By Joel Dresang
Call it recycling – or opportunity finding need.
A heavy wooden conference table and 10 upholstered armchairs recently moved from the back office of Landaas & Company to the nearby Grand Avenue Club.
The Grand Avenue Club is a downtown Milwaukee organization that offers community and a place for adults who experience mental illness. The club provides members a range of opportunities for networking and employment.
“This makes my non-profit heart sing,” Rachel Forman, executive director of Grand Avenue Club, says of the donation.
What used to be a fixture in the south conference room at Landaas will replace what Forman described as an array of “schleppy” furnishings configured for the Grand Avenue Club’s first-floor administrative unit. That’s where Grand Avenue Club members work alongside staff on such tasks as record-keeping, fund development, finances and public relations.
Forman says the upgrade will make a difference.
“It will elevate our office furniture in the administrative unit and help convey to our members that the work that they do is important,” Forman says.
The custom-built 11-by-5 foot table had been at Landaas & Company more than 20 years until an even larger table replaced it in 2008, when the company expanded its south conference room. That’s where the Landaas staff meets every Monday morning to discuss financial market trends and economic developments. It also is where the weekly “Money Talk with Bob Landaas” podcast is recorded.
Lisa Edgar, the receptionist at Landaas & Company, has been donating to the Grand Avenue Club for years, including through her United Way contributions. After she heard that the firm was looking for a non-profit agency that could use the table and chairs, Edgar got word to the Grand Avenue Club. Three days later, a joint crew from Landaas and the Grand Avenue Club moved the furniture from the former to the latter.
Joel Dresang is vice president of communications at Landaas & Company.
initially posted April 28, 2011