Giving Collectively, Granting Strategically, Growing a Greater Greenville: The Story of Greenville Women Giving

Founded in 2006, Greenville Women Giving (GWG) is a philanthropic organization made up of over 500 people. They serve Greenville County in South Carolina and believe that women, when informed about philanthropy needs in their community, can make a real difference. Their mission is to work collectively to identify and fund nonprofit organizations in the areas of arts, education, environment, health, and human services.

GWG takes a holistic view of the community with an eye toward funding and accomplishing together what few people could do on their own. Women can become members by donating $1,200 per year for three years. $1,000 goes immediately into the current year’s fund, and $200 helps to defray their program and operational costs. GWG offers educational opportunities throughout the year so women can learn about community needs and opportunities and the organizations that are attempting to address them.

When looking for projects that have the potential for high impact and significant positive change in the community, GWG looks broadly through many different areas for grants. They want to strengthen the community through the arts, promote lifelong learning, improve the overall health and natural environment of the community, and address inequalities within the community. Over the years they have secured more than 120 grants to help them pursue these goals, and they passed $6 million in grants in 2019.

Giving Collectively, Granting Strategically, Growing a Greater Greenville: The Story of Greenville Women Giving looks at 15 years of growth and community service. To learn more about Greenville Women Giving, make a donation, or inquire about membership, visit https://www.greenvillewomengiving.org/

Teton Valley Ranch Camp

Teton Valley Ranch Camp (TVRC) was established in 1939 to provide unique, challenging, and fun western and backcountry experiences to campers. It is located on 2,300 acres of land, bordered on all sides by National Forest and other state and federal lands. When campers head out on the trails, they follow in the footsteps of cowboys and cowgirls who have worked the land for generations and have the chance to catch sight of deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, and moose.

TVRC offers five levels of programming from 11-year-old Yearlings to 16-year-old Trail Blazers, encouraging progressive attendance as campers’ skill advance. Campers can focus on specific areas of interest including backpacking, horseback riding, and fly fishing. Some of the camp’s core values include stewardship, lifelong friendship, and having both the strength to lead and the faith to follow.

The TVRC Education Foundation, formed 61 years after the camp was established, seeks to provide educational excellence in camp programming in an enriching western environment. They took over the Camp when the founding family was ready to pass it on, locating a new ranch and developing the land to serve campers for generations to come. The Camp offers two-week and four-week sessions and will welcome over 300 campers this summer.

TVRC continues to provide a journey of discovery for every camper, allowing a space for traditions, growth, and a chance to be connected to the self and the wilderness that they adventure in. To celebrate the Camp’s 80th anniversary, the TVRC Education Foundation published a book looking back on decades of Camp history.

To learn more about TVRC, please visit https://www.tvrcamp.org/

The 3 CEOs: The Three Most Important Roles Entrepreneurial Financial Advisors Play

Travis Chaney is the CEO of Dynamic Directions, an award-winning coaching and consulting team specializing in building better lives and practices for financial advisors. He has coached clients to places on the Barron’s Top 1,200 Financial Advisors list, the Barron’s Top 100 Female Advisor list, and Forbes list of Best-In-State Wealth Advisors. As a speaker, Travis has delivered presentations to companies like Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., Coldwell Banker, Woodmen of the World, Financial Planning Association, and Kentucky Wesleyan College.

The 3 CEOs: The Three Most Important Roles Entrepreneurial Financial Advisors Play is Travis’ second book. He challenges readers to assume the three essential roles of entrepreneurial leadership to take their businesses to new heights: Chief Executive Officer, Cultural Excellence Officer, and Client Experience Officer. The 3 CEOs model helps entrepreneurs build a framework of personal principles and beliefs, translate those beliefs into a company culture based on their values, and position their businesses to provide a client experience that can’t be matched.

Travis wrote The 3 CEOs not just to help people position their businesses for success, but also to help them become better spouses, parents, friends, and people. He stands by the argument that an extraordinary life is something we get by looking inward first. For many who have gone through this process, it's been the greatest adventure imaginable.

The 3 CEOS will be available May 13. To learn more about Travis Chaney, visit https://dynamicdirections-d2.com/team/travis-chaney/

Adventures with Divot and Swish in the Ozark Mountains: The Superpower of Confidence

Beth Brown, PhD, created her characters Divot and Swish to explore education and positive youth developments through sports. Divot, a golf ball, loves meeting new people. Swish, a basketball net, is a bit shy, but loves basketball and trying new sports. Together they travel the world, making new friends, exploring new cultures, and gaining new superpowers through playing sports.

For their first book, Divot and Swish adventure in Costa Rica and meet Sammy the Surfer. They’ve never gone surfing before, so they’re nervous as they follow Sammy’s lead. They learn to paddle, balance, and stand on the boards, but will Divot and Swish find the courage they need to surf with the fish?

In their second outing, Divot and Swish go to the Ozark Mountains for a week at a sports camp. They meet McKenna the Mountain Biker who invites them on an exciting biking adventure. Divot feels nervous about biking, and Swish is unsure of himself when he needs to speak out loud. Together they work to unlock the real-world superpower of confidence.

Beth has a PhD in sport psychology from the University of Kansas and a life-long love of sports, starting when she picked up a basketball when she was only 2. She’s not only an author but also a golf coach, an educational program developer, and founder of the coaching and consulting agency Team Aureus.

Divot and Swish go on adventures inspired by Beth’s real-life experiences with sports, friends, and cultures. The pair teaches kids about new physical activities while traveling around the world and making friends in places like Costa Rica, the Ozark Mountains, Hawaii, Switzerland, and Australia. Through these adventures they develop real-life superpowers like courage, confidence, resilience, teamwork, and loyalty – superpowers young readers can develop, too.

The pair takes kids on beautifully illustrated adventures into new worlds praised by parents, teachers, and kids. Beth is available for book reading adventures both virtual and in-person with customized art or physical activities for each classroom.

To learn more about Divot and Swish, visit https://adventureswithdivotandswish.com/

Camps Leelanau and Kohahna: Preserving and Promoting 100 Years of History, Tradition, and Healing

Just north of Glen Arbor, on Port Oneida Road, Camps Leelanau and Kohahna have greeted campers for over a century. Founded in 1921 as a healing response to an international pandemic, the camps have matured into rich summer experiences for young Christian Scientists and varied off-season programming, focused on outdoor education and personal development.

Since 1988, the Camps have been located on Pyramid Point, surrounded by the natural beaty of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. They have been thoroughly refurbished and modernized, but the beauty of the original Camps has also been preserved. While the Camps have expanded beyond one family’s vision of a better way to educate and raise young men and women of God, Camps Leelanau and Kohahna continue to uphold this mission in the twenty-first century.

Counselors at both Camps encourage campers to excel in familiar activities and try new ones, whether those take place on the trail, the lake, or the stage. Their goal is to bring out the most in their campers and to love, support, and challenge them along the way. Summer camp sessions range from 2 to 7 weeks, and other programming is offered throughout the year.

Camps Leelanau and Kohahna: Preserving and Promoting 100 Years of History, Tradition, and Healing follows the Camps from their genesis under siblings Skipper Beals and Maude Beals Turner, to their defining years, memories of the mid-twentieth century, changes and transitions during the turbulent 1960s, their move to their current home, and hopes for the future.

To learn more about Camps Leelanau and Kohahna, visit https://leelanau-kohahna.org/