Uncommon Friends Foundation - supporting students & preserving local history since 1993

This is Gulf Coast Life. I'm Mike Kiniry. Thanks for joining us. The Burroughs Home in downtown Fort Myers was constructed in 1901, so is celebrating its 125th birthday this year with the help of the Uncommon Friends Foundation. Part of their mission is preserving the historic home. The foundation gets its name from the 1987 biography called Uncommon Friends Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carroll, and Charles Lindbergh. That's by James Newton. Mr. Newton led the development of Edison Park on the other side of downtown from the Burroughs Home. As a very young man, he was only in his early 20s, and the five men in his book would often gather there, and he got to know them. Alongside historic preservation, the Uncommon Friends Foundation's mission also includes promoting good character and ethics and providing scholarships to local students. They also facilitate character building curricula in local schools and recognize outstanding local teachers. Joining me for an update on what the foundation is up to, and to get a bit of history on the Burroughs Home and the Uncommon Friends. I'm joined by Marc Collins. He's Executive Director of the foundation. Welcome to the show, Marc. Hey, Mike. Thanks. And Melissa Kuhn is the Burroughs Home venue director and events coordinator. Thanks for being here, Melissa. Thank you so much. So for starters, I think you said before we started you've been in town for about five years. I have. And how long have you been in town? 34. So two ends of the coin. But as you got here, how long did it take you to start to realize how deep the history goes here? Because all cities and towns have history. But Fort Myers has some really interesting history. That's kind of foundational to a lot of what's going on in the world today. It really does. I know when I first moved here, even before I knew what Fort Myers, when I first heard about Sanibel because my family that I would after I got here, married into had hotels. One was on Sanibel. So I had heard all about Sanibel, knew nothing about Fort Myers. But obviously one of the first things I heard about was the Edison home. And that was one of my very first stops when I got to town, is to see about that isn't home. And the Florida State, and it is such a big piece of our history here. Yeah, yeah. How long? So how'd you wind up here? My husband ultimately wanted to live by the ocean. Okay, so we. And Covid was a bit tough there in the Midwest. So he wanted to let start fresh. And we both worked for ourselves. So we were very lucky to be able to come down here and those sunsets. That's what grabbed me. Is history something that you've always been into? Is that part of why you do what you. Do now? Well, I'm. I'm events by trade, but I've always wanted to do everything I do with a purpose. And we'll bore everyone to know how Marc and I became acquainted. But it was truly, I would say, cosmic. Oh, how we found each other. And I was just looking, you know, I moved here, and I didn't know a single soul, you know, I didn't have my community because I left Minnesota. And when I came down here, I just wanted to reach out to, to see, learn more about the community. And I just started sending random emails. And he's a good person to me if you want to know about them. I found the I found truly, truly the gem and he has helped me. He's helped me build my own community and everything I what I love and I tell even my my friends and family back home is I get to do what I do for a living, which is event and wedding planning. But I get to do it because it matters 100% of what I do. My blood, sweat and tears. It goes back to support the history, and I now feel like I'm part of that because I've been learning just from, you know, because I'm more heavily involved on the borough side that it really originated with snowbirds. People came from all around the country especially, you know, up New York, new Jersey area. And I'm one of those now, you know, I'm part of that, you know, good or bad, I'm part of that new great migration. And but I get to bring my gifts and talents and get it. And now I'm learning about the history here. And it's I just love what I do every day. I moved here as a kid in 1980, and I sort of I knew some of my friends were old timers. I didn't really know what that meant yet, and I kind of always wanted to be an old timer. And now I've been here for so long, I'm sort of an old timer, but not like real old timers. So Marc explained the Uncommon Friends Foundation as if you met somebody out in the world and they just said, oh, what is that? Well, you mentioned Jim Newton. So Jim was very popular, a very accomplished person here in town, developer. And when he was very young, you know, he met Thomas Edison. Jim was from Fort Myers Beach, lived out on the beach. And all those five men that you mentioned who are some of the greatest minds of that century? Jim was friends with each of them. They were in all friends because the age groups don't all match. But Jim had special relationships, and Jim could literally go anywhere in the world. And people need Jim Newton. Jim was a great connector. So there was the idea with Jim's life and his collections and his knowledge. You know, they would talk about how to make the world a better place for everybody. So the Uncommon Friends Foundation, what we do, we have four pillars that you've gone over. You know, we believe in the next, you know, the kids now, that's our future. So we're looking for those people who want to solve the problems, who want to be the inventors. You never know what kind of life you're going to impact. One thing that they used to teach the curriculum of the Uncommon Friends in the school system, they don't do that and have it in years. And I'm going to say it's safe to assume they never will. So what we did is kept that same curriculum we've added to it, but we've taken that piece of our puzzle and made it more of a community resource. So we have branched out to the community. You and I were just talking. We started a summer camp. Last year was our first year. We're right in the middle of summer camp right now, but we're teaching those basic principles, life skills of the Uncommon Friends. Through our summer camp program. We have community resources that we offer. We work with housing, housing and urban development. We worked through Scout troops, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts. We just want to be a physically visible piece of the community. And that's not something that's always been a part, as far as I can tell, of The Uncommon Friends. This will be my fourth year. This is actually the 33rd year of the Uncommon Friends Foundation. I watched that video on the website and you know, Mr. Newton, he you know, it's one thing to have these life skills that may be a successful whatever, but his life skills were like honesty and integrity and truth and being dedicated to somebody and things like that. And that's what you guys are trying to get through. It is Mike, you know, when we started talking about doing a summer camp, we call it the life enrichment because I know my age demographic and I would say all of ours, you know, we we had things in school, we had homemade, we had shop, we had basic life skills. Last week. Our subject was power and purpose and finding Your superpower. And we had these amazing kids who just latched on to stories. About what was your camp theme? That was our camp theme last week. The first week it was basic car maintenance. Okay. And damn it. Galloway yeah, what we tried to do or get six areas that are so important that we asked the kids from we asked last year what they wanted, and they kind of help us come up with the topics. Then we provide a curriculum and they really are life skills, but we want to empower the kids, you know, our campers, that they are the future and they have their whole lives ahead of them. Let's talk a little bit about the history of those buildings, and then we'll circle back around to the foundation. So you guys are now located in the Langford Kingston home. We are. How what's it like being in that building all the time? What's it like being in both those buildings all the time, I guess is my question. It gives you goosebumps every time I go into either the Burroughs home or the Langford Kingston homes, because there's it just history is in the walls and I truly get goosebumps over at the Burroughs home especially. But it is fun that our offices are in these beautiful, grand former bedrooms. And, you know, I'm sitting in here and I just it does it just it's a whole different vibe. And our view couldn't have any couldn't be any better. When you you look right. Outside and I feel like, like when we go to work, there's a sense you almost feel honored. Oh, absolutely. To be setting up camp, you know, for our offices. We're in these grand. Are they're they're on site at the building. They some of them are off site, like we went to the imaginary in one week for Stem. We were at Galloway. The rest of them are on the property at the Langford Kingston. We have one huge room classroom. We can get about 60 people in there which accommodates us. I one of the first, I actually the first story I ever went on as a reporter when I was still an intern was when they moved the Langford Kingston home across the street. And I interviewed, like Tommy Doyle. Dole. Brothers, who was the guy moving it, and it started raining and we had this. We were under the home mid move because it was raining. How long is the foundation been in that building? The foundations had the building for a while. They never really used it. So when I started, you know, the Burroughs was one gift and then I can't remember who was mayor, but they kind of gave the Uncommon Friends charge of running the boroughs home. In the Wilbur Smith era. Anyway. I know he saved it. I know Wilbur, you know, Billy saved the boroughs home. Anyway, when I got there, it didn't make sense because those are two separate gifts the Uncommon Friends Foundation in the boroughs. And if you read the charter with the boroughs family of what they intended, I thought, you can't run a non-for-profit out of here. We basically have two non for profits. It's what we do. But we moved everything uncommon friends out of the boroughs, home and into the Langford Kingston. We've got a gift shop in Langford, Kingston now it's called an Uncommon Place. We're developing a museum because we want the boroughs home to be what they wanted it to be. We're working on a new project upstairs because we have this huge area. It'll be a gallery to show pictures and stories of what life was like. So when you were asking, what's it like to work in there? I know once you walk in, you close that door behind you. You really do feel like you've just stepped back into time. And it's just such an honor that we can be a part of that. So it was built in 1901. Tom Hall, who's our arts reporter. He's also a local historian. He gave me all kinds of great details. It was built from a Sears Roebuck catalog kit that was shipped to Punta Gorda and brought down by boat. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's like a mansion. So I guess that tells you what Sears Roebuck was selling in their catalogs 126 years ago. It was not Tom X watches. Yes. And, you know, and I guess Mr. Murphy owned it until like 1914. And then Mr. Burroughs took over and then his daughter Mona had it. And then she's. Who gave it to the city. Right. Most people who know it either have driven by during Christmas and seen all the people walking across the street, or they've been there for like, a wedding. Let's bring you in now. Like, talk about the things that happen there week in and week out. Is it all events? Is it also nonprofit uses things like that? All of the above. When I say an event, an event is a gathering which goes back again to the whole vision that we had with with Jim Newton, that we we are still gathering, we are still collaborating. So yes, we do sell. We do rent the venue for weddings, for fundraisers, celebrations of life, baby showers, any milestone type of event and the proceeds for that which which again, that's part of the do good feel good is that goes right back to our historic preservation, and it allows us to keep maintaining and keeping that history alive and thriving. But also what I consider an event is our weekly tours. We have. We offer historic tours Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, so either they can do a docent led tours, which we have very sharp, full of information, professional volunteer docents and they do tours or people can come, which we get during snowbird season. We get inundated with high. This place looks really cool and they do the self-guided tours and so we do. The house is open, it belongs to the community. And since I joined the nonprofit, now we're looking about three and a half years ago. Now that that Marc and I have been working to try to develop more ways to open those doors, because it's funny, I get we had proms there as well. So I for example, I had recently, we had a couple come through and they are touring it to to see if they want to get married there. And she said, I've been dreaming about this since I was 17 years old because I had my prom here. And and just to watch their eyes light up to see that this is now a full circle. And they are born and raised in Fort Myers, and they get to use this property for all those type of important milestones. That's where those goosebumps keep continue. For me, it's like I can help make that happen. So whether you are visiting, which we bring a lot of visitors that are here in Fort Myers during our tourist time and then a lot of locals rest of the year. So yep, doors are open. And again, it's it is so amazing that we can keep what Mona Burrows asked is that we must use it to continue her family's legacy, as well as she wanted parties so I can do both for her. I was I was the best man in a wedding there once, back in a millennia. Mike, I'll tell you one thing. We started and we just tried it and it worked. We started Easter at the Burroughs Home, so we have like an Easter brunch. And I think this year was our second or third, third, third. And the first one, you know, in my board said, Will it work? I don't know if it'll work. We'll try it. If it doesn't, we won't do it again. It was very successful and we'll and Marion Prather were there and he brought his drone. He sent me video. We must have had, I don't know, 50 kids, the Easter Bunny. All of a sudden when they the Easter egg hunt started, he sent me the video and all you see your kids to scattering. And so Mel and I were talking about, she said, how was it? I said, I actually cried watching it because that's what the Burroughs family wanted, is to see that place covered in families, you know, having fun, just old games. We did bring us all kinds of things. So because it is a really nice piece of property and, you know, with some privacy fences around it, it could be somebody nice home that nobody gets to visit. Which would be a shame. This is Gulf Coast Life. We're talking today with Marc Collins. He's executive director of the Uncommon Friends Foundation. Founded in 1993, its mission is part historic preservation of the Burroughs home in downtown Fort Myers, in part inspiring future leaders toward excellence of character, a spirit of innovation and a sense of purpose. I'm also joined in studio by Melissa Coon. She is Burroughs Home event coordinator. The person was built in 1901 by a Montana cattleman named John T Murphy. It's one of the few surviving mansions from the Fort Myers Gilded Age. The foundation is celebrating the Burroughs Homes 125th birthday this year, so we're helping highlight that, but also highlighting the other work the foundation does. So let's get back into the foundation stuff some more. So scholarships. That's a big part of what you guys do. I looked on the website. It's not just a scholarship. It's like you guys are either providing or managing a ton of scholarships. We do. We really focus on nontraditional scholarships. We're huge. What do you mean by. That nontraditional trade school? We believe in trade school. We also believe in if someone has gone to school, their life situations changed. Maybe they don't test well. So we have a whole system where they submit applications. I think I was thinking this morning, my first year, I think we only had like 14 applications. This year we had 113 applications. Does it have to be local students? Clearly our basic southwest Florida area, Charlotte. So we've seen the need go up, but our scholarship dollars have really raised. We also work with other nonprofits, and people say, why would a nonprofit give you money like Lark or Pace? Valerie's House, we match their gift to 100% as an organization. Us being uncommon friends that shows a partnership were huge on partnerships, and we love working with our community partners. They get huge discounts when they rent the Burroughs Home, but that provides for our scholarship this year, I think we I can't really remember off the top of my head, we just finished the scholarship term and we have some, like with lark, that has very specific criteria, but it's a good, strong scholarship. And like I said, we double what they give, so it really makes a great impact. I saw the name Bern Davis was attached to the scholarships. Was she part of how that all got off the ground? I believe. Sydney and Byrne Davis Art center right down the street for people who recognize the name. She was on the founding board. Her niece, Alexandra Bremner, is still on our board and very much part that was for it started off, I believe, for school teachers scholarship. Now we've generalized it, but Bern really started the scholarship program. She put up the funds to really put that into play. How are you guys funded nowadays? I mean, like, where does your primary source of funding? Is it donations? It is donations. We are very heavily we don't get any state support. City of Fort Myers support, you guys. Somehow we're sitting. On our city owned property. So there's that. So that's a huge piece. And the city, you know, we just went through, I had been in this job for maybe two weeks when Hurricane Ian came through. Which which was a lot to get back up off of. Yeah. It really took its toll. Had just started shortly about six months after I was. Six months. After mill had never worked with a city government or any type of government on a project. And so when we got there, she made a beautiful list of this needs to be done. This has fallen apart. The front porch is falling off the, you know. And she said, now when will we start? And we were just learning each other's personalities. You know, she's from Minnesota, I'm from Alabama. She's like, here's a checklist. Now will we start? And I said, oh my God, you're going to be miserable for a while. Nothing happens fast. So it really took us three years to get the house. It is absolutely stunning now. Took us a while to get started, but once the city did with the builder it is just spectacular. They've got fountains going that I've had long term. Fort Myers, born and raised here, say we've never seen them work, so everything is just really gorgeous. Pristine and we're so grateful for the support. I live east of downtown, so whenever I come through downtown I get to drive by it. So I've driven past those two homes million times. Edison Awards. You guys are doing something with the Edison Awards. We have a good relationship with the Edison Award. We haven't exactly figured out what the overall piece of that is. Frank is amazing. And his team, what they've typically done is done. An Uncommon Friends cruise on Tim and Sandy. Still a young quiz, and they'll have a lot of the winners of the event. So we're there. We tell them about what we do. We always do swag bags. Give them a book. So you're you're you sort of you're adjacent to them, right? Correct. It's like a piece of the puzzle. I presume you've seen the statue in downtown Fort Myers? Oh, yes. That was made by DJ Wilkins. And I used to be his neighbor. Oh, I didn't know anything about him all the years I lived next to him. And then all of a sudden, I was like, oh, you're the guy that did all the things. So what's coming up, you guys? You sent me that PDF. I mean, you guys have some events coming up. We do. We've got quite a few events that are coming up between now and the end of the year. Now I'm happy to. Yeah. Event person. Yes. The event person. Yep. So as we we did speak to that. The scholarship mission is 100% privately funded. And the kind of I want to say, for a lack of better word, a firewall between our other mission, which is historic preservation. So we they're both that we are constantly simultaneously supporting the advantage, I guess I would say, with the boroughs home is that because being able to get rental sales by being able to use the property in all those different ways, we discussed, that helps fund the kind of that mission and and keeping that going. But as you as you've heard and seen, the tremendous amount of work that was put into it, and it's our job to keep that beautiful. My last question is, is you mentioned that the curriculum is not really being taught in the schools. If somebody is listening and they're a parent or a teacher and they want to get a hold of that, you guys distribute it somehow. You can go on the website. Our website basically has everything we've talked about, UncommonFriends.org Yeah. www Thank you Mel. Nice job, both of you. Marc Collins is Marc Collins is the executive director of the Uncommon Friends Foundation. Thank you Marc. Thank you. And Melissa Coon is the Burroughs Home event coordinator. Thank you so much, Melissa. My pleasure. Thank you. Mike. Can we just say that any of the events she's talked about. The tickets are available at the website? Yes yes, yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for letting me. You can find links to the websites for the Uncommon Friends Foundation and the Burroughs Home and garden on our website wgcu.org/gcl You can find all of our past episodes there as well. Our show today was produced by yours truly, with audio production from Matt Krause and video production from David Oquendo. For now, thanks for listening. I'm Mike Kiniry. This is WGCU-FM, Fort Myers 90.1 WMKO Marco Island 91.7 FM NPR for Southwest Florida.