TIPP CITY – In a somewhat unprecedented move, the Tipp City Foundation (TCF) has recently welcomed six new members to its ranks, bringing with them their own unique vision, experience and perspective.
The latest additions swell board membership to 15 – the most in the history of the non-profit organization.
“Our bylaws give us the leeway to have as many as 15 members, but this is the first time we have ever hit that number. Up to now we have held steady around 13 members,” according to the board’s Heather Bailey.
Several departures necessitated its supplementation, she said. Most years see no changes to the board but in a three-month span, one member moved out of state, another chose to run for elected office and a third decided to retire after nearly four decades of service.
“Suddenly we had more openings than we had ever experienced in such a close window of time,” Bailey indicated.
The influx of new membership includes: Kelly Gillis, Cameron Haller, Julia Watson, Sarah Gillenwater, Renee Matsunami and Susan Kuntz. Collectively, the group has been appointed to three-year terms, which are renewable.
Candidates are chosen through a Board Gap Analysis Tool adopted by the board around 20 years ago, Bailey explained. The Tool is an elaborate spreadsheet of skills the board feels it needs to possess in order to fulfill its mission. Furthermore, it tracks demographics such as age, location of residence, gender, etc.
“We want out board to reflect a very broad cross-section of the community we serve,” she said.
According to Bailey, all board nominees receive a written job description so they know what being a member looks like before they are voted upon. If a nominee feels that they can meet the requirements, then they proceed through the nomination process. A commitment of time is a piece of their involvement and that varies depending on which of the body’s several committees a member chooses to serve.
“I could not be more enthusiastic about the members joining the board,” Bailey said. “Their lived history really widens the scope of expertise around our table. Though we are an all-volunteer group, we function with professionalism.”
Kelly Gillis – A Tipp City resident for close to five decades, Gillis was employed as a utility worker for 36 years of those years and has two children, both of whom graduated from Tipp City schools. He applied to become a member of the board because he appreciates what the TCF does for the community.
“I guess I just want to help it grow and continue its good work,” he said. “It’s a great organization and I wanted to be a part of it.”
Gillis has served on a number of boards and has belonged to organizations that have benefitted from the magnanimous relationship the TCF enjoys with the community. Currently, he chairs the building committee for the Tipp City Senior Citizens Center and also holds an office with the Tippecanoe Masonic Lodge.
He enjoys the small-town atmosphere the city has to offer in addition to its central business district and those residing here.
“I love Tipp City and its people,” he said. “I want to help make sure it continues to thrive.”
Gillis and his wife have established a fund with the TCF – The Gillis Family Fund for Self Sufficiency.
Cameron Haller – After his sister died in a car accident in 1992 at the tender age of 18, Haller’s parents and grandparents started a scholarship in her name at the Van Wert Foundation. This act ended up having a profound impact on him at the time that has carried over to the present.
“I understood at a young age how one person’s generosity can positively impact many others,” he said. “To be a small part of improving someone's life is a remarkable opportunity to serve the donors and recipients.”
Haller retired earlier this year as Tipp City Fire Chief after having spent 31 years in fire service, the last seven with the Tipp City Fire Department and Emergency Services. He now serves as the chief operating officer for the St. Gabriel Family of Parishes.
Through the intervening years since his sister’s passing, he has remained steadfast in his dedication to helping others.
Qualities he feels he brings to the board include humility, integrity, in addition to a willingness to serve in lieu of being served and an ability to discern the donor’s intentions against the needs of the community.
“The main goal is to be engaged and active on the board,” he said of what he hopes to accomplish as a member. This includes improving access to appropriate funding sources for non-profit quality of life grants and honoring the donors that have entrusted the board to be responsible and impactful.
Gillis and his wife, Teresa, met in high school and have been married since 1992. The empty nesters have three biological adult children and an adult daughter from Spain.
In addition to his board service for the TCF, Haller was Rotary past president, involved in JJ's Furniture Ministry at New Path, the Edison State Paramedic advisory board and previously multiple local, county and state fire, EMS and dispatch boards.
“This is an opportunity to serve others in a capacity that I cannot accomplish without this awesome group of people,” he said of his new board appointment. Haller added that he wishes to extend his gratitude and respect to all the families that have provided stewardship to help enhance the community’s way of life.
Julia Watson – Bethel Township is sometimes a forgotten entity in the jurisdiction of the TCF and longtime resident Watson has been designated as a sort of ad hoc liaison on behalf of the community. Having crossed paths with The Troy Foundation many times in her 35 years as an English teacher at Troy High School, she jumped at the chance to serve on the TCF board after having been asked by Carolyn Wright to be a possible Bethel liaison to the board.
Upon retiring from teaching following the 2022-23 school year, Watson was looking for volunteer opportunities and knew how important foundations are to the communities they represent. She wished to give time to the township, but found that everything she was involved with revolved around the cities of Troy, New Carlisle or Huber Heights.
“I had no idea Bethel fell under the umbrella of TCF, so I really wanted to make sure our community had a passionate and dedicated voice,” said Watson. “Carolyn has been doing so amazingly and I wanted to work with her to open more doors. Having a connection still to the school, I knew I could bring a needed perspective for the grants.”
Goals she has as a board member are to work with teachers in the Bethel school district to ensure they know the different types of grants being offered and to continue to bridge the gap between Tipp City and Bethel so that TCF truly becomes what both communities need – a voice, a representation and a financial support.
Watson and her husband, Mike, have been married for 35 years and have three children who are Bethel High School graduates. One son, Jacob, is currently the communications director for Bethel Local Schools and youngest son, Darian, works as a substitute teacher and was involved with directing the high school fall play.
“TCF feels very different from other volunteer work I have done,” she stated. “It is made up of very organized, dedicated people who have had other backgrounds and experiences that prepared them to truly serve. TCF has really reinforced for me the desire to give my time to something bigger than myself.”
Sarah Gillenwater – As the owner of a small downtown business and someone who grew up in Tipp City, Gillenwater believes she offers a unique perspective to the board given her connections to both the city and the county.
“Serving on TCF is a great way to give back to the community where I grew up,” she said “There’s no better way to be a part of my hometown than to give back in this way.”
Upon graduating from Tippecanoe High School in 1995, Gillenwater went to college to study visual communications and worked for nearly 20 years in marketing and design for multiple nonprofits. But everything changed for her in 2020 when the world came to a screeching halt due to the pandemic. Seizing the opportunity, Gillenwater switched her focus and opened The Yoga Barre & Co, a fitness studio located in downtown Tipp City.
Aside from a brief hiatus in Troy for a few years right after she and her husband got married, she’s lived in Tipp City her entire life. She joked that most people are shocked to find out she’s never lived outside of Miami County.
Gillenwater hopes to gain a better understanding of the needs of the community through her service with the TCF. In addition to her board service, she works closely with The Centered Foundation as well as volunteering time at the schools to offer yoga sessions focusing on tools to improve mental health.
She envisions her time on the board of the TCF as the linchpin to furthering her community service ambitions.
“I think when you have kids that are younger, it easy to count time volunteering inside the classroom as a room parent as giving back,” she said. “But now that my children as older, volunteering needs to take on a new shape. TCF is a great way to fulfill that.”
Renee Matsunami - From a very young age, Matsunami was taught the importance of caring for the environment and giving back to the community, values that have stayed with her and continue to shape how she lives and serves.
“Volunteering has become a meaningful way for me to stay connected, contribute to something larger than myself, and support the well-being of those around me,” she said. “It gives me a strong sense of purpose, while also allowing me to build relationships, share my skills, and help create a more vibrant, caring community.”
TCF has played a meaningful role throughout Matsunami’s nonprofit journey, supporting organizations she’s been proud to serve, including the Tipp City Area Arts Council, Tipp City Destination Imagination (DI), Community Minded Women, as well as her professional career at Child Care Choices. Most recently, she’s taken on the role of treasurer for Tipp City Parents Who Care, an organization dedicated to supporting Tippecanoe High School students through events such as Powder Puff, Top Scholar, and After Prom.
As she prepares to depart her role as executive director at Child Care Choices to get ready for life’s next chapter, she looks forward to exploring the process from TCF’s perspective and discovering new ways to give back to an organization that has given so much to the community, and to the organizations with who she’s been associated. In her new capacity as board member, Matsunami would like to contribute to TCF’s core purpose of giving back, not only by supporting its current work but also by helping expand its reach and impact.
“I’m particularly interested in exploring thoughtful, creative ways to engage the youth in our community, so they feel connected to TCF’s purpose and inspired to get involved,” she said. “This could include developing new outreach approaches, fostering partnerships, or creating opportunities that make philanthropy more accessible and relevant to emerging leaders in our community.”
Matsunami grew up in Cincinnati and lived in Sunnyvale, California, from 2000 to 2010, where she worked as a speech-language pathologist in the Redwood City School District. After that, she focused on raising her two children, Leilani and Milo, as a stay-at-home mom until 2016, when she returned to the workforce as the training coordinator at Child Care Choices. She has been in the role of co-director and executive director since 2018.
In 2010, she and her husband, Tom, made the decision to move our family to Tipp City to be closer to their families.
“That move marked an important shift for us, and it didn’t take long for me to appreciate the warmth and connection that come with living in a small town,” she said. “I value being able to build relationships through my kids’ school, local organizations, or everyday interactions, and how those connections create a strong sense of community and belonging that’s harder to find in a larger city.”
Susan Kuntz – Growing up an Army brat and moving every two years, Kuntz didn’t have much of a chance to put down roots or get a sense of her place in the community before having to leave again. Other than church, volunteering was not anything she witnessed growing up and most of the volunteering she’s done in her adult life has revolved around school events and district projects.
But upon retiring in 2023 after having taught Art at Harman School in Oakwood for 34 years and enjoying the usual things such as traveling, walking, biking, etc., she felt a strong need to become more involved in her community.
“Just as I was thinking that I had ‘rested’ enough and that maybe it was time to give of myself a little more, the opportunity to join TCF presented itself,” Kuntz said. Additionally, she also serves as a “Lunch Buddy” at Forrest Elementary in Troy, through an organization called The Future Begins Today.
Kuntz explained in her board application that she’s a firm believer in things opening up at the right time and for a reason. She views membership on the TCF board as just that; an opportunity to deepen her own roots and understand the all of the ways TCF contributes to the fabric of the city.
“I’d read through the annual reports before, but after talking with one of the members, I realized that TCF makes it possible for people to do good and necessary work,” she said. “They are able to match donor funds with needs that benefit every sector of the Tipp and Bethel community.”
Kuntz readily admits she doesn’t have a business acumen or technical savvy to bring to this group. What she does bring to the table, however, is a love of children, a knowledge of public education and an outstanding work ethic.
“I am learning that this group brings diverse gifts and talents to the Tipp community and they are deeply dedicated, Kuntz said. “That dedication inspired me to join and I hope to earn my place here.”