 everybody. I'm Ginny Schuster with Ginny Panore and I call this my zoom in with Ginny Panore where I talk with different business owners and find out their story. And today we have Walter Williams who is involved with Mountain State's Children's Home here in Longmont to be exact. And I can tell he's got an interesting story because he started out, it's looks as though on LinkedIn. He started out in Las Vegas, he's been to Texas and it makes me wonder how did you land in Longmont. So Walter, welcome, can't wait to hear your story. Well, thank you for having me Ginny. I appreciate your time and I really appreciate all you do for our community. You have a very diverse, you know, group of people that you visit with and I appreciate your angle on, you know, bringing Longmont to the people of our community. There's a lot of neat people in this area. So thank you very much for your time. Yesterday actually goes way back way before Las Vegas. I was adopted from the Arizona Children's Home in Tucson, Arizona when I was baby. And, you know, I always knew I was adopted. My mom and dad never hit it from me and I always thought it was pretty special to be adopted. You know, I was actually chosen. So that has resonated in my life growing up as a child and as a young man, you know, knowing that, you know, my life could have been so much different had I not been chosen as a baby. And so I was able to grow up in a nice home and ended up going to college at UNLV to Las Vegas when I was 12. And so I stayed there and took advantage of that in-state tuition. I wanted to go to Pepperdine really bad, but it's expensive to live in Malibu especially as a student. So I chose UNLV and I chose psychology because I wanted to work with children in some capacity. And I got my degree and I went right into the industry of glimo driving. Glamo driving. Yes. I was a chauffeur. I was a stuntman at Bonnie Springs, Old Nevada. And just did a lot of different things. And my wife told me, you know, one day you need to do something in your field. And I kind of circled back and decided, you know, I need to get into some sort of child psychology field. I wanted to get my masters going into counseling, that sort of thing. I was called by a children's home in San Antonio, Texas called Medina Children's Home. And they offered me a job. And I said, well, let's let's leave Las Vegas. Let's go out to this little tiny town. And so I was able to learn what the nonprofit world was. I was an intake specialist. So I worked with the children and families to determine if they were within our level of care. And after two months, my boss told me, I need to be in development. And I thought to myself, what is development? It turns out that I was a pretty good fit and it's raising money and creating awareness in the community. So I did that for 11 years and arrived at it. I enjoyed it and did well at it. And so Mountain State Children's Home called me and they needed somebody to come out here to do fundraising, community awareness, you know, development, that sort of thing. And I came out to take a look around. And I was sold the moment I stepped off the plane. You know, I've always loved skiing and obviously the world headquarters. So this is, it was a good move for my family. My both my daughters were still pretty young. So I thought it'd be a good time to do that. So anyway, my career found me, you know, I was going in a different direction. And, you know, the, you know, guy kind of stepped into my life and said, you need to go this direction. So we've been in here for seven years now. Longmont, we live in Bertha, but we spent a lot of time in Longmont. They're, you know, great restaurants, you know, people, lots of fun things to do. And so here we are. We're working with Mountain State Children's Home now to provide a deeper level of care for children from all over the country. And we don't just serve the local Colorado community, we serve children from all over. And it's just been a wonderful experience. How do families find, how do, or is it kids? How do you get connected with these kids and how big is the organization? Is it growing? That sort of stuff? Sure is. We've been here since 1960, run a 155 acre farm about two miles north of Highway 66. So we're out on a farm and that's by design. We wanted to provide a location for children to get away from urban environments, to get out in the beautiful farmland that we get to experience here, to see the mountains on a daily basis, just breathe clean, fresh air. So that's why we're located where we are. We're, again, 155 acres. We have five homes that are built that cares for six children per home. We are currently building a sixth home, which is almost done. So if you drive by our campus headed north on 287, you look off to the right, you'll see a brand new cottage being built. And so that's exciting. So that'll raise our full capacity up to 30 children. And then once we're done with two more cottages in the next hour it takes, the next probably five to 10 years, we'll have room for 42 children all together. So we are growing. We are answering a need that the state of Colorado is closing residential group care programs and at an alarming rate. They've closed almost half of them over the past eight years. They're sending children more into foster care or kinship care, which is sending children out of a toxic situation into a relative's home. And sometimes that's not the best choice. What we provide here is a deeper level of care. We have the homes where the children live with a set of house parents. So they get to know what it's like to have a mom and a dad. We have a counseling program. So all children get to have their therapeutic needs addressed and they get to heal and remove their stress, their depression and all those issues that children come here with at an alarming rate. We have an onsite school where children come in academically way behind their peers. And in just one year on average, the children improve four grade levels of academic achievement. So all of these things is what creates the deeper level of care here at Mountain State Children's Home and really sets us apart from other organizations that work with children, which are good organizations. We're just far more comprehensive. We we address the whole child, you know, the mind, the body, the spirit, you know, all of these things are rolled into one child and we have to look at all of those components to, you know, continue our success. What's the age group? Where does it start? You know, what's the youngest age that you allow in? Well, the youngest we're licensed by the state to take children as young as three. That's very rare that we get them that young. Most of our children are adolescents because that's typically when we start identifying, you know, this child is suffering, this child's struggling with school, their peers, you know, at home, that sort of thing. So our average age is about 14 and a half. Okay, we can go as young as three. And once they turn 18, they have two choices. We can age them out of the program, say you're an adult now, good luck. Or they can take advantage of our transitional living program, which is new. And that allows children to choose trade school, college, or even working in the area. And we're going to continue to support that child for the first few years of adulthood to help them gain those life proficiencies that a lot of them don't have once they just turn 18. I think I was about 40 before I made really good adult decisions. So, you know, obviously these children way earlier than me, you know, these children still need help and guidance during this process. Yeah, well, they say from what I keep reading is that by about age five or six, you're that's when everything's formed in your mind. And, and when people have psychological issues or depression or other things, that's where they get you to look at that all of that stems back to that timeframe for most kids is my true. Yeah, that's absolutely correct. You know, children can be brought up in a home and if they have some sort of trauma that occurs to them, if they're, you know, abused or neglected in a certain way, you know, they can harbor that trauma and they can keep that inside and that trauma doesn't go away unless it's addressed. So it's getting worse and worse and the child starts acting out in adolescence to where they're not bad kids, they're just traumatized. They've never had that trauma alleviated in their home. And that's what we do here with our counseling program is we target what that trauma is. We, we alleviate it, we get that out of that child and you get to see children become different people when they're here. They just absolutely flip the script, you know, a lot of kids come in angry and they're, they're mad, they're, they're scared, you know, but after a short period of time with the loving staff, the loving house parents, you know, people like you and the community that come out to volunteer and that sort of thing, they realize very quickly that they're in a good place and so they can really open up to the people here that love them and become new people. I'm kind of curious. Do you have separate teachers and house parents? We do. Yeah, our house parents, each cottage is staffed with a husband and wife, you know, a mother and father figure. So they, the children wake up as a family, they eat breakfast together as a family. So they get that family unit, that family model of care. And then when they first come on campus, they attend the on-campus school. So they walk from the cottage, they go over to the school building and then we have a teaching staff there that are teachers. And so they, you know, go through the curriculum, get the children caught up very quickly, a very small student teacher ratio, which adds to the effectiveness. Right. It's, it's a lot easier to learn algebra when there's two students and one teacher versus a whole classroom of 30 kids, they're acting up, cutting up. It's, it's just a completely different environment. One of those zip up files, just like the computer zip. Yes, speed it up, folks. That's right. So, so if there are about 30, 30 children, I'm trying to envision this for people as well. And you only have two students. How do you figure out what teachers that you need for each group? Because I can't imagine, you know, your range is teenagers down to three years old. How do you figure out how to do the teacher staff? Sure. Sure. Well, every child starts at our on-site school. That's where we do the academic assessment. Once a child is caught up to their peer group academically, their emotions, their behaviors in check, then we'll transition them to Longmont Christian School. So then they go to an accredited school in Longmont. So there's not, the children don't stay at our campus school the entire time that they're placed here. Oh, okay. And when they come in, it's not uncommon to see a child who's 12 years old and a 16 year old child in the same reading or math class, because they're coming from so many different backgrounds. Some children are way far behind than other children. So our classes are set up to where we'll, we'll have content and then, you know, various children come in from different backgrounds, different academic levels, and they all kind of catch up at the same pace. Oh, wow. And so it's a very unique environment. It's unlike any school that you've ever seen. It's a therapeutic environment, but it's a school at the same time. And, you know, just talking to the children out here, all of them say, when I came here, I hated school. I didn't do my work. I acted up in class. They all have the same story, but now they're complimenting the teachers and saying, you know, this lady believes in me. You know, she believed in me when I came here. And now I'm making A's. I'm turning in my work and I love it. And that's that transition that we get to see on a daily basis that makes this work so incredible. Yeah. Isn't that special when someone sees your potential and, and get hope? That's amazing. It is. Yeah. Now, don't you have a farm? Let's see. The last time I was up there, I think Randy, your, is he a business partner of yours? He's our executive director. Yes. Okay. And he was talking about a farm that you have there. We do. That's got to be good for the kids also learning about growing things. It is. When you see a child get to get to watch a pig get born. That's pretty special just to see their reaction. And then we raise cattle. So we have heads of cows out here and we raise them for food. So children understand the, you know, where food comes from. We raise hay as well. We have alfalfa field out there. And that goes to, you know, feed our animals as well as we can sell it to local ranchers as well to help with our funding. And when you don't take government or state support, all of our funding is private. We have to come up with creative ways to raise money. And the farm program is not only self-sustaining here, but it helps us raise money in the community. That's fascinating. I don't know much about nonprofit companies. So I love your idea of figuring out how to be self-sustaining. What's your advice to other people who want to get into the nonprofit business? Well, it's find your passion. There's, I've never had a job like this to where I love working. I love coming to work. It's not work anymore. It's just doing things with the community to help children turn their lives around. And if it's children, if it's animals, if it's horses, if it's the homeless veterans, there's so many great causes right here in Longmont that if you're passionate about, start by volunteering. Get out there and see what the operation's all about. Make sure that it's a good fit for you. And if there's an opening and you're passionate about it and you can make a living out it, take it. Go for it. Because there's nothing more rewarding to see your passion come to fruition and come to reality on a daily basis. Nothing like it. And I know that how I met you was through tabletop networking. So you are out in the community and you're constantly getting your name out there. I see more and more notice of Mountain State's Children's Home. And I met Randy through the Chamber of Commerce here in Longmont. So I know he was active, but I see more information about the company than I have before. Good. We're doing our job then. You are. You are. And you do fundraising or to raise money. So obviously, that's not enough. How do you reach out to the community or do you reach out throughout the country? How do you get your name expanded that far? We do. We have churches in Texas that support us. We have people in churches in Georgia that support us. And that just comes by people that know somebody who knows somebody. I have a friend in Loveland, Dixie Daly, and she coined this phrase, it's not who knows you. It's not who you know. It's who knows you. And so we try to get our name in front of as many people as we can because it's such a wonderful story to be told. And our funding does come from all over the country. We send out a newsletter every couple of, two or three months. Here's what it looks and I'm happy to get you on the mailing list. I love it. It's just content that, you know, we're always changing, always progressing. There's always new stories to be told. So we want to make sure that people can read about what we're doing. And if you read about us, if you come out and see us, you're going to fall in love with us. I'm going to warn you ahead of time that, you know, be ready. We also do events in the community. We have a sporting play tournament. Here's our information here and I can send that over in the response to the fields and some construction and you know, a lot of local companies support us. Our support is almost 80% individuals, people like you that send us a monthly chat to help our operations. We have about 12% that come from churches. There's a lot of times I like to go to churches because families, when they find themselves in trouble, will try to find a church because there's solutions to be found there. So we want to be a resource and in doing so, you know, it's biblical to support children and the orphan. And so we fit just perfect with churches that want to support their community. We apply for a lot of grants in the community. You know, the Lamont Community Foundation, you know, Eric and his team over there do wonderful work. So we, you know, get a lot of funding through donor advised funds. There's lots of opportunities for people to invest in that by giving, you know, you know, plan giving, you know, putting us in their will, gifts of real estate, gifts of stock, you know, insurance policies, those kinds of things are huge. We rely on those kinds of things. And the best part about living in Colorado is if you give a donation to us up to $200,000, you can take advantage of the Colorado Child Care Tax Credit, which will give you half of that up to half of that donation back. So if you give a $200,000 gift, you can get $100,000 back as a credit on your return the next year, plus your government, plus your state return. So it costs a lot less to give a lot more. And I try to tell as many people that live in Colorado that because it's so, it's important that you know about it. That is, yes, yes, because a lot, I'm sure a lot of people don't realize there are taxes are so complex, you know, but that's something extra that, you know, a lot of people probably don't think of. Exactly. So how, Walter, how do people sign up for your newsletter or how do they connect with you? Is it best to go through email or LinkedIn? What, what would you prefer? I would recommend go to our website. It's msh.org. So it's an acronym for Mountain States Children. So msh.org. There's a plethora of information on there. You can sign up for a newsletter. You can make an online donation. You can register for our Sporting Clay Tournament, which is filling up fastest here. And you can, you know, read stories about children that have been there. You can meet our staff. You can hear, you know, read about our board members. You know, there's all kinds of stuff to find. I mean, you can spend a lot of time on that website. It's very complete because when we were designing it, we had, you know, just this amount of information. Like, but there's this and then there's that. And then there's the other. So it's, it's, there's a lot of information. So you can spend some time and learn. And but ultimately you can definitely get in contact with us and help us stay in contact with you. So you can continue to see the good work that's being done here. And I forgot how long has Mountain States Children's Home been around? What did you say? We started in Longmont in 1960. Okay. 1960. Yeah. Yeah. And that's when that area was all farms and Longmont was mostly farms. That's right. That's right. Yeah, there was a group of guys down in Denver that were sending, they were, they were with a church and they would get families coming to them. You know, can you save my child, this sort of thing. They were having to send children to other states. And they decided, you know, we need something right here in Colorado. So they searched all over Denver and they came up to Longmont and found this farm for sale. The five individuals took second mortgages on their homes to purchase this property back in 1960. Oh, wow. You talk about faith and vision, you know, so we commemorate them on our wall out here. You know, if it wasn't for their vision, you know, we wouldn't be here today. But over time, you know, we've continued to grow and be successful. And I think right now is the most exposure we've ever had to our community, just by the work that Randy's doing, the work that I'm doing, getting out in front of people, telling our story. And we have to continue to grow because there's so many children out there that need what we provide and nobody else is doing what we're doing. And on top of that, we'll accept any child regardless of an ability to pay. So we don't charge for our services. It's a sliding scale. And that brings a lot of children to us by other countries, to other states, because we do offer these services for nothing. We don't want money to stand in the way of saving a child. So that's why donations are so important. So we can continue to grow. Is there a way that you rank who gets to come in? Because, you know, I think this is a huge service and there are lots of children that could use your service, but you have to pick and choose the kids that get to come in. Is there a process? There is. There's a very intricate process indeed. When you go to our website, there's a, initially there's a survey that you can fill out, answers, you know, answer questions about your child's situation. You submit that in. We have a professional services department to where they go over the psychological evaluations. We do a survey. It's called the Multidimensional Adolescent Assessment Scale. That's done at placement to determine where the child is struggling. What needs does this particular child have? So we do all these things and a lot of times the children are beyond our level of care. So we'll try to find a resource for that family to give that child the help they need. If they are within our level of care, the parental unit, whatever that is, agrees to the program because they have to be involved as well. We don't just take the child, we don't involve the family. No, we have to have that family involved as well because we want it to where the child gets better. We alleviate all their areas of therapeutic need. The child's, you know, person at the scene is ready to just be a great person and then they go back to a toxic environment. That's not good. So we want to work with a family unit as well to help them create new programs and processes for their home so that the child can go back to a good productive loving environment. So we're not only helping children here, but we're helping families out in our community as well. I love it. That's very special. I would love for people to comment and like this video and go ahead and share it with many people. This is valuable information and so helpful. It's nice that you help if people can't make it into your place that you help them find some place else because I'm sure you're really well connected, the two of you, Randy and you. Yeah, we've met a lot of people. It's long, not such a wonderful community and there's always new people to meet and it's always going to see old faces. Yeah. It's just really, and tabletop networking is, I'll give a plug for that. That's a very diverse group of people. And I mean, that first time when we hosted it here in our gym, I met so many new people that day. I maybe saw you have three, four familiar faces and the rest were new. Oh, that's fun. I was going to meet new people. Yeah, just for our viewers so that they know about tabletop networking. It's like speed dating, except you're doing it about your business. So you get one minute to screw all sorts of stuff as much as you can in one minute about your business and get to know the community and then you switch tables and you go to another. So it is a lot of fun. And I have to say this about Mountain State's Children Home. You used to be far north of Longmont, but slowly Longmont is creeping north to where you are. So I'm glad you've got all that acreage there so that the kids are well surrounded and have a buffer zone. It's a political place. You and Randy and the board have done such a fabulous job. I remember going north toward Bertha and Fort Collins and thinking, wow, that place looks really fascinating. I wonder what is there? So it's so nice to be able to connect with you and hear about what you do and the services and all. And I really hope that people connect with you and listen to this interview and get an insight into what it takes to do non-profit. A lot of hard work. It is a lot of hard work and it's so rewarding though. I don't see myself doing anything else. I just don't. I mean, I found it's amazing. I mean, I'm not only just so happy to be in this position and I think that feeds out in my talking to people in the community. I just love it. Girls come out and help out at all. They do. Yeah, they come to volunteer. I'm actually bringing my youngest daughter out to sweep and mop the gym floor this weekend. So she gets a taste of it too. Oh yeah, you got to teach service. You get so much joy from serving others and this is a wonderful place to get help. You really do. Amazing. Yeah. But definitely want to invite all your viewers to visit our website. Again, it's msh.org and just spend a few minutes looking around. We have some videos on our front page so you can hear from the children, tell their stories. We have a young man that was here as a child. It's now an adult and he tells how his time here has influenced his life and he has his own family. So it's really a good place to start to learn more about us. And then you can also reach out to me directly. I'm Walter Williams. It's wwilliams at msh.org. It's my email and that's a great way to initiate contact and I'd be happy to visit with anyone or if you want to come out and take a tour, reach out, come out and see what we're doing out here because once you come out here and see, it's really going to affect you and you're going to be thinking about it the whole way home. Trust me. Yeah. It's amazing. Well to close this out, one last thought that goes through my mind. Is there any way that a non-profit business franchises and so that you can do this around the country? Are there enough farms that are out there that could be turned into a children's home? Oh, absolutely. There's so many other ways that we can serve our community that what comes to mind is a single mom that's had to become single due to various situations. She's struggling to make ends meet as children doesn't know what to do. Instead of placing the child and separating that family, how about a program that has single mother families that get their business savvy or get their degree or get their certificate while they're there with their child in a therapeutic environment? Something like that would be really cool. There's endless ways to expand. We did the college and career or transitional living program. We purchased property in Berthad right downtown to where children can turn 18 in our program here and if they want to go to college or trade school in a front-range community college or work in the area, they can move off campus and live there. So that's another way that we're expanding now. Being privately funded, obviously we have to control our growth. A lot of the governmental funded places, they grow too fast and they're not as effective or not as one-on-one as we are. The concept itself is around other places. There's other children's homes. I like to think that we're a lot more comprehensive because we have the school and the counseling and the college program. Those kinds of things really sets us apart. As a non-profit, to answer your question, yes, you can absolutely expand your programs and grow. Just make sure that you're not growing too fast. Make sure that you stay true to your core values that got you where you are now. I love it. Well, I'm sure we haven't covered all the questions that people would have but hopefully we've covered a lot so that people can understand non-profit and in your field helping kids out. So thank you so much for your time, Walter. I really appreciate all this great information and I look forward to getting it out to other people. Well, thank you, Jenny. I appreciate your time and having me on. It's been a pleasure. So much fun. Thanks, Walter. Have a good day. You too. Thank you. Thanks. See you. Bye.