- This month on The SPARK, our theme is "Refresh and Reengage For a Bright Future".

We'll learn more about a statewide association connecting nonprofits in Tennessee to resources, decision-making forums and each other, a nonprofit building community and enhancing lives through tennis and education, and a group of plastic and reconstructive surgeons helping individuals regain their confidence after overcoming cancer and other adversities.

We'll also share a special moment from our SPARK Awards 2022.

- From our very beginnings in 1954, Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance 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.

Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance is honored to be a 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.

My Town Movers, My Town Roofing, and by Meritan.

- 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.

Through a statewide association connecting nonprofits across the state of Tennessee, we're here with the President and CEO of Tennessee Nonprofit Network, Dr. Kevin Dean.

Give us a little bit of the history and the context for Tennessee Nonprofit Network.

- Sure, so we're previously known as Momentum Nonprofit Partners in Memphis, and then this year we, after doing a lot of research and talking to a lot of people, decided that we needed to be the state nonprofit association.

Tennessee is one of the last states in the country without a state nonprofit association.

And that was leaving a big gap in resourcing nonprofits, connecting nonprofits to various legislators and officials just, you know, really connecting the city, or I'm sorry, the state and the nonprofits in it that are serving the community.

So we wanted to unify the voice of nonprofits, unify the collective power of nonprofits to really leverage that for the good of the state and the good of the people in the state.

- Give us some stats that resonate for you in terms of job, economic impact.

When you look at that sort of opportunity for nonprofits, what does that look like?

- Yeah, so there's about 200,000-plus nonprofit employees in the state of Tennessee.

So that's about 8% of the workforce.

Nationally, we're about 8% of the workforce.

In the state of Tennessee, we're about 10% of the gross state product, and there's more than 40,000 nonprofits in the state.

So, and there's about 1.8 million nonprofits in the entire country.

So that, you know, 40,000 is not a number to balk at, and especially when our economy, you know, in Tennessee is, you know, a 10th of it is coming from nonprofits.

- Talk about decision making forums, resource sharing, expert guidance.

There's a lot too that you offer holistically to support nonprofits.

- Yeah, yeah.

So we're gonna continue doing our capacity building for Memphis nonprofits, but we're also gonna do a lot for Tennessee nonprofits.

So we're providing a lot of public policy and advocacy, education and support.

We have in January, we're gonna do our inaugural advocacy summit in Nashville, where we're gonna bring a bunch of folks together and have, you know, conversations about what advocacy and public policy looks like for nonprofits.

We're doing A Day on the Hill in February as well, where we're descending upon the state capitol to meet with our legislators, and we're gonna have hundreds of nonprofits doing that.

You know, we're also gonna have a state nonprofit conference.

Our conference in Memphis has sold out every year.

It sold out a month in advance, you know, this year.

So we're gonna continue that, but make it a statewide conference, move it around every year so that people will have access to that.

We also, we've done a lot of research in Memphis around the state of the sector for the nonprofit sector.

We've done a compensation report, we've done a lot of different research projects.

We're gonna expand that to do it statewide.

So we'll have a compensation report in early 2025 for all nonprofits, we'll disaggregate that information based on region.

So we're gonna have this information and, you know, we can use a lot of anecdotal information to inform legislators, donors, things like that.

But until you have it written down and codified, you know, that research really does move the needle in ways that just our voice might not.

So that's gonna be a really important piece of what we're doing as well.

- Talk about best practice sharing, idea sharing, and how that's gonna benefit local communities.

- Yeah, yeah.

So I've spent the last eight months just traveling through the state of, you know, I live in Memphis, but I've been living out of a suitcase in Chattanooga, Knoxville, all these different places.

And what I'm finding is all of these nonprofits are doing things differently on the other side of the state than we are and that's a good thing.

That's awesome for everybody because we're doing some innovative things in Memphis, Chattanooga's doing some really cool things.

Nashville has some different things happening.

We can all learn from each other.

And, you know, the more siloed we are, the less innovation, the less coalition building, the less resources we're gonna have, and the less opportunities to be more efficient and effective.

And so, you know, when we're all coming together to talk about what works and what doesn't, we're all better for that.

So I think that's gonna be, that's the part I'm most excited about is we've been operating as three different states for the longest time, you know, and now we're gonna have the opportunity as nonprofits to model the way for everybody else and show that there's a lot of great things happening in the state that we can all be learning from and growing from and changing the way we do business based on what works and what doesn't.

So we're gonna be bringing those national best practices to Tennessee that we already know about, that we're already connected to, but we're also gonna be learning from nonprofits across the state on what works and what doesn't and sharing that out with the nonprofits in our network.

- How do nonprofits get involved?

How does the community support your efforts?

- Well, the good news is that membership is gonna be free.

It opens on January 1st.

If you're in Memphis or the surrounding area, you're probably already a member 'cause we have 1,100 members already.

But, you know, on January 1st, it's gonna be free to all nonprofits in Tennessee.

Our hope is to have all 40,000 register.

But, you know, if we can do a, you know, knock out a whole bunch of 'em in the first year, we'll be really happy.

So all you have to do is go to our website, tnnonprofits.org, that when membership opens, you can go ahead and sign up for our newsletter.

We're already promoting things, we're already providing resources to folks, but on January 1st, we want everybody to join with nonprofits, it's for 501(c)(3) organizations.

That includes nonprofits, that includes foundations, that includes congregations, churches, other places of worship can join and be a part of the network.

- Dr. Kevin Dean, thank you for all you and your amazing team do, thank you for coming on the show.

- Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

[upbeat music] - They're a nonprofit, building community and enhancing lives through tennis and education.

We're here with Arnold Thompson, USPTA Elite Professional and Director of Outreach and Community Development with Tennis Memphis.

And let's start out, you got some exciting news with Leftwich Tennis Center.

So let's start with Leftwich Tennis Center.

Describe the good news.

- Well, the good news is Leftwich Tennis Center after arduous journey is open.

We had a grand opening, reopening on November 11th for the new facility.

It was absolutely wonderful.

We had over 1,000 people out on Saturday, November 11th, a great community event.

People from all over town came out.

People who had never played tennis before, lots of adults and kids.

We had 24 outdoor courts going all at the same time with free tennis lessons, clinics, youth, adult, absolute beginner up to advanced.

It was a completely festival atmosphere.

I mean, it was just wonderful, free Mempops for everyone and it was just an awesome festival atmosphere.

Really, really inspirational fo r those who will already play and for those who have never played before.

So that was the kickoff.

It really set the tone for who we want Memphis to know that we are.

This is a wonderful state-of-the-art thirty-six-court facility, but it's a public facility and it's here for the citizens of Memphis.

And that's what's really important.

This is, as I said, a really world class place with 12 indoor and 24 outdoor courts.

It's the home of the University of Memphis team who went for a long time wi thout having a home facility.

And we just have tremendous opportunities for youth development, for kids to come and interact with the teams to come and see that they belong at a world class center just like this.

- Absolutely and it's huge for bringing in tournaments and doing so much when you talk about the programming and really just lifting the sport of tennis.

And so talk about the different centers all across the city and then let's dive into some of the programs.

- Sure, we, Tennis Memphis, that is, have a management contract with the City of Memphis to manage and program six of our public tennis centers, that's excuse me, here at Leftwich, obviously, Wolbrecht, which is on Ridgeway across from MUS, that's an eight-court facility, two indoor and six outdoor, that Eldon Roark, which is in Whitehaven on Finley.

That's a 12-court facility with eight outdoor and four indoor.

We have Frayser Tennis Center, which is an eight outdoor facility, Raleigh Tennis Center, which is an eight outdoor court facility.

And Wooddale, which is not online right now because there's an issue with the pro shop and it's gonna have to be rebuilt because of mold, but it is gonna be back up and running.

So we manage and programming six different tennis centers across the city of Memphis where we have youth programming everywhere.

We have youth and adult programming at every center.

We have afterschool programming from four to six every day throughout the school year.

Lots of other youth programs and lots and lots of adult programs as well.

- Talk about tying in education and tutoring with tennis.

- Well, as a National Junior Tennis and Learning chapter, which is what we are, we are part of a network of over 250 nonprofit community tennis organizations throughout the United States.

Tennis Memphis is one of the top NJTL chapters.

NJTL was started in 1969 by tennis icon Arthur Ashe, who really understood the value of tennis to people's lives and the value of education.

So originally he started with two of his compatriots, Sheridan Snyder and Charlie Pasarell, as I said in 1969 and it was a way to make tennis available to underserved communities of children.

At that time it was called National Junior Tennis League.

And it was subsequently, a couple decades later, changed to National Junior Tennis and Learning because the educational component is so important.

And the NJTL is housed at the United States Tennis Association Foundation.

They provide us with tremendous resources, financial and otherwise and technical every year to support our youth programs.

And one of the things that they love to support is educational programming.

So to whit on that, we have a tennis and tutoring program that we started about five years ago.

That's an hour of tennis, an ho ur of homework help every day after school for students and it is free, absolutely free.

And it's all year long.

Every day that school's in session We have our tennis and tutoring program.

That was at Bellevue for a while, but now it's going to be at Eldon Roark Tennis Center.

And we will be starting one next school year at Leftwich as well.

We also about to start a component of with an entrepreneurship course and financial literacy course for our students as well.

But we will have those modules taught in three sessions, three brief sessions just to help kids to understand money and what entrepreneurship is about.

So the educational component is really, really important to what we do because we're not, you know, we're in the tennis industry, but our thrust in terms of youth is using tennis as a youth development, as a vehicle for youth development.

So mentoring is really important with that.

- So let's go ahead and talk about how we can take those next steps for adults, for youth, for parents, with kids who wanna get into tennis.

How do we start taking those next steps to get involved with Tennis Memphis?

- Well, first just go to tennismemphis.org and look at our website and see what kind of opportunities are there for if you have been playing for a while or if you've never played before, we've got things on all level from absolute beginner all the way up for children and adults.

So that would be your starting point is go to tennismemphis.org and just open up your mind to the idea of getting on court because you're never too old.

Tennis's nickname is a lifetime sport, right Jeremy?

You know that, and that's what it is.

We have octogenarians out here on court every day playing, and as long as you're the least bit ambulatory, you could still play tennis and you can learn to play tennis even at an advanced age.

- Arnold Thompson, thank you for all you and your amazing team do.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thanks so much for having me.

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

The 2022 Individual Collegiate Award went to Holly McGinnis.

[inspirational music] - My name is Holly McGinnis.

I'm currently getting an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Memphis.

I actually live in Hernando, Mississippi.

I've lived there all my life.

Kind of consider myself an honorary Memphian 'cause this is the area that I call home that I love.

If there's something that has always made you happy and you admire the people who have brought that to you, if you can be a part of making that happen, for me, that was theater.

I've always enjoyed it as an audience member.

And so being a part of bringing the theater and the stories to life was a great way for me to be involved.

I worked Spotlight for the Marvelous Wonderettes at DeSoto Family Theater and that was really fun.

Theater goers aren't really conscious of the spotlight, hopefully, but it's an important job.

You know, if you don't turn it on at the right moment, the characters are in the dark.

The farmer's market was, we have kind of a personal relationship with Gia Metheny a little bit, seeing her around.

She's always, I call her Hernando's cheerleader, anything that is helping to benefit Hernando, she's a part of.

And so we had chatted with her a little bit over different Hernando things and when she realized I was getting an MFA in creative writing, she said, "Would you like to help us with our marketing?"

And so what I would do is go to the farmer's market, interview vendors and our farmers and then I would take that information and write one to two paragraphs of a Facebook post to kind of highlight the vendors, what they offered to get people interested in our farmer's market and to highlight the farmer's and vendors who do so much work to benefit our community.

My father kind of started teaching hunter education in DeSoto County.

I think I was one or two years old when we started.

And so growing up it's been kind of an inherited passion, but also something as I've gotten older, I've become passionate about as well.

I think a year or two ago I finally went and got certified myself.

I'm a certified hunter education instructor doing our part to keep that healthy and available for the next generation.

I think looking at how you are an asset to your community, that sounds kind of a big responsibility, but it can just be how are you making the people around you happy?

How are you trying to improve where you live?

Bring joy to people, support the people around you.

[inspirational music continues] - They're a group of plastic and reconstructive surgeons helping individuals regain their confidence and look and feel their best.

We're here with Dr. Carey Campbell, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon with Plastic Surgery Group of Memphis.

And this starts with a personal storyline on your end with your mother.

Give us a little background on how you got into this industry.

- I started my interest in plastic surgery when I was 15.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and it became very personal for me.

I sort of helped her through that recovery and both her mastectomy and her reconstruction got me connected with her reconstructive surgeon, Lou Adams.

And then I ended up following him for multiple years in the summers in high school.

And it became a passion of mine to help make women feel better about themselves and feel whole starting at a young age.

- Give us an idea when you talk about your specialization, Plastic Surgery Group of Memphis.

Talk about what all you do.

- So our group is a varied picture of plastic surgery.

And so we do everything from plastic surgery you don't wanna have, because you know, we meet you when you have kind of rough things going on in your life to the plastic surgery that's kind of fun to have, meaning, you know, cosmetic things.

So you know, we meet you for breast reconstruction for cancer, skin reconstruction for skin cancer, even gynecological and you know, cardiovascular reconstructions, we can do that.

But then we can also, you know, turn around and do things like facelifts, breast lifts, tummy tucks, liposuction, if we're on the surgical side.

And then we also have the non-surgical side, which would be things like our lasers, our injections, which would be like Botox and filler, facials, which are not just, you know, it is relaxing, but there are sort of more medical grade facials to really get you improvement in your skin.

So we try and you meet at all aspects of your life where you need to be.

- Share maybe a testimonial or two when you talk about the work that you do and how it makes people feel and are able to then have the confidence to go out in the world and succeed.

So talk about some testimonials.

- You know, I had a patient very recently send me a message on Instagram that she had had breast reconstruction by another surgeon and I had the pleasure of revising her reconstruction pretty essentially rebooting the whole thing.

And she sent me a message that said, "I didn't really think I was ever gonna be pretty again."

And you know, it sounds like kind of a minor thing, but for a woman it's like, to not feel like you want anybody to see your body and to feel like you need to hide yourself is so hard.

And I think that really was so meaningful to me that she wanted to reach out and just say that like she felt like feminine and lovely again.

And that's just so amazing to have been able to do that for people.

And I think also, you know, like that's just the one that comes to mind most recently.

But you know, women after they have babies, they feel like their bodies have been through a lot and they want to feel confident again.

And so, you know, I think that's really satisfying for me.

You know, breast reconstruction has been throughout my career, something that has just always brought me so much joy.

Those patients just, you know, they have hills and valleys in their experience, but they really wanna give you just a big hug at the end of the day, which is so nice.

And you wanna give them a hug because you know that you've made them feel like themselves again.

And that's really just so joyful to be able to do that for people.

- Give us one or two misconceptions when you talk about plastic surgery, reconstructive surgery, what's a couple of myths you wanna bust?

- You and I have talked about this before, but you know, my greatest myth that I would wanna bust is that plastic surgery has to be unnatural.

You know, we very much want you to just be a refreshed version of yourself.

I never want people to walk out of my office and say that I operated on them and people will be like, oh gosh, I don't wanna look like that.

You know, I want nobody to really know that you've had plastic surgery unless that's what you really want.

But, 'cause we can meet you there too.

But you know, for the most part, I want people to know that plastic surgery doesn't have to be conspicuous, it can be elegant, it can be lovely and it can just make you feel like more like yourself, not like somebody else.

- Talk about community engagement because obviously you live here, raising your family here, grew up here.

So what does Memphis and the Mid-South mean to you and what does community engagement mean to you?

- You know, Memphis has always been my home.

I've been away for my education, but I was born and raised here, went to high school here, my family all still lives here and has for generations and you know, my dad has been, was heavily involved with the Boys and Girls Club.

My mom was, you know, involved in multiple charities.

My sister-in-law is involved in MOST, which is, you know, like great for the city and you know, I was always involved in Ballet Memphis and I think that you kind of have to find what your niche is that you love and Memphis has a way to meet you there.

You just have to get engaged and be part of it.

My husband and I really are involved with the Dixon.

That's probably the thing that we're the most invested in in terms of the community.

We love the arts and so that's how we probably get involved the most.

The Dixon and the Brooks and my sister's work with MOST, I mean my sister-in-law's work with MOST has been really amazing.

So, you know, I'm really proud of my family for continuing to hopefully give back to this city.

And you know, we're not going anywhere.

This is our home.

- So where do we go to learn more and connect in with Plastic Surgery Group of Memphis?

- We would love for you to find us online at memphisplasticsurgery.com.

There you'll find our Instagram and Facebook accounts and handles and our phone numbers for both the surgical side and the skincare side are at the bottom of the website.

And make sure you take a look at our Instagram because frequently we offer our specials so that you can find goodies throughout the year in terms of gifts to give friends.

And our specials are always there for injectables and facials and any special sales we may be holding.

- Well, Dr. Carey Campbell, thank you for all you and your amazing team do, thank you for coming on the show.

- Yeah, thanks for having me.

[upbeat music] - As we saw in this month's episode, hitting the refresh button can be an exciting opportunity to reengage the community in new ways.

It's an exciting time for Tennessee Nonprofit Network with their rebrand and expansion to be become the state's first statewide association, connecting nonprofits in Tennessee to resources, decision-making forums and each other.

The refresh will allow the organization to leverage national nonprofit expertise along with statewide research and insight to provide resources that promote operational excellence for local nonprofits while advocating for policies at the state capitol that strengthen nonprofit business operations.

The refresh button for Tennis Memphis brings a brand new facility in the Leftwich Tennis Center, which is a premier facility for the region and enables our city to host big events and increase access for more players and programming.

If you're a tennis player, want to learn tennis, or have your child get into the sport, you will love what Tennis Memphis is doing for our community.

Then sometimes you need a physical refresh to look and feel your best or you need to regain your confidence to re-engage in the community after dealing with adversity like breast cancer.

And that's why we're fortunate to have the expert medical staff at Plastic Surgery Group of Memphis.

When we take a moment to refresh, we can reengage as a brighter spark to help others and make a difference.

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 all of us at cityCurrent and WKNO, we hope you have a wonderful holiday season, a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

- From our very beginnings in 1954, Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance 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.

Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance is honored to be a presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]