Morris County Chamber of Commerce

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The Morris County Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to bringing together companies and nonprofits to build relationships and collaborate in creating a thriving business and community environment. One of the Morris Chamber's signature offerings is LEAD Morris, the Leadership, Education, and Development program that educates business and nonprofit professionals on the opportunities, challenges, institutions, and people of Morris County. Designed for current and emerging leaders, LEAD Morris is a year-long program that fosters business acumen and community engagement.  The program highlights the role of nonprofit organizations serving the county and encourages graduates to take on service roles in the community.  Each LEAD Morris class forms teams that choose nonprofit partners and volunteer for a day of service.

Meghan Hunscher, the Morris Chamber's President and CEO, understands that creating new and engaging experiences for their members is job one.  The Chamber turned to Jay Weisman and Legacy Philanthropy Group (LPG) to guide the LEAD Morris participants through their community service projects.  Meghan was already familiar with our Hands On! Philanthropy (HOP) program through the work we had previously done with the Chamber's Health & Wellness committee.  She knew that Hands On! Philanthropy (HOP) would be a perfect way to honor the long-standing LEAD Morris tradition of community service while adding structure, thoughtfulness, and depth to the program.  LPG was brought on in the fall of this first year, after they had already performed their service days.  Jay worked with the teams to look back at the projects they had completed and guided them as each team prepared a presentation to share at the LEAD Morris graduation ceremony at year's end. 

As always, the goals of the HOP workshop are to explore key concepts around purposeful philanthropy while refining key personal and professional skills such as communication, collaboration, decision making, storytelling, and the sharing of values. The teams were challenged to reflect back on the discussions they had and the decisions they made as they considered which nonprofit organizations to support.  The teams were encouraged to  reflect on their experiences – how they bonded as a team, what they learned about the organizations working so hard in Morris County, and the impact this collaborative giving experience would have on themselves, their teammates, and the community.  The presentations were thoughtful and inspiring! 

The LEAD Morris teams chose exemplary partners, all doing terrific work in and around Morris County.   These are the teams and the organizations they partnered with:

The Adventurers (partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters):

Amy Archer, Valora Blackson, Amy Breitwieser, Marybeth Bull, Alexander Burgos, Carly Clinton, John Cronin, Margaret Davenport 

The Mean Green Machine (partnered with Family Promise of Morris County):

Sandra Kenoff, Zoe Manos, Maria Isaza, Alan Matheny, Chris McManus, Maria Mega, Martina Mendoza, Charlene O’Brien 

The Yellow Team (partnered with Homeless Solutions):

William Michaels, John O’Brien, Mark Odenwelder, Sandra Rodriquez, Niko Spasov, Roseanne Rotondo, Jeremy Szeluga, Ralph Tejeda 

The Blue Eagles (partnered with Grow It Green):

Madeine Despeine , Michael DiGiulio, Danielle Grayson, Brandee Fetherman, Nora Godown, Joe Hathaway, Christine Hellyer, Alexandra Hoffman
 

Hats off to the LEAD Morris cohort on a job well done!

Bridges Built:  32 Participants x (31 Colleagues + 4 Nonprofits + 1 Sponsor) = 1,152