In March 2020, it announced the creation of a new Disaster Response Fund that supports nonprofits working directly with families and individuals impacted by the pandemic.

About $80,00 has been raised for the fund so far, according to Randy Kuhlman, the chief executive officer of the Community Foundation and United Way. He said the Community Foundation put $40,000 into the fund.

Another significant donor was the Decker Family Charitable Trust, which contributed $15,000.

Kuhlman said $65,000 worth of grants have been made from the fund. A high percentage of those grants, he said, went to food banks.

-Messenger file photo
Randy Kuhlman, chief executive officer and president of the Fort Dodge Community Foundation and United Way, poses in the group’s downtown Fort Dodge offices.

He added that he anticipates a need for the fund for at least another six months.

“That was obviously a unique situation that we had to respond to,” Kuhlman said.

The Disaster Relief Fund is one of the newest additions to the foundation’s portfolio, which includes 135 different accounts. Each of those accounts was set up to meet a specific charitable purpose.

Kuhlman said the assets now under the foundation’s management total about $18 million.

Management of those assets is a task that flies under the radar with little public notice.

But the foundation is also involved in some more visible work.

“As long as a project is serving a public purpose or is charitable, we can support it,” Kuhlman said.

That enabled the foundation to become the sponsor of an effort to commemorate the most famous pig to come from Webster County, Floyd of Rosedale.

The origin of the Floyd of Rosedale tradition can be traced to a 1934 football game between the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota. All-American running back Ozzie Simmons, one of the few black players in major college football at the time, was a Hawkeye. The Minnesota players singled him out for some brutal hits on the way to winning the game.

In the runup to the 1935 game between the two rivals, Hawkeye fans were boiling with anger and Iowa Gov. Clyde Herring suggested that the fans would take action if the referees didn’t put an end to the attacks on Simmons. To cool things down, Minnesota Gov. Floyd Olson bet Herring a live hog on the outcome of the game.

Minnesota won the game, 13-6. But by all accounts, it was a clean game and the players from both schools complimented each other after it was over.

Herring, however, had to pay up. He turned to Allen Loomis, the owner of Rosedale Farms just east of Fort Dodge, for a hog. He named the pig Floyd in honor of the Minnesota governor.

The original Floyd of Rosedale is long gone, but the two teams compete every year for a trophy that’s a small sculpture of him.

In March, a giant sculpture of Floyd will be set up at the intersection of 10th Avenue North and 32nd Street, not far from the site of Rosedale Farms.

Kuhlman said the sculpture will be paid for entirely with donations. He said $205,000 was raised for it.

The foundation has also launched a web site devoted to the history of Fort Dodge and Webster County. It includes historic photos, stories and biographies of more than 100 notable local people.

“It’s taken the robust history we have and put it on a web site where it’s easily accessible,” Kuhlman said.

“It’s been a real pleasing and satisfying project because it’s turned out so well and it’s well-received,” he added.

United Way

The local United Way has a more targeted mission than the foundation. Helping disadvantaged kids is the organization’s No. 1 priority.

Kuhlman said the organization is seeing an increase in families struggling to meet basic living expenses. He added that an increase in people needing counseling due to stress brought on by the pandemic is also apparent.

The United Way, he said, is moving to help make sure people who need counseling can afford to get it.

“We try to be there so no family is turned away,” he said.

Visiting local businesses to meet with employees and encourage them to contribute to the annual United Way campaign is a major way for the organization to get the donations it needs. Those in-person meetings weren’t possible last year because of the pandemic, so they were conducted remotely.

“There’s still a lot of generous people who understand the need,” Kuhlman said.

Still, he expects contributions to the campaign will be down at least a little bit.

The annual campaign, which usually ends in December, is still underway to make up for time lost to the pandemic last year.