On the other end of the phone was Destiny Carter, who at the time was a junior at Fort Dodge Senior High School. Carter had just found out that her mother died. She called to tell Bruno the unfortunate news.

Bruno, retiring program coordinator for the Fort Dodge Community Foundation and United Way, was an important figure in Carter’s life. Bruno mentored Carter from the time she was in first grade all the way through high school.

“I saw her every week during those years,” Bruno said. “I really knew her. She’s a smart girl and very creative. Her mother loved her very much. There was no bad stuff in her home, her mom just had a tough life.”

The loss of her mother left Carter without parents. Carter’s father died from cancer when she was just 4 years old. While she was a student at Fort Dodge Middle School, Carter started Cancer Awareness Day in memory of her father.

“Ever since my dad died, I didn’t have much of a connection to him, and all I had was things my mom had told me,” Carter said in 2015. “So I wanted to do something that made me think of him.”

After her mother’s passing, it was unclear where Carter was going to stay. And Carter even had doubts about finishing school.

That’s where Bruno and her work with United Way came in. Part of United Way’s mission is to help underprivileged youth and support family stability.

“I went over and talked to her,” Bruno said. “She and her sister were at a loss of what to do.”

At one point Carter was going to live with a out-of-state relative, but that fell through.

Eventually, a family emerged that had a connection to Carter’s mother.

Carter’s mother was from the Philippines.

“While she was there she went to an international school and she kept in touch a group of friends who moved back to the U.S.,” Bruno said. “They found out her mother died, so one of them came from Long Island to work with us and United Way.”

In less than two months, a stable home was found for Carter.

One of the friends from the international school lived in Portland, Oregon. They decided they wanted to help.

“They had a family meeting and decided they would welcome her,” Bruno said. “It was so nice that there were two parents to take her.”

Finding that stability was critical, Bruno said.

“For most of the time she really had a spark in her and you just think she has to keep it going,” Bruno said. “You want her to pass these obstacles and be the neat person she really is. Even at her graduation she was the first one to speak at her high school in Portland. This family out there are the saints. They gave her a stable home, cooked meals, painted her room. They are amazing people. They had two kids of their own, too.”

Bruno is happy to report that Carter has since started community college in Portland.

Carter’s story is just one of many, according to Bruno.

“There are kids who need advocates,” Bruno said. “There’s so many kids who don’t have that. There’s still a lot of need here. There’s high poverty in Webster County.”

•

Bruno, who has been with United Way since 2013, is retiring from her position in the coming weeks.

She grew up in Fort Dodge and graduated from FDSH.

She met her late husband, Mike, while studying at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame. Mike was studying at the University of Notre Dame.

Her teaching career and Mike’s banking career took them to different parts of the world. After living in Chicago for a time the couple moved to Bangkok, Thailand, in 1979. Later they moved to Singapore.

While overseas, Bruno primarily taught English.

The couple also lived in Houston before settling in South Bend, Indiana. Bruno and her husband would go on to start Southhold Trading Company, which they owned for 13 years. They raised five kids together.

Bruno lost her husband on Oct. 24, 2001, when a tornado hit the South Bend plant they operated.

Bruno moved back to Fort Dodge in 2006. At that time, she worked as an assistant at McClure Engineering Co. under Terry Lutz, who was the city’s mayor at the time.

In May 2008, Bruno became the director of the Chamber of Commerce.

In 2011, the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance was formed when the Chamber of Commerce merged with the Development Corporation of Fort Dodge and Webster County.

“I really think it was a good thing to do,” Bruno said, reflecting on the merger. “It made it way more efficient and kept communication a lot more open.”

In January 2013, Bruno went to work with Randy Kuhlman, CEO at the Fort Dodge Community Foundation and United Way.

“I loved it,” she said.

Some of the programs Bruno has been involved with include: Wheels for Work, which helps people find transportation to and from work; the Humanitarian Program, which helps people in crisis with utility bills; and Bridging the Gap, a program that helps people get furniture or beds to children who don’t have them.

Meals on Wheels is another program that receives United Way funding.

The Community Foundation has also been instrumental in the Joy of Reading program, a registered Little Free Library on wheels that is taken to places around the Fort Dodge community where children already are.

•

One particular organization that Bruno prided herself on being part of was the Fort Dodge Fine Arts Association.

“On the Foundation side we have really worked with Fine Arts,” she said. “In 2014 or 2015 the Fine Arts came under the umbrella of the Community Foundation and it was treated like an economic development tool to have a vibrant community.”

Since that time, Bruno has witnessed the growth of the organization.

“At that time we had seven members of Fine Arts and now we are up to 60,” she said. “We have had great communication between everybody. We keep an annual calendar.”

Fort Dodge Fine Arts was also involved in the Grain Silo Mural project, which has left Fort Dodge with one of the largest murals in the state.

“I know it was controversial a little at first but I think the artist (Guido van Helten) did a phenomenal job,” Bruno said. “It’s something we can be very proud of here.”

In recent years, there have also been about 20 painted pianos placed throughout the community.

“Terry Moehnke (Fort Dodge city council member) said we needed public art, so here we are,” Bruno said with a smile.

Shelly Bottorff is the executive director of the Fort Dodge Fine Arts Association.

“She is really talented,” Bruno said. “We are really working to target youth to get involved in art. Statistics show higher graduation rate and lower drug use when students are involved, so Shelly is really working on that, too.”

The renovation of the Phillips Middle School auditorium is another Fine Arts project that Bruno is excited to see finished.

“That’s about a third of the way completed,” she said.

In the coming months, Bruno plans to move closer to some of her children and her sister, who have settled in Chicago.

And while she prepares to leave a city that’s very close to her heart, Bruno said she has confidence in the the Community Foundation and United Way to continue great work.

“It’s a great community,” Bruno said. “I’ve loved it my whole life. And the Community Foundation board is very dedicated to helping this community and helping at-risk kids and families. They are very caring people.”

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