- This month on The SPARK, our theme is "The Healing Power of Compassion, Connection, and Nature".

We'll learn about a nonprofit delivering coats, socks, and shoes, and essential items that wrap children in dignity.

A space where everyone feels welcomed and community can gather for good, and an organization protecting and enhancing the Wolf River and its watershed as a sustainable natural resource.

We'll also share a special moment from our SPARK Awards 2024.

- 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, My Town Movers, My Town Roofing, First Tee Tennessee-Memphis, and by the Medical Education and Research Institute.

- 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.

There're a nonprofit delivering coats, socks, and shoes and essential items to wrap kids in dignity.

We're here with Tarsha Cannon, Account Management Senior Manager with Operation Warm.

And Tarsha, let's start out, give us some background for Operation Warm.

- Absolutely.

Operation Warm is a national nonprofit organization that provides brand new coats, shoes, and sports bras for under-resourced children and teens.

And it was all started in 1998, and we're so excited that we have been able to serve over 7 million children across 4,000 different local communities.

- And so how you do that is pretty remarkable.

One, you make it easy, and you also work with a lot of partners, including some very large partners in Memphis.

And so give us a little bit of the model.

- Oh, so good.

Yes, absolutely.

We have a stand, we have such a standing time in Memphis.

We've actually been able to support over twenty-one thousand children in Memphis.

But one of the really cool things is we have such strong ties to FedEx, and we have connected with them since 2008, where we were able to distribute over thousands of coats, shoes, and sports bras.

So it's just amazing the work that we do in Memphis.

- So in some ways, an item can be, you know, a simple gesture, but it's really a powerful vehicle of compassion, of love, of hope, and really opportunities.

So talk about the power of a coat, a new pair of socks and shoes and a sports bra.

- It is so amazing that when these children or young teens get these items, they actually show up different, right?

So we're able to see their social interactions change the way that they play change, their attendance changes.

And so of course it helps them to thrive in all of these different, these different areas, especially during these developmental years.

So we love the fact that Operation Warm provides that immediate impact.

And so what that means is, with a coat, the kids are automatically warm, right?

The parents are automatically feel like they're supported, and then for the schools, they see an uptick in attendance during those colder months.

So it just helps them all the way around.

- Talk about how it works in terms of how easy you make it, because you have all sorts of forms, and algorithms, and all sorts of stuff.

So, dive in.

- It is, it's a definitely a turnkey model.

And so one would work directly with me, so I'm a senior account manager, but then we also have our programs team.

So I work on the front end to ensure that, you know, I connect with the different companies to ensure that we're all aligned.

And then we bring in the program manager who handles all of the logistics, and we'll be looking for the different beneficiaries that are in the area.

And so one of the way that the beneficiaries we receive the beneficiaries is through our wishlist.

And our wishlist is so important because it provides schools and different organizations within the community that have those high need areas to register for those things that we need.

So we look at that, we look at that list, and then we find the different ones in the area, and then we will connect the dots between the beneficiary and between the corporation.

And so, one of the things that I also wanted to share is we actually have over 14,000 requests in Memphis alone.

- When you have adult volunteers, like from FedEx, they get to come in and put the coat on a child, tell them they're loved, tell them that we, you know, there's a future here for them in our city.

Talk about that special moment, the relational moment.

- It's so much joy when the children are able to see that they are seen, that someone else cares for them.

I know I just went to an event and one of the principals shared, oh my gosh, it was so amazing.

Even with the volunteer holding their hands, you know, a lot of times even those small, little gestures make such a huge difference in the lives of those children.

And also on the volunteer side of things, it's really cool because we also say that it's more than a coat, right?

So we provide them with warmth, hope, and confidence, but we are hoping that this will create a ripple effect.

So won't just stop at the event, but others will continue to, you know, support in those local communities.

So it's just, it's joyful all the way around.

- For those who are watching that wanna get involved and take those next steps to get involved with Operation Warm, what does that look like?

- There are so many different avenues depending on what you're able to do, what you wanna do.

So first, I would tell you to go to operationwarm.org and you can donate if you're individual who's just generous and would like to help that way, you could do that.

If you're also an organization who want to get in and help us with the events, you can do that.

Also, if you would like to volunteer, we have different avenues to show how you can show up and help us to expand our mission through volunteering.

And then all in all, what we're doing here, you know, just spreading the good word about what Operation Warm is doing so we can continue to strengthen these communities.

- When you talk about working with organizations like FedEx and getting to see the corporate, not only the social responsibility, but the corporate activation, the volunteerism, the heart, for these sort of businesses, what puts a smile on your face?

- Oh, it just puts a smile on my face of, you know, just being able to see people be more nostalgic, and it takes them back to when they were a child and it takes them back to when they received, you know, something that was very special to them.

And so being able to go back and get out of the corporate office and go back down, take a trip down memory lane, and connect with those children, you can see how not only the children's eyes light up, but so do the volunteers.

And what we see is they'll continue to come back again and they're super excited for every single time, you know, there's an opportunity to serve in their local communities.

- We'll wrap up with where we can go to learn more and get involved with Operation Warm.

- Yes, you, well, you can learn more by going to operationwarm.org and then also on our social channels.

You can visit us on Facebook and on Instagram, and that's how you can donate, volunteer, and spread the word.

- Well, Tarsha, thank you for all you and your amazing team at Operation Warm do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Sounds good.

Thank you.

[upbeat music] - It's a space where everyone feels welcomed and the community can gather for good.

We're here with the executive director of The Front Porch, Melissa Todd, and let's start out, give us a little bit of history and backstory for The Front Porch.

- Yeah, thank you for having me, Jeremy.

I'm so happy to be here.

Yeah, so The Front Porch really began from Second Baptist Church.

It's on Second Baptist Church campus right at Walnut Grove and Perkins, and I'm sure if you've ever driven by there that you've seen the pumpkin patch.

And every year in October, they host about 5,000 people come through and buy pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.

So really the idea was how can Second Baptist bring that kind of community to the Memphis area year round?

So, you know, a bunch of great people got together, Lauren Young from Sweet LaLa's Bakery, and Becky Wilson and Spence Wilson, and the leaders of the church all got together to figure out, hey, how can we build a space that could be good where people could just gather for good?

And that's how the idea of The Front Porch came to life.

So we're here, we're open, and I'm excited to tell you more about it.

- Talk about the property, all the different partners that are on the grounds.

- Yeah, so we have a 7,777 square foot building, and we have an event space.

We have Second Helpings Cafe, which I'll tell you about in a little bit, but we also have private office space.

So a large portion of our building is being used by Baptist Centers for Good Grief Miller's House, which is an amazing nonprofit organization that provides free grief counseling to people who are going through the grief process.

And then we have four additional offices that are being used by, you know, people who are doing good for the community.

So we have, the American Cancer Society has an office, we have Dr.

Lou Martin from Christian Psychological Center.

We have the tutors, which is a company, and they have a satellite office here, which is great because with our location we're surrounded by five schools.

So that'll be really helpful to a lot of students.

And then we also have Coleton Segars, he is the senior pastor for Christ Community Church, so this is his private office.

So we have that space that we're using to bring good to the building.

- You alluded to Second Helpings, and so talk about that because when you talk about community and conversations, coffee and sandwiches, and food plays a role in that.

- Yeah, well, food always brings people together, right?

So we have the Second Helpings Cafe, which is in partnership with Sweet LaLa's Bakery, which everybody knows.

So we're open for breakfast, lunch, there's espresso bar, coffee, everything that you need at the cafe.

We're open Tuesday through Saturday from 7 AM to 4 PM, and really it's just a great place for people to bring up business associates, their families.

We've had so many people who just come just to grab a bite to eat and sit on the, you know, on the front porch, in a rocking chair and just get some time to themselves.

We have people who come and write their sermons here.

So in the short time we've been open, we already have seen regular faces coming in, and they have found this space to be a really great place to come and, you know, feel like they're welcomed.

- The Front Porch is a nonprofit.

You alluded to nonprofit partners as well, so talk about how the community can support The Front Porch.

- Yeah, so we are a nonprofit.

We're in a capital campaign right now, a $5 million capital campaign for the building.

And I'm happy to say that we're less than $500,000 away, but yeah, you can become a Front Porch partner, and be one of the founding people who help bring this space to Memphis, and there are definitely ways that we will recognize you for doing so.

Most of the money we've raised has come from just families, and people, and individuals throughout the city who just wanted a space like this in the heart of East Memphis.

And we, you know, also have had local foundations come forward.

And then we're gonna have free events.

So our free events will be sponsored by companies.

And so we're obviously always looking for sponsors for our monthly free events because, you know, we're about bringing the community together.

What's really important to us and our mission is making sure that we're putting on programming from different nonprofits or from, you know, artistic organizations throughout the city to come to The Front Porch and, you know, showcase what they do.

- What puts a smile on your face when you look at The Front Porch and the impact ahead?

- I think what's great is we have an event space, and already we have organizations that are coming through and doing presentations and meetings, and I think this will become the hub of businesses and nonprofits and, you know, service clubs.

People will want to use our space and it'll be a space where everybody knows about because we are so welcoming.

You know, I think that our space will become a space where people know that they can come and gather for good.

Second Helpings, I think is just a blessing.

There's no place for five and a half miles on Walnut Grove where you can get, stop and get a cup of coffee.

And you know, Lauren has done such a great job at Sweet LaLa's of making it feel like really a space where you can go and feel really welcomed.

And she brought that kind of energy here.

They say that 58% of Americans are lonely, and that's a alarming statistic, especially since COVID, and bringing connection back and bringing community back is just so important for all of us, especially in Memphis.

Like, we need this community.

We need to come together because Memphis is a great city and great people are in the city of Memphis, and we want people from all over Memphis to come to The Front Porch because this is a place where people can just really gather, and know that they're welcomed.

- Well, where can we go to learn more and get involved with The Front Porch?

- Sure, yeah, you can go to the frontporchmemphis.org and you'll get all the information you need right there.

And then you can follow us on social media.

We're on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook @FrontPorchMemphis, and we just, you know, follow us and check us out on the website.

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

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Yeah, thanks so much.

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

The 2024 Nonprofit Award for organizations with a budget between 1 to $5 million went to Overton Park Conservancy.

- Overton Park Conservancy is a nonprofit organization that manages Overton Park on the city's behalf.

It's a city of Memphis Park, and we were established in 2012 to take that charge to create a beautiful, safe, and welcoming park for our diverse community, to explore nature, to be with each other, and to find their best selves.

When the Conservancy was founded in 2012, it was with a small investment, an annual allocation from the City of Memphis, and then the rest is raised from corporate sponsors, foundations, individuals.

And so that's a large charge that we have, that we spend a lot of time stewarding our donors and inviting people in to fall in love with the mission of the Conservancy.

We manage all of the free and open spaces in the park, so no earned revenue or ticket sales that we really have.

And so it's mowing the grass and picking up the trash.

That's a not an easy task, but we also offer programming.

All of our programming is designed three ways, one, to help people connect with nature, to support people's whole health, so mental, physical, social health, and to encourage self-expression, which is a nod to the history, and the current culture of the arts and the music, and activism that is found in Overton Park.

One of the most unique and sometimes unknown treasures, magic about Overton Park, is the Old Forest State Natural Area.

It's a state natural area.

It's protected in that way.

What makes it unique?

It's the only urban old growth forest in the Southeastern United States.

There are only three in the country, and we have one right here in Memphis.

It is a major pass through for so many wildlife that come through in the spring, in the fall.

It's a unique feature for our city for people who might not be able to travel to a larger national park or a large forested area, you can go right in the center of the city, and right when you walk in, the temperature changes, it drops, the sound goes away, and the air, it just becomes different.

It's a truly magical space.

I think one of the most beautiful things about Overton Park is that you can find something to do at any time, and whether it's going to the Brooks Museum or going to a Shell show, or going to the zoo, popping over after or before one of those events, it's just a magical place in the center of it all.

[gentle acoustic music] - They're an organization protecting and enhancing the Wolf River and its watershed as a sustainable natural resource.

We're here with the executive director of Wolf River Conservancy, Erik Houston, and let's start out, give us some background on Wolf River Conservancy.

- Yeah, thank you, Jeremy.

Well, this is our 40th anniversary in 2025.

We've been around in Memphis since 1985, and in that time we've protected more than 21,000 acres of land in the Wolf River Watershed.

The Wolf River Watershed is a 522,000 acre area that includes much of Shelby County, Fayette County, and then Benton and Marshall Counties in northern Mississippi.

The reason that this is important is the Wolf River Watershed contains much of the recharge zone of the Memphis Sand Aquifer, where all of the Mid-South gets its drinking water.

- Memphis obviously is famous for our water.

And so talk about why that recharge zone, why protecting the environment is so critical to the success of our future with that water source.

- Yeah, well, you know, most of the watershed lands that we've protected are really high quality wetlands, and so those act as the filtration for pollution.

It also acts as an opportunity to filter rainwater down into the aquifer.

So we are literally recharging the aquifer with clean, filtered water.

Additionally, protecting land in the watershed is excellent for wildlife habitat.

So as our growth expands, and Shelby County, gets more people moving into it and Piperton and Rossville out east, see unprecedented development pressure, all of those animals have to have somewhere to go.

And so by us protecting land, we're offering wildlife habitat in addition to that restoration or the recharge of the aquifer.

- One of the other things that you all are well known for is the Wolf River, the Greenway.

And so talk about the Greenway.

- The Greenway is a 26-mile linear park system that goes from the Mississippi River, the confluence of the Wolf River and the Mississippi downtown, all the way out to Germantown.

We've got 14 and a half miles currently open.

We've got four and a half miles under construction right now, and we'll be putting another two and a half miles under construction next year.

The total 26 miles should be open by 2030.

This is a public-private partnership with both Shelby County and the City of Memphis.

But Wolf River Conservancy serves as the lead design and engineering and construction partner for this project, and it was conceived all the way back in the '80s as just a simple trail system that follows the meander of the Wolf River.

And it has since grown now, it is a paved 12-foot path that has beautiful trailheads and it connects 22 different Memphis communities to the green spaces around them.

And it has grown from that modest trail idea into a $94 million project.

It's a world-class greenway system that Memphis could be really proud of.

- We talked about the recharge and the importance for environmental sustainability, but talk about nature in terms of the importance of connecting for healing, for nurturing, for serenity.

So talk about it for mental health.

- Yeah, absolutely.

We believe that there's a place for conservation, and we believe that Memphians and Mid-Southerners care about conservation and the environment.

We think it's our part of our job not just to protect land, but connect people who live here to the green spaces around them.

That's why we've invested so heavily into the Wolf River Greenway.

We do paddles out on the Wolf River.

We do a first Saturday paddle every single month where we take people out free of charge on the Wolf River.

We've got an incredible river guide cadre that knows the river better than anyone, and we welcome anyone in Memphis to check out our website, Wolfriver.org.

We have a calendar function there where we list all of our paddle trips and other community events where we're really making a strong effort to connect the community to the green spaces around them.

Like I mentioned, the Wolf River Greenway is connecting 22 different neighborhoods from the confluence of the Mississippi and the Wolf all the way downtown by Second Street out to Germantown.

And we believe every single one of those neighborhoods, and Memphis as a whole can enjoy and appreciate the beautiful natural heritage that Memphis has.

It's not something that we're widely known for, but it's something that I believe we should be.

- Touch on the education and the outreach and that side of it.

- Yeah, so we work with between six and 7,000 students every single year through our education initiatives.

Our education director Kathy Justice does a great job of connecting with elementary and secondary-aged children and bringing them out to other properties that we own, or the Greenway, and doing environmental education content delivery.

And we are so proud of the relationships that we have with Memphis-Shelby County Schools, some of the charter schools in the areas and some of the other independent school districts.

And we also do a lot of community programming.

We just wrapped up our Discover the Greenway Fall Series.

We had a series of four different community events where we've brought people out to different sections of the Greenway, culminating in our fall festival just before Halloween, we had a costume contest and a spooky nature walk out at the Shady Grove Trailhead, and it's a lot of fun.

We like, again, connecting people to those green spaces around them.

- How can the community help and support Wolf River Conservancy?

- Yeah, so we have a ton of volunteer opportunities, that can be found on our website, wolfriver.org, and we're always looking for support.

We appreciate all of our donors and supporters, or individual contributors.

You can visit www.wolfriver.org/give if you're so inclined.

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

- Yeah, thank you for coming on the show.

- Yeah, thank you so much, Jeremy.

[upbeat music] - Compassion, connection, nature, individually each one matters, but together they transform us and our community.

When we extend kindness to a child, we help shape a brighter future filled with hope and love because a warm coat placed on a child's shoulders shows the power of compassion in its simplest form.

When we show up for our neighbors, we rediscover our shared humanity, and from The Front Porch, simple conversations create unexpected connections and opportunities.

And because nature has the power to heal and restore, when we care for our river, our water, and environment, we protect the very lifeline for our future.

Thanks to Operation Warm, The Front Porch and Wolf River Conservancy, we're able to experience and actively participate in the healing power of compassion, connection, and nature.

Small acts of care can create a city where everyone belongs, and the healing of our city starts small with one coat given in love, one conversation begun, one trail restored.

Those acts flow like the river and lead us somewhere stronger, more hopeful, more connected and beautiful.

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.

Thank you for 13 amazing years.

We look forward to seeing you next month as we start our 14th year and season, and we hope that you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

We also hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.

- 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]