Donor Spotlight: Mary Simpson
With nearly a decade on our Young Ambassador Board along with supporting The Children’s Place as a Healing Hero, Mary Simpson has seen The Children’s Place grow and evolve from the tight quarters at our previous building on 59th Street to the organization that it is today.
On top of their years of volunteering for the agency, Mary and her husband Hank Simpson are proud to donate to The Children’s Place monthly as Healing Heroes to provide sustaining support for our children’s mental health services. We thought Mary and Hank would be great donors to feature on our inaugural donor profile series—even though they are usually more comfortable behind the scenes!
“We want to give wherever it’s needed,” Mary told us. “I would love for our contributions to go toward the most unexciting needs that the agency has, things like paying the electric bill or repairing the HVAC. We want to help keep the lights on so that the people who are dedicating their lives to this work can do their jobs.”
Mary first volunteered with The Children’s Place as a teenager helping with swimming outings for the children in our Day Treatment program then joined the Young Ambassador Board in 2016. She ended up serving on the board for eight years, including two years as co-chair.
In that time, she saw the Brews & BBQ event grow from a 150-person event featuring just BBQ and beer to Taste at The Place, where some 500 people gather outside The Children’s Place to sample a wide range of food and drink offerings.
From recruiting vendors for the event to inviting her friends and family both to attend the event and help as volunteers, Young Ambassador Board members and more, Mary helped the event to grow to a Kansas City favorite that raised more than $72,000 at last year’s Taste at The Place.
It’s become a joke around The Children’s Place about the many people that Mary and Hank have recruited to join the cause and support the work we do. From each of their families, their workplaces, friends and more, so many people have stepped up to support the Children’s Place because of the passion Mary and Hank have. Mary stepped down from the Young Ambassador Board after two years as co-chair and is now enjoying attending The Children’s Place’s events as a guest.
During her time as a Co-Chair of the Young Ambassador Board, Mary had the chance to attend our Board of Director meetings, where she enjoyed the opportunity to network with prominent members of the Kansas City business and philanthropic communities and learn more about the inner workings of The Children’s Place.
“I was floored at my first Board of Directors meeting,” Mary said. “It was so eye-opening to see how much work goes into running the agency so efficiently. Being in a room full of these impact-makers dedicating their braincells to this important work made such an impression on me. We covered so many topics, everything from daily operations to long-term goals for The Children’s Place.”
As a Young Ambassador Board member, Mary has seen all corners of our building (and the building before that!), from riding the freight lift up and down to bring supplies back in after Taste at The Place to directing new members to “the room that no one could ever find” for the Young Ambassador Board meetings in our former building. Mary says that the more that she learned about The Children’s Place, the more she felt compelled to give.
“I think people can find it frustrating to donate to organizations where it may not feel like your donation is used efficiently,” Mary said. “This agency could not be further from that. The Children’s Place is so efficient and well-run. It feels like you are contributing to something that is making an impact in a very direct way. No matter where your funds go, they’re being used to the maximum capacity.”
But beyond the finances, Mary said that she and Hank continue to give to The Children’s Place because of the children themselves.
“I cannot fathom what it’s like to have faced a fraction of the struggles that these kids have, and I can’t imagine what my life would be like had I been in their position at such a young age,” Mary said. “We want to do anything that we can to reverse that and take some of that pain away. I may not be able to do that directly, but if I can support these people who are supporting these kids, I’m honored to do that.”
Thank you, Mary and Hank, for all that you do for The Children’s Place!
Stay tuned for more spotlights on the generous donors who support The Children’s Place over the coming year! Do you have an idea of a supporter who we should profile for our next donor spotlight? Contact Director of Marketing & Communications Lacey Helmig at helmigl@childrensplacekc.org or 816.363.1898.
