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The Grant County Community Foundation was the focus of the July 12 Chamber Coffee at the Grant County Library, and foundation president Marcus Matkin introduced the foundation’s newest addition, executive director Sabrina Gaddis.
“As we’ve had the funds available, we’ve chosen to bring in a full-time paid position to help drive the community foundation forward even to the next steps,” Matkin said. Sabrina Gaddis has come on as our full-time director. We’re hoping this will give us a lot more effort on community collaboration and working to get some things done within the community.”
Gaddis is originally from Hoxie in Northwest Kansas and has lived her entire life in Western Kansas. Gaddis attended Fort Hays State University on a track scholarship, earning an undergrad degree in Business and was one of the first people to earn a certificate in Leadership from the school.
A college internship with a chamber commerce nearby led to a full-time position with the chamber as special projects coordinator before moving on to the Downtown Hays Development Corporation where she led the Downtown Hays Revitalization effort for a decade. After that, she worked at her college alma mater for three years on a short-term grant position helping community and technical colleges across Kansas convert their traditional in-class content into Online content. She moved on to work a 5-year grant program at the Management Development Center at Fort Hays State, where she ended up working for another decade.
“After 10 years with the Management Development Center, Marcus called,” Gaddis said.
She moved to Ulysses in March 2020 at the start of Covid when Fort Hays State shut down, but was still at Fort Hays State and commuting back-and-forth (about a 3-hour one-way drive).
“When this opportunity came up and presented in front of myself, I said ‘I’m tired of missing a lot of the kids’ events, and it’s time to do something different,”’ Gaddis said.
“I get to come on and help lead the efforts of what has already been done,” she added.
Addressing the assembled crowd as the chamber coffee, she said, “I just wanted to reiterate that this is your foundation, this is because of everything that you all have done, whether you have been a volunteer, a board member, a donor, a contributor in some way, shape or form.”
•The Grant County Community Foundation started out as an affiliate of the Western Kansas Community Foundation in Garden City before disaffiliating with Garden City to start in Grant County in 2017 with an initial capital donation of $250 that has grown to more than $5 million in assets now.
“We felt like we had the funds to sustain ourselves on our own and do things on our own and we’ve always been a total voluntary organization,” Matkin said.
Known for its Grant County Gives event, the Foundation has given $2,249,340 back to the community since 2012 through Grant County Gives, and through various grants. The GCCF supports Ginger’s Hope, the Grant County Health Department, Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, Southwest Health transport, and Grant County Gives supported 34 local organizations in 2023.
The 2024 Grant County Gives event is set for Nov. 3-9.
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