As most organizations have done in 2020, the Ten Squared Men of Guthrie County had to balance the safety of its members against the value of charity to the community. (remember lead sentences should be by themselves for the online stories)

 

Director Barry Monaghan explains the decision making process for the final donation of the year.

“We had more and more concern about whether or not we should bring people together. I had to contemplate whether I really wanted to have the meeting. I had about six entities that had submitted nominations. I looked at those and probably all of them could be kept on our list if we waited until spring. My first reaction was to maybe call the meeting off altogether and not do anything.”

But, one nominee stuck out to Monaghan, so he dug a little deeper into finding a way to make that organization the recipient of the group’s final 2020 donation.

“The one nominee we had for Guthrie County Public Health was something I felt like maybe I should look into a little further. So, I met with (Public Health Director) Jotham Arber out at Public Health and he gave me the information and maybe it would be a good time for our group to become involved in this.”

It didn’t hurt any that in April, Monaghan made the decision to donate to the Guthrie County Hospital Foundation without a meeting, and he’s received positive feedback from members on both decisions.