Help WESCO help the community

WESCO Industries, of Denison, is looking to expand membership of the WESCO Foundation Board of Directors.

The foundation board is separate from the WESCO Board of Directors, which is the organization’s governing board.

“The foundation board meets quarterly; their function is to raise money for WESCO, to support it and focus on community integration,” said Clay Adams, executive director of WESCO Industries.

“What we want to do is expand the foundation board; we’re looking for at least five to six new members to be on it, so it will have a total of 12 members.”

People from all walks of life are needed.

“You don’t have to be a finance person, you just have to want to make Denison a better place and help WESCO make Denison a better place,” Adams said.

He said that many people may not realize that WESCO is Crawford County’s fifth largest employer.

“We have about 140 employees, and we also serve about 180 clients,” Adams said. “If you put those two together, it’s a big chunk of people that live and work in the county; well over 300 between the staff and the clients we serve.”

Story Ads 1

WESCO’s members currently provide staffing for 27 area businesses.

“When you go to Walmart, Fareway or Hy-Vee to shop, or Pizza Ranch to eat out, or the Bake Shop, or similar businesses in town, you’re generally in a business that employs somebody from WESCO,” he said. “Helping WESCO helps the city of Denison because we’re still in a staffing shortage. There’s not a lot of people that aren’t hiring right now.”

WESCO is more stable and stronger in 2024 than in any of Adams’s previous 12 years as executive director.

“We’ve grown a lot, we’ve strengthened a lot, and through all those years, people came to help us through volunteerism and donations and things like that, and now we want to return the favor,” he said.

“We’re looking for people who are into fundraising, into community action and into community integration (of WESCO’s services).”

The kind of people working on the Crawford County Wellness Center project, the new inclusive playground at Washington Park, the Immigrant Heritage Festival, the Tri City BBQ Fest, Hot Summer Nights, and similar efforts, are the kind of people WESCO wants on its foundation board, he said.

For about a decade, WESCO put on an annual golf tournament that was the organization’s fundraising tool.

“Last year, we did the First Annual WESCO Duck Float, and that’s going to be the foundation’s new major fundraiser for the year,” Adams said. “We’re going to continue to give 50% of the profits right back to a local charity, a local family in need, or a local entity that needs help.”

The fundraiser contributed $4,000 to the Crawford County Fair last year.

A focus for the WESCO Foundation Board will be to identify the people and places in Denison and Crawford County that need help and then find ways to provide that help.

“The board’s purpose is to integrate into the community and support WESCO,” Adams said. “I think we can do that at the same time that we help out people in the community.”

Individuals interested in joining the expanded WESCO Foundation Board of Directors are encouraged to contact Starla Webb, WESCO business director, at 712-263-6141.

“You don’t need any certifications to be on this board,” Adams said. “You just have to be someone who wants to help. That’s what we’re looking for.”

Follow us on Facebook for the latest news and updates