TUESDAY'S FOR HOPE WITH KATHY JENKINS 5/19/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

It's time for Tuesdays for Hope because it is Tuesday. Kathy Jenkins is here. That's how I know what day it is.

unknown 0:05

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Yeah, but your Tuesday is almost over when I go.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Exactly. And yours is just. Yes. So Kathy, give us uh any updates you want to give on what is going on with New Directions.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

It is incredibly busy. Um always tends to get a little busy as we approach the summer. I think as the um it's just like they say, as the community grows, the homeless community is also going to grow. And as people come into town, there are going to be people that come into town who either are homeless, find themselves homeless, get left behind. It's amazing how many people call us and and they've heard that we'll help them get home, and they have come with friends and got left in the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

I tell them they need some new friends when they get home.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Yeah. And they need to find their way home, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Yes. So um, you know, our long distance transportation program is uh just exploding. And thanks to uh our partners at the city of Myrtle Beach, as as long as we are doing the right thing, um they um they basically fund that program. Um so um it's huge. It's absolutely huge. Last year um we we got four four hundred and ninety-seven people home to family, reunited with family or support system. And um I think we're gonna hit that number this year again, um, which is unfortunate that we have um we have so many people experiencing homelessness and um but we always offer them away home if they don't have family or support here.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Yeah. A lot of people don't think they can go home, but uh you reconnect them and counsel them on that.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

We do, and the police department works hand in hand with us when they run into somebody who's on the streets. Um, if they haven't found us themselves, uh, the police will bring them to us and and we'll take care of it. All right.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Well, you brought in a guest, and I've known her for years, probably as long as I've known you. Uh Tori Mackey is here, and we met long ago, and she was involved with another um organization, but she's been the director of the Chapin Foundation for quite some time. Chapin, uh, for those of you who have recently moved here, is a name that you hear a lot, and people just throw it around as part of, I guess, a name that we hear often in Myrtle Beach. But uh we are gonna get a little history lesson about Simeon B. Chapin. You also see S.B. Chapin Company um all around town, but they also have a foundation, and Tori's here to tell us more about it. A little history lesson on Myrtle Beach.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yes. Well, thank you so much for having me. I um I'm always happy to come for Tuesdays for hope. And um, it's been a while. I told them I'm feeling a little rusty, but um, I do um I'm always uh welcome the opportunity to talk about Mr. Simeon B. Chapin. He was a very special person, just special person, period, but he um is incredibly significant to the history of Myrtle Beach. And people like Simeon Chapin, um his vision for what he wanted a community to be, which is what kind of how he put in what he sort of structured the foundation around, and I can touch on that as we go on, but um his vision lasted and has is continuing. We're we're reaping the benefits of it now. And the foundation was started in 1943, so that's eighty-three years ago, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

He was born eighteen sixty-five in Milwaukee, and uh died at the age of 79 in 1945. So to understand his his um, I guess, perspective on things, and he was a uh Wall Street guy as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yes, he well, he was born in Milwaukee, he um built his business, had opened a brokerage house in, I mean, there's a lot of things in between, but he um ended up in Chicago and then moved his um brokerage firm to New York City um in the like 1901, I think. But um along the way, he was very interested in real estate development. And in 1911, I believe, he began a correspondence with the Burroughs brothers from Conway, South Carolina. Um the Burroughs brothers owned a ton of land, and they had a vision for development, but they had no capital to do it. And they started a a written correspondence, um, as I said, in 1911. Um there are we have we have some of this uh preserved, and they, you know, there's even talking about um some of the beginnings of World War One, you know, reference to what the Kaiser is gonna do. And so it's very interesting, like what the the context in which this was all happening. But anyway, Mr. Chapin paid a visit. Um the the Burroughs brothers had him come down and check everything out. Um we think that the reason he even met them, you know, being in Chicago and New York, um, was that Mr. Chapin had a sister who um had a summer home in Pinehurst, North Carolina. And we somehow feel like maybe on a visit to Pinehurst, he cars winter. Um Pinehurst is about three hours away. Okay. So anyway, um he found out about the Burroughs brothers and um he he loved what they were doing. He he really thought that would be something that he should invest in. What did he like about Myrtle Beach? Well, he actually talked a lot about in the correspondence a lot about the hospitality of the Burroughs family, which I think is interesting in light of the fact that we're like the hospitality capital of the world. Yeah. Um but he um and then I think what he saw, and it's so funny to say this now, but you know, what they refer to as the worthless oceanfront property where you really can't grow anything, um, you know, he saw it as a as a resort. He's he so even this is a long time ago.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Right. But um because people didn't have a lot of leisure time back then. No. You know, we had all these inventions and then you know, things that we didn't have to spend so much time doing anymore by hand. So maybe that's the birth of taking a vacation.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

That's right. Going to a resort. So he um he had met with them, he went back to New York, and you know, one thing about Mr. Chapin, and he has he has kept this, this is part of even how how the foundation today operates, is Mr. Chapin did not phone anything in. He did not, he was an in-person guy. And if he was going to invest in a in an area, he wanted to be there. He wanted to be a part of it. And so he went back to New York and told uh the people at his office about this awesome opportunity down in South Carolina, and nobody was willing to go. They said, We are not moving to the wilderness of South Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Actual quote people don't realize, but if you drive through Myrtle Beach, there are a lot of trees. Oh, yes. Uh the it's not like a an island type of feel for the coast, and we had Ocean Forest Hotel, which was the premier hotel. Did they have something to do with that? Because I really don't know the history of that. I don't think so. Okay, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

But but that was like the premier resort of the area. I wish I wish we still had it today. Yeah. So beautiful. Um, but anyway, so he um the story is that Mr. Chapin um he felt terrible, you know, that nobody wanted to to do this. And so um instead of just writing them a letter, he got back on a train and it was something like a three-day journey to South Carolina because he wanted to tell the Burroughs brothers himself that they were just weren't gonna do it. And um so he he went, he met with them, he said, I'm sorry, you know, I just you know, this is I just don't think I can I can do it. And the story is that he went downstairs, walked out onto the street, and something told him to go back in there and tell them that they would do that he would do it. Okay. So he walked in and said, Okay, if you two will be my partners, I'll do it. What was the level of investment? Um well he purchased, I don't know what the the dollar amount was, but he purchased 65,000 acres of um all the ocean and around surrounding area. So it was a pretty big investment. And he then, you know, threw himself all in. I mean, he I mean he didn't move here permanently, but he did build a a home, which is still a beautiful oceanfront home on 31st Avenue North in Myrtle Beach. Um and that's a that's a whole other stuff. Is still in the family? Um, it is not in the family anymore. But um it is still it is still there and and quite beautiful. Um he also went about um aligning himself with the um most I I say the word prominent, but I also feel like it I don't want that to sound like a snobbery upper. He he just he found the you know some really core families that were building businesses in Myrtle Beach. And as he developed the foundation, he named um he named four advisors, and those four advisor families are still represented on the board today. Wow. So that's kind of cool. Um and but why did he want a foundation? Well, he um I probably should back it up a minute. When he went in and told the the Burroughs brothers that he wanted to be um partners with them, that was really the beginnings of what is now the Burroughs and Chapin Company, which that is if you are new to Myrtle Beach, you're gonna see that name everywhere. Everywhere everywhere and the whole boulevard now throughout the southeast as well, they're just growing. And um, so uh Mr. Chapin, um he was the majority stockholder of that company, and so he uh created the foundation and when he so that when he passed away, his influence could still continue to be there for the developing city of Myrtle Beach. And I just think it was uh just remarkable that he had the foresight to do that, you know. Um what other developers d decide to set up a foundation to take care of the community they they helped to build. Yeah. Um, so and to to st to put the people in place who he felt like the local people that would really understand what the needs of the community are. So he um set up the foundation two years before he died, and he left all of his shares in the company to the foundation. Wow. So all of his so it's the income from his shares that fund the work that the Chapin Foundation does today. Um and so what you know, talking about his ideas and his vision for the number two, he um he set forth what he really believed in to be the the the kind of guiding principles for any community, and they've held strong. Well um what are those? Well, the first one is the church. Um he was a man of faith. He um the first pillar is churches. He wanted the churches in the community to be doing the charitable work and and caring for people, and he wanted to come in behind them. Now church also was church as in um just church, like the Chapin Foundation has put a lot of roofs on churches and par paid parking lots and that kind of just taking care of the churches. Um we all had also stood for the local missions of the church, which is what we would call now the nonprofit community. So when the Chapin Foundation makes a grant to a nonprofit like New Directions, we require that they have a church sponsor. So the the church is in we we just want someone from the church to have some involvement with the organization. It could be a volunteer, a board member, um, you know, whatever that that may take.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

It's the community weaving that he was looking for. Exactly. The basis of every community. We had this conversation earlier today about that. Um but before we run out of time, what is just to fast forward to what today the Chapin Foundation means and you being the director of that, what is it actually doing? What are what how do we see it in real life?

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Um well, I think you know, to sum it up in one sentence, um, I think Mr. Chapin wanted to um he wanted the foundation to enrich the lives of the citizens of the city of Myrtle Beach. And um, I don't think you could have imagined how big the city of like how much it's scrawled out, but but that's still our geographic footprint is the city of limits of Myrtle Beach in a one mile radius. And that's it. And that's it. But um there's plenty to do. Um but his um, like I said, his his four thing, his four things were the church for their local missions and the churches themselves, um, the YMCA, the uh public health care, and public libraries. And so it was really like a kind of a body, mind, and soul um, you know. Love it. And so that should be the pillar of everyone's life. I think that is the it should be the pillar of everyone's life. And um so anyway, so you'll see us um very active. We're we're kind of under the radar too, because we um you know, he he did not set this up for to to get attention. He um not that and the only reason we would want to get attention is so that other people would see that this is something legitimate to support. Do you guys fundraise it all? Or um no you don't have to. We don't have to. Which is um you know, stewards of we are stewards of his legacy. Wow. So that's what so it's a big responsibility. It's a really cool job. It is a cool job. And yeah, I will say that when I used to be a fundraiser, and I honestly I loved every minute of it, but um, and I thought that this job would be like really easy because I didn't have to raise money. And I couldn't have been further from the truth because when you have this responsibility, you know, you it it ri takes a lot of um, you have to work really hard to make the right assessments of what the community needs.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

It's almost like you have to be in his brain, understand what he valued, and walk in his shoes to make the decisions from that perspective. Yes. In order to serve the foundation properly, correct. You have to embody that. Otherwise, what are you doing, right? Exactly. So that is really hard to do. Yeah, you have to look through that lens all the time.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

I and I think too that you know there is so much need, and it's always making that decision between, you know, what's good and what's best. And and trying because what if you say yes to one thing, you you might have to say no to some other things. And so just really trying to to let those things.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Grant money do you give out every year?

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Well, we have the the foundation has grown a lot, meaning the just the our income has grown a lot. So we would be on track to give between three and four million dollars a year. So it is a significant um contribution in the case. And how do you qualify? Um, well, the the first the first simple thing is your geographic location. Are you in our footprint? Okay. Um secondly, you do have to have if you are a nonprofit organization, for example, you do have to have a sponsor church, and so there has to be that relationship established. Um, the you know, the YMCA is easy because that's that was its own pillar. Um, and that encompasses a lot of things too. I mean, that's that's a lot of body, mind, and soul over there as well, which we are and we're thrilled about the growth of the YMCA in this area. Um they do a remarkable job, they do. And um, and then for public health care, that's actually been an expanded thing. When when Mr. Chapin wrote up the trust indenture, um, he said it was for public hospitals, but we didn't have one for a long time in Myrtle Beach. So we expanded it to public health care, and then that enables us to do things like counseling centers, recovery centers, um, and and things like that. And then the public library, Chapin Memorial Library.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

What is the website if people want to learn more about it, Tori?

SPEAKER_01 16:22

It is chapinfoundation.org. Very simple.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Chapinfoundation.org. Tori Mackey, the director of the Chapin Foundation. Kathy Jenkins, that was fun. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

What a great story. Yeah. And uh Tori. I I think Tori probably became the director a year after I started at New Directions. So she and I have worked together for almost all the 13 years. Um she's just she has done an incredible job of um supporting the community through the Chapin Foundation and um we love working with her.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

All right. Well, thank you, ladies. We appreciate your time and for the story. And uh we'll see you back here tomorrow.