Tonka Talk Community and Connection

Strengthening Bonds through Philanthropy: Tina Richter's Journey With The National Charity League

Natalie Webster Season 1 Episode 10

Are you ready to discover the joy of giving back and creating deeper bonds with loved ones? This episode is all about the power of volunteering, and we sit down with Tina Richter, vice president of membership for the National Charity League's West Lakes chapter. 

She shares her compelling journey as a volunteer and how she's witnessed the strengthening of the relationship between her and her daughter through their shared philanthropic experiences. 

Tina also spills the tea on how you can become part of this inspiring organization that opens doors for mothers and daughters to make a positive impact on society.

So grab your headphones and get ready to be inspired by the transformative power of volunteering. Whether you're a mother, a daughter, or someone looking for a way to give back, there's something in this episode for you!

Learn more at: https://www.nationalcharityleague.org/chapter/westlakes/ 

Learn more at https://www.tonkatalk.com where we share more about our Lake Minnetonka community, including upcoming events and our take on local experiences.

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If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions of a future guests creating community and connection, email natalie@tonkatalk.com

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Speaker 1:

Hello, have you ever thought about volunteering in the community? What about volunteering with your daughter? If you're a mom and you have a daughter, we have a very unique, unique organization and way of giving back that we're going to share today. My guest is Tina Richter. Welcome.

Speaker 2:

Tina Hi, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Now, tina, you are Tina's the vice president of membership for the National Charity League, the West Lakes West Lakes chapter. I was very excited to hear about this because when I first heard about it she was saying it's an opportunity for mothers and daughters to work together and give back in the community. And I thought, oh, that's great and it is. And then I thought, could I have done that with one of my daughters? My daughters are grown now in adults and the more I thought about it, I thought that would have been such a bonding experience. It's great. So I want to hear yours Just tell people a little bit about what the West Lakes chapter of the National Charity League is about.

Speaker 2:

So what? National Charity League? We are a organization across the country, so there's over 200 chapters, many different states. It's a mother daughter organization and we focus on philanthropy, leadership and culture, and we all have a job, we all have something to do. It is a nonprofit organization. I don't know any organization that doesn't have a job, right?

Speaker 1:

So yeah, it's an active. When you volunteer there, it's a really working organization.

Speaker 2:

It really is. I mean, it would not work if we didn't have members doing jobs. It could be anywhere from the biggest job to being the president, to maybe doing something on the Google Drive. Everybody has a job, and our girls have a job within their class as well. So, yeah, it's fun. It teaches them a lot.

Speaker 1:

And you work. So the organization works to help multiple different nonprofits. Correct, it's not just one. I was looking at the list and it was Feed my Starving Children, the Red Cross so many different organizations. So does that mean that the opportunities to volunteer vary in terms of what you might be doing?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right now about 19 philanthropies just under our chapter, ones around the Lake area that people might have heard of. The Hope Chest is one of them. We have the Humanity Alliance that's in Victoria the Prop Shop again, feed my Starving Children. Those are some of the local ones, and then we have ones that are towards the city that we do. So it gives everybody something to do at any point, whether they're signing up on their own or it's on our own calendar. Special Olympics is a huge one for us.

Speaker 1:

When did you get involved with the nonprofit?

Speaker 2:

So, hi, I got involved. I had heard about it 2018 and I thought you know what? What a great way. My daughter was just in sixth grade at that point and this is this is for daughters who are in seventh to twelfth grade and so we joined in her seventh grade year and, you know, it was kind of a slow go. You got to learn everything about it and it seems overwhelming until you get to know about it.

Speaker 2:

And then, in 2020, we all know what happened then and everything kind of came to a halt. Except what didn't happen was is we were able to sit online and keep learning and keep doing our jobs, and I absorbed a lot of information as VP of membership in my second year. And by October of that year, of 2020, we had someone in the president-elect position who stepped down and I decided you know what I can do this, I can step in and be president the next year. And then my daughter's class elections come along and she's like, well, I'm going to be president too, so we're both presidents. You know, when I was and she was president of her class in ninth grade and I was just so darned excited. It was fun. It was a lot of fun doing that with her and she learned.

Speaker 1:

That is exciting. Yeah, it was how. Now your daughter is 16 today.

Speaker 2:

She is. She's a junior in high school.

Speaker 1:

How would you say, volunteering together through this organization impacted your relationship?

Speaker 2:

She has learned that I don't just stay at home. I don't work anymore, so my job is volunteering. I volunteer for not just this organization but other things, and she has learned that, oh yeah, she's not just a mom. She actually knows a few things and she's learned she can come to me and ask me things. She knows she can learn from me and that you know I'm going to have ideas about things as well. So it's been a very nice way to stay connected with her, especially after she got her driver's license. Hello, we don't see her kids after that. So we do things together and that's how we stay connected.

Speaker 1:

What a great way to do that too. So it sounds like she took to the organization very easily and was open to volunteering.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, she wanted to quit. She wanted to quit after her first year and I was like, oh, I'm already going to be VP of membership, so I'm in this, so you are coming along for the ride. And it was that pivotal moment of I'm going to be president in my class and she has absolutely taken ownership in things. You know it's fun. This is going to be a lifelong thing that she takes with her into college and afterwards.

Speaker 1:

No doubt.

Speaker 2:

So that's really the piece of it. If our girls can learn from us, it's a win.

Speaker 1:

We've won. So it's mothers and daughters, and you said it was from sixth or seventh grade.

Speaker 2:

It starts in seventh grade and it goes up until 12th grade. Typically, classes that we have open are seventh, eighth and ninth grade. When we start out our membership drive, which is going on right now. And yes, so we're looking at those classes of 20, 28, 20, 29 and 20, 30. That's weird.

Speaker 1:

It seems so far off, but it's not no. So what happens when she hits that? That the top age for the organization where you can volunteer? Is it something that typically, then our moms allowed to continue if you don't have a daughter in the program?

Speaker 2:

So typically what happens after girls graduate out? We can become what's called a sustainer and we can do still, you know, volunteering or whatever through the organization Nationals has things that they submit out. You know you can do videos, cooking classes. There's all kinds of stuff that we can keep learning from listening to Rosalyn Wiseman and listening to what she has to say to everybody within National Charity League. So it's it's. There's always something there for us. And yeah, and now I know 1920 different philanthropies I can always volunteer with. Wow.

Speaker 1:

And it's a national organization. You're working with Westlake, so it's kind of the does that cover the obviously the Lake Minnetonka area, so Westlake.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what it is is. It's we're south of 394. There is another chapter it's called the Northwoods chapter and they're north of 394. So we've had a reciprocal agreement. We can, you know, go. If I moved to Plymouth I could go join their chapter, or I would have to ask be released and join our chapter. So it's just so we've got two of us going on and they have different philanthropies than we do Each chapter, some of them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, some of them are the same. Everybody's got Special Olympics around old McDonald house, but they have some different ones up there as well.

Speaker 1:

It's really neat, too, that because it's a national organization, you could move, but you could still be involved throughout. You just have to find the chapter that's nearest you. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

We've had people move up here from Texas who you know been involved with chapters down there, who are become chapters up here. So yeah it's, you could go anywhere in the country and probably find a chapter. It's just I hear about it Exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1:

On talk-a-talk we talk a lot about community and connection and the way that people create that community and connection, and through volunteering. That is how I met a lot of people, especially, I think, for transplants. I'm not from Minnesota, and it was when I was I got involved in my community and started volunteering that I really started to make friends, and friends that I still have today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's great, I will say. You know, kids are so connected through social media, but each class seven through 12th grade they all have their own classes. So my daughter is a 2025 class and each of those girls we had 24 girls at one point. Now we're down to 15. Kids get busy. Maybe they have to make choices of what they're going to do, but we have 15 girls that represent three or four different high schools and you know, schools that we represent are just going to throw some out Minnetonka, eden, prairie, holy Family, Benilde, and then there's some that go towards Edina. Those are some of the bigger ones. We have some Chanhassen, so, but they make those friendships and they learn how to work together and collaborate and they're actually super fun.

Speaker 2:

And I'm actually not only in my VP of membership, I'm also called what's a grade level advisor. So I'm one of the one of two leaders that helps lead this 2025 class. We have a meeting every single month that we go through with the girls, and something that I brought up to them was you know, what do you want to do for a big philanthropy project? I have this idea, and so we are organizing a walk-a-thon for the Humanity Alliance to raise money for them. On top of it, though, this is something every step along the way that these girls are going to learn how to do a walk-a-thon, and what it takes from you know starting it to ending it and what it looks like in between and getting sponsors, and how are we going to reach out to all these people and let them know what we're doing.

Speaker 2:

So that's the whole leadership aspect of it, and they're so excited I mean, there's some of them that are. I have all these ideas and I'm like my gosh, this is great, right, that's what it's all about. And then we touch on the cultural piece, which every year, we have a different cultural that we touch. I remember ninth grade was dance and COVID, so we watched Swan Lake on a video, and then we went to the symphony last year, and 10th grade and this year we've we had a whole gathering with our group and everybody brought food from either their culture or whatever culture they wanted and talked about it, and you know. So it's just fun. We're learning different things that they wouldn't otherwise get a chance and etiquette.

Speaker 1:

We have a whole thing, etiquette, oh yeah. That's fantastic. That's an aspect that you don't really, I think, find in definitely in a group where you're volunteering. It is something that you hope is involved with in the home, that you're teaching your children, but when it can be reinforced outside of there, that's really powerful. It is.

Speaker 2:

It is. Yeah, it's just having that for them is. It's amazing. I don't think they're going to get anything like that. We have a mandatory tea. We have to do every year a tea. Wow, you know. I mean, they're popping up, teas are starting to pop up, but you know who has a tea anymore. So a proper tea, a proper tea, absolutely. You know biscuits and jam and you know all of it. And they learn about a tea and they learn about the etiquette of it. And we have to dress up and we have to RSVP. For goodness sakes.

Speaker 2:

You know, do people even know what RSVP means anymore? So you know, just explaining things like that, like you do, reply, please reply, because we need to know who's coming or who's not coming, type things. So it's it really. Is that whole little piece of etiquette that again, they're not teaching it at school? Maybe they are, I don't know. My kid's not taking that class at school.

Speaker 1:

I like what you said, too, about it having the opportunity for daughters, too, to see their moms in a different light.

Speaker 1:

When you're volunteering together when you're, it gives you a common enemy in a way, right, whatever the thing is that you're fighting or raising awareness about that, you can bond over and work on together and as someone who I who raised two teenage daughters myself and a son, but with my girls that I could see how something like this, if they took interest in it, would be a great bonding experience, but also to give them an opportunity to learn how to do these things.

Speaker 1:

When my daughter was in college, she was involved with I think it was called girls on the run and she volunteered with that, and she learned so much from that in terms of organization, in terms of getting a group of people to do something there's so many in denounce to it, and I like that. In what you're doing with the national charity league is you're instilling in these girls, too, the ability and empowering them with the knowledge and the organizational skills to create this change. Do you hear what? What it's like for these young ladies then when they post all of this, going off into college, going out into the world?

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely. I mean just nationals itself really likes to talk about what girls are doing outside of NCL. When they graduate high school. A lot of them are joining sororities, if you think about. All right, so I'm going to have a board in the sorority. I need to know Robert's rules. How do I take notes if I'm the secretary? How do I balance the budget as the treasurer? It's just little things like this and other VP positions.

Speaker 2:

So there's a lot of girls that will go on to do that. There's just this whole large group of people that are out there that, putting it on your resume, honestly, we've been around for almost 100 years. You don't know who you're going to run into and who's going to have national charity league in their background. So I'm telling them right now make sure you put that on your college applications. We're talking about college applications and we did a college tour this fall so that they can start getting warmed up to doing college tours and what questions to ask. So it's such a wealth I mean they're going to be able to bring it. I've been on a board. They can say I've been on a board.

Speaker 2:

I've helped execute a walk-a-thon. So they've got a lot. They've got a lot that they can bring to the table at any point, college and after.

Speaker 1:

And it becomes almost like a habit. It becomes a part of you. Once you get that, you get into volunteering, and I like as well what you're saying. You have so many different organizations that you can work with. What are some of your favorite experiences in terms of volunteering with your daughter for specific organizations?

Speaker 2:

Oh gosh. So my daughter's favorite is Special Olympics, minnesota. We do the swimming ones typically every summer. We try to get hours yes, we have hours we have to fulfill but we go and do that and she just loves being around those athletes and seeing they're inspiring. You know what they really are. You go there and I don't know one person who hasn't been touched by the amount of work that those athletes put in along with just they're just happy to be there and so we're very happy to be there and be with them. So that's one of the biggest ones that I feel like girls get out of. She loves volunteering at Humanity Alliance during the summer. It doesn't happen so much during the school year because she's so busy, but we feed communities through Humanity Alliance, so she likes that and she likes the guy who started up Humanity Alliance, so it just makes it fun. She gets to learn from so many different people. You can't get that. I can pay to get her that, but no, it's just. There's nothing next to it really.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a unique experience, for sure it is yes unique I'm going to share in the show notes where people where you can go to find out more about the National Charity League and the West Lakes chapter here as well, how you can connect with Tina if you have any questions at all. I'm looking forward to hearing again what other projects and things that you and the group are up to, because it sounds like you're doing a lot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we are. You know, each group is really doing their own thing. Another one that girls like is the waters in Eden Prairie and working with the older generations and being around them. They get a lot out of it. So there's always there's something for everyone in the organization and, like I said before, we're going to be celebrating 100 years coming up, so that's amazing, you know it's. It's really fun just celebrating that 100 years and how the whole organization started way back in 1925.

Speaker 1:

Wow, it definitely fits our theme on Tonka, tonka again. Community and connection. Finding these ways that people find and create that community and that connection and being able to do it with your daughter like that, I think, is really special.

Speaker 2:

It is, and I've met some amazing moms throughout the way who I can honestly say are best friends now, and so it has been a great connection for us.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic. Thank you so much for coming and sharing. Thank you so much for coming and talking about this. Definitely Talk to you later.

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