I have a daughter who lives in the Waldo area and we have been very disturbed about the rapes that have recently occurred in this neighborhood. To the credit of many Waldo residents and the police department, many community meetings are being held, posters of the alleged rapist are plastered all over the neighborhood, newspapers are routinely running front page articles and TV stations are leading their newscast with nightly stories about this situation. While all this attention is comforting to me as a dad, I wonder how a dad who has a child living in other parts of our community feels when he sees all this effort being paid to this somewhat rare but violent crime that has taking place in the Waldo area.

Rapes, shootings, and other violent crimes are regular occurrences in some neighborhoods in our community. Where are the front page stories and outrage for these crimes? Why are the community and police reactions to these rapes and shootings any less newsworthy in the urban core than they are in the Waldo Community? Alvin Brooks and other community leaders periodically organized vigils or prayer services to honor these victims and attempt to ask the community for help in finding those who are responsible, but where is everyone else?

The constant attention and community support that is taking place in the Waldo neighborhood is a model that should be used in other parts of the city when a violent action takes place. It is not enough to simply report the tragedy that someone was raped or killed. The real story is how the community is responding to this terrible crime and keeping community attention focused on preventing further attacks and bringing the people responsible for the crime to justice. The attention and support being given to the Waldo neighborhoods should be replicated routinely in other parts of our city.

For those of you who work for a nonprofit organization or who serve on a nonprofit board, you know the importance and dedication of the folks who serve as board members. Last week HCF had six of our founding director’s leave the board as their board terms expired. These founding board members were simply amazing.

In September 2003 Missouri Attorney General Nixon named our founding board members and provided them with money from the sale of Health Midwest Hospitals to HCA but gave little other direction other than to “do what was right”. The founding board had to determine funding priorities, develop financial management and investment practices, hire consultants and vendors, find office space, hire staff, and most importantly listen to needs of the community.

This foundation has benefited greatly from the leadership of these outstanding men and women. They developed an ethics and conflict of interest policy for board and associates that is very strong and comprehensive. They established funding guidelines and grant making procedures that are transparent and fair. They made sure we provided training to small grass roots and faith based organizations so they could compete for funding. They challenged us to take risks and to get deeply involved in public policy discussions that affect the uninsured and underserved.

As HCF transitions to new board leadership I want to take time to thank our outgoing founding board members: Dr. Harry Jonas, Mary Lou Jaramillo, Larry Blankinship, Rod Minkin, Landon Rowland and Mark Flaherty. Thanks for your leadership and friendship!

We welcome new leaders to the HCF foundation board: Al Mauro, Sr., Marie McCarther, Marcia Nielsen, Dr. Dan Purdom, Kenny Southwick, Ken Stremming, & Susan Wilson. We look forward to working with these new board leaders as we continue the journey of providing leadership, advocacy and resources that eliminate barriers to quality health for uninsured and underserved in our service area.