More than One Night of Giving – Webster House & M&T Bank

MANCHESTER, NH – What do you do when you are under 18 and you can no longer live at home? That’s a question for which Webster House has taken action since 1884. I’ve written about them before. As you can well imagine, there have been a few changes over their 139 years of operation. What hasn’t changed is this community’s answer to that question. You need to raise visibility for and support of safe, structured, and supportive alternatives.

With just under two years at the helm, Michelle O’Malley, CEO of Webster House, has had a significant visible impact. She helped them navigate beyond the retirement of the Catano brothers without losing sight of her primary job. “My big job is to bring in the money,” says O’Malley with no apology. “I was hired to do development and write grants… state funding is only about 50 percent of what is needed.”

O’Malley has no fear of heights. Neither tall buildings nor daunting tasks slow down this leader.  The mission is brick and mortar, a real home, for the residents of Webster House. This is the home she works in every day and is occasionally called mom by more than one resident.  Staff there provide role modeling and independent living skills for the residents.  “That’s what they need. They may not have good role models and our job while they are with us is to be their guardians and their role models,” she says.

Community Support

To do all this, O’Malley has attracted a wide range of community-centric leaders to help. M & T Bank is the presenting sponsor of this year’s Night of Giving Gala and I was curious about what the motivation was to the “new kid on the block.” I reached out to M & T Bank’s Region President, Tim Wade, to ask why someone new to Manchester would jump right into this and offered Communicast as the first meeting spot for the two leaders to connect in real-time.

Tim Wade is as fast on the draw as Michelle O’Malley and made it clear that a large bank, positioning itself as a community bank means they need to help build up community. Helping vulnerable children in the city raises up the community and “all rise with the rising tide,” says Wade.

Last year, the Night of Giving Gala raised $175,000. When I asked about this year, O’Malley didn’t hesitate when she said, “this year’s goal is $222,250.”  We all know it costs money to run a home imagine, as Michelle O’Malley does every day, what it takes to run a home for up to 20 kids, plus staff, pay bills to keep the lights on and provide independent living skills and things to do with active growing children.

Wade jumped in and asked “what’s more important than taking care of our kids, especially those that have been sent down a path, not of their own choice… put in a dis-advantageous situation.” Wade points M&T Bank efforts toward Webster House because he wants to help these kids get a second chance. He says, we “can’t think of any better mission than that.”

Role Models of Support

“They are our future leaders potentially or future problems. Choose to make them leaders.”

O’Malley says Webster House “does its best to make the residents feel comfortable, and nurtured and loved.” She’s direct and sincere and highly driven to be successful on behalf of the kids – the residents.  She sees herself in some ways as a mom role model – taking meals- asking about their school day and guiding residents and staff with consistency and stability so all can grow and find opportunity. She hopes any surprises are nice ones, saying “they deserve nice surprises, like donuts from Bearded Baker our neighbor down the street!”

“SUPPORT”  emphasizes Wade. “They are our future leaders potentially or future problems. Choose to make them leaders.”

And that’s what more than one night of giving is all about. While this year’s event is fully subscribed, the needs of running a large household continue, daily.

This year’s Night of Giving, taking place April 5, at Manchester Country Club, is sold out.

Taking Action

From Tim Wade:  “M&T acts like a community bank when it comes to giving or volunteering. Every M&T employee gets 40 hours for community work. M&T offers employees a great environment for giving and volunteering and we challenge other businesses to do the same.”

From Michelle O’Malley:  “People who want to make a donation to support Webster House can do so as a financial donation or take a look and provide one or more of the wish list of items we need.  Also passes and access to activities for the kids to do around Manchester. Things that families like to do. At Webster House a good Friday night outing is taking residents to the movies.  Find their General House Needs and Wish List here.”

ABOUT WEBSTER HOUSE

There are times when a child deserves a second chance – a chance to experience the joys of childhood and a chance to live in a structured, yet supportive and nurturing environment. The Webster House offers that second chance. Children between the ages 8 – 18 come to the Webster House when it is in their best interest to live away from their home for a period of time.

Webster House provides a substitute home for these children. They offer a secure and structured environment with the primary goals of providing stability to a child’s life while rebuilding self-esteem, confidence, and reestablishing and rebuilding family relationships, whenever possible. For many children, the Webster House provides a home environment where structure, safety, love, caring, respect and stability exist.

Webster House, located in Manchester NH, has been providing a supportive place for those unable to live at home since 1884.