there playing.

There are other kids out there with down syndrome, kids in wheelchairs.

Everybody is out playing together.

And it's not a situation of the kids with the disabilities play over here and the kids without play over here.

Everybody's playing together.

Everybody's having a really good time.

And I think we're gonna be able to expand that across the Mid-South.

Nick Walker has said this is gonna be a destination, and that's exactly what we're expecting.

We expect people from the entire Mid-South to be able to come here.

They'll be able to come play a game of baseball, have a picnic, get on the playground, and everybody plays together.

That's what we're looking for.

- How can the community help support Miracle League of Memphis?

- Number of ways.

I think that you, first of all, they can volunteer.

Every child that plays is gonna need a buddy to help 'em out.

They can help that way.

They can coach.

They can bring their kids out and let 'em play baseball.

Let 'em play in the playground.

And they can also contribute, you know.

That way, it's not us building The Miracle League.

They will help build The Miracle League.

And they'll be able to tell their kid and their friends and relatives we helped build this, and that's what we're looking for.

We don't want it to be us.

We want it to be everybody, want everybody included in building it so they can take pride in what's going on.

- Talk about timing, where we are in the process.

- We're very close to being able to build the baseball field.

Hoping to be able to get that started fall of this year.

And then we'll start working on the playground after that.

We're getting very close.

We got the design laid out, we've got the contractors laid out.

We know what we wanna do.

We're very close on being able to start that.

- Very exciting.

So wrap up with where we can go to learn more and plug in with Miracle League of Memphis.

- Okay.

Our website is memphismiracleleague.org.

Our Facebook page is Miracle League of Memphis.

My email address is ehatcher@memphismiracle league.org Or they can call me.

My number's 901-647-6473.

Be glad to talk to anybody about this.

- Well, Eddie, thank you for all you and your amazing team do.

I'm excited for you hitting a home run with this project with Miracle League of Memphis.

Thank you for all you do and for coming on the show.

- I appreciate this very much.

Thank you, Jeremy.

[upbeat music] - As humans, we wanna feel loved and valued.

We wanna belong and feel included with equal access to opportunities and resources that allow us to advance in our lives and careers and experience the joys of family, friendship, and fellowship.

We're fortunate to have so many individuals and organizations here in our city that are fostering a home for inclusion.

Les Passees has been bringing women together to provide advocacy and support for local children and their families for more than 110 years.

Their Les Passees Stock Exchange and other fundraising efforts provide funds for local charities and their Les Passees "Kids on the Block" puppetry performances, which educate children about social concerns and differences, giving them skills they need to make good life choices.

Intunity - The Housing Foundation of West Tennessee, is opening doors to nice, safe, and affordable rental homes for people with disabilities and seniors and embarking to design and build their own energy efficient homes so individuals have access to the resources needed for independence and success.

Then The Miracle League of Memphis is working to build a home and home plate with their specially designed baseball field and inclusive playground where children with disabilities and special needs can play together with their family and friends in a way that celebrates the uniqueness of each individual.

It's a reminder that when we foster a home for inclusion, we're building a loving community.

So where can you help power the good and become a spark?

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes, and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for The SPARK.

We look forward to seeing you next month and we hope that you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity, and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]