Latest / The iDesign Lab Podcast / How The George Snow Scholarship Fund Is Transforming Lives Through Education and Opportunit
Transcript
- 0:00Voice Over: This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design.
- 0:06Voice Over: Curator of interiors, furnishings, and lifestyles, hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott.
- 0:16Voice Over: iDesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends.
- 0:25Voice Over: Today on iDesign Lab, we are joined by Tim Snow, the driving force behind the George Snow Scholarship Fund, a powerhouse nonprofit helping South Florida students not just reach college, but thrive.
- 0:38Voice Over: Under Tim's leadership, millions in scholarships and life-changing support have opened doors for hundreds of scholars.
- 0:44Voice Over: Today, we dive into impact, opportunity, and the magic behind Boca's Ballroom Battle.
- 0:55TIffany Woolley: Welcome to the iDesign Lab podcast.
- 0:58TIffany Woolley: Today, in the studio, we're joined by Tim Snow, who is the force behind the George Snow Scholarship Foundation.
- 1:06TIffany Woolley: And welcome.
- 1:08Tim Snow: Yeah, thanks for having me.
- 1:09Tim Snow: I'm looking forward to our conversation today.
- 1:11TIffany Woolley: The same.
- 1:12TIffany Woolley: Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and then we can dive into the foundation?
- 1:18Tim Snow: A lot of questions.
- 1:18Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 1:19TIffany Woolley: Yeah, sure.
- 1:20Tim Snow: Well, uh again, I'm Tim Snow, so I head up the George Snow Scholarship Fund.
- 1:26Tim Snow: And uh I was raised in Boca Ratone.
- 1:30Tim Snow: My family moved here in 1958, and uh my dad came down to be a high school math teacher actually in in Del Rey.
- 1:37Tim Snow: That was then Seacrest High School, which is now Atlantic High School.
- 1:43Tim Snow: Uh, but then later went on into real estate and construction.
- 1:47Tim Snow: Um he started building houses as a way to supplement his income as a teacher during the summer months, and then so innovative with the growth of our community, South Florida in general, um, that became his career.
- 2:03Tim Snow: Uh he left teaching and then started a construction company, um, which built a lot a lot of homes over the years.
- 2:14Tim Snow: Um, and then our family's always been in the aviation, so when he retired at a very early age, he uh started helicopter charter service.
- 2:24TIffany Woolley: Okay.
- 2:24Tim Snow: And so that's how he was a pilot.
- 2:27Tim Snow: He was a pilot, my brother's a pilot, I was a pilot.
- 2:30TIffany Woolley: Um so fascinating.
- 2:32Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 2:33Tim Snow: And unfortunately, that's how he passed, was coming back from a uh mission uh from the Bahamas, and um uh that was in 1980.
- 2:44Tim Snow: Um, unfortunately, we never recovered the his remains or the the wreckage of the helicopter.
- 2:50Tim Snow: Really?
- 2:51Tim Snow: Yeah, a lot of mystery still, even to this day, surrounds that that whole thing.
- 2:56Tim Snow: But uh after he passed, we wanted to memorialize him, and he was always helping while he was alive, always helping young people that were trying to help themselves.
- 3:08Tim Snow: And so we thought, you know, a scholarship fund would be a really good way to, you know, kind of keep that work alive and keep his memory alive.
- 3:19Tim Snow: And so we started that shortly after his passing, about a year after it actually was.
- 3:26TIffany Woolley: Like how soon.
- 3:26Scott Woolley: So I've known you since the 80s.
- 3:28Scott Woolley: Yeah, I thought exactly because I remember back in the 80s, us riding motorcycles and you telling me the story, and you had, I think, were just starting out creating the foundation.
- 3:38Tim Snow: Right.
- 3:38Scott Woolley: And I thought it was just an incredible story, and what a what a thing to do to remember your dad to kind of keep his memory alive.
- 3:46Tim Snow: Yeah, well, it was again, he, you know, he he there were things that he was doing, you know.
- 3:51Tim Snow: My dad always did stuff and helped people, you know, very behind the scenes and very quietly, and things that we didn't even know about until after he passed away.
- 4:00Tim Snow: You know, we get thank you letters from people after he passed, you know, kids that he literally put through college that we didn't even know about.
- 4:08TIffany Woolley: Wow, little heaven weeks, that's amazing.
- 4:10Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 4:11Tim Snow: So um it was very much a natural thing to do, you know, in his memory.
- 4:18Tim Snow: And it's grown into you know something pretty substantial over the years.
- 4:22TIffany Woolley: It really is.
- 4:23TIffany Woolley: And so what made you decide that this was gonna be like your mission afterwards in a in above the scholarship portion?
- 4:33Tim Snow: Um I just, you know, I don't know.
- 4:36Tim Snow: It it suits my personality, I guess.
- 4:38Tim Snow: I'm not really sure.
- 4:39Tim Snow: I was building this houses, you know.
- 4:41Tim Snow: I kind of followed in his footsteps a little bit.
- 4:43Tim Snow: And when we created this, and then um we kept seeing more and more young people that we wanted to help, but we couldn't help them because we, you know, the initial funding really kind of came from mostly my dad's friends and then, you know, the family a little bit.
- 4:59Tim Snow: Um, but my dad didn't leave like a whole large endowment or anything like that, which I think a lot of people think uh is the case, but literally every penny that we've ever given away over the years has been raised in the community.
- 5:12TIffany Woolley: It's amazing.
- 5:13TIffany Woolley: So the Boca community obviously is a very important part of that.
- 5:19TIffany Woolley: So, how has that, you know, shaped your life and values growing up in Boca since 1958?
- 5:29Tim Snow: Well, the Boca Rutte community has always been a very generous community, and it's I you know, having not lived literally any place else, you know, in my life, um I don't want to say I take it for granted.
- 5:43Tim Snow: I don't take it for granted, but you know, I think it's a very unique place.
- 5:47Tim Snow: I don't think there's any other place that I'm I'm I'm sure there's other communities around the country that have very much, you know, some similarities.
- 5:55Tim Snow: But as a community, we live in a remarkable place.
- 5:59Tim Snow: And um and the community, I think, you know, it's one of the things I'm very proud of is that it's really a community organization.
- 6:08Tim Snow: It's started very grassroots, even to this day, it's very grassroots.
- 6:12Tim Snow: I love that we actually have, you know, some of our original donors, their kids now are involved in our organization.
- 6:21Tim Snow: So uh it definitely is a community of people that all kind of have the same thought that you know education is very important, and um, and we need to be able to provide that benefit to the young people that need a little bit of help.
- 6:38Tim Snow: And there's a lot of them.
- 6:40Tim Snow: As affluent as South Florida is, you'd be surprised at uh how many, how much need there is in the in the community.
- 6:50Scott Woolley: The first few years you did this, was it a struggle getting the foundation going, trying to get the word out, trying to get momentum?
- 6:58Tim Snow: Um well, like you say, momentum is a good word.
- 7:01Tim Snow: So we would basically what we would do, and this is kind of the evolution of the the scholarship fund, is we would do um we would have a Kentucky Derby party every year, and whatever we raised from that is what we would give away.
- 7:17Tim Snow: And and so I I don't want to say we did it, you know, we were running the organization passively, but you know, we had a board of directors, we had we did all the things you're supposed to do with a nonprofit, but we just didn't have any, you know, anybody steering the the boat, so to speak.
- 7:35Tim Snow: And um, and we kind of you know stayed at where we were, you know, giving away eight to twenty thousand dollars a year.
- 7:44Tim Snow: Um but again we kept seeing more and more young people that we we wanted to help.
- 7:48Tim Snow: And so the board of directors really kind of, which I was a part of, my brother was a part of, said, we want to, you know, we want somebody to really run this, and would you consider doing that?
- 8:00Tim Snow: And so I you know didn't take a lot of thought because I, you know, kind of enjoy this kind of thing.
- 8:08Tim Snow: And so I think it was in 1991 that I actually just started doing this exclusively.
- 8:16TIffany Woolley: Wow.
- 8:17Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 8:17Tim Snow: And so then it's been uh uh you know the growth curve kind of went up a little bit, you know.
- 8:23Tim Snow: And you it's true, you you do, you gain, you you end up gaining momentum, and sometimes it takes a long time.
- 8:31Tim Snow: I mean, this is our 44th year.
- 8:33Tim Snow: Unbelievable that we've been doing.
- 8:36TIffany Woolley: That is really amazing.
- 8:37TIffany Woolley: Can you share one story that was like that moment of you know, wow, this is really my calling?
- 8:45TIffany Woolley: Like this is this is sealing the deal.
- 8:48TIffany Woolley: Like this is what's gonna it's really taking off.
- 8:52Tim Snow: Yeah, it's well, it's that's a hard question to answer, right?
- 8:56Tim Snow: Because every year we see these young people, and that that one moment just gets repeated over and over again, right?
- 9:06Tim Snow: Every year, when you the kids' faces are different, but you know, in many ways their stories are the same.
- 9:12Tim Snow: They're overcoming these challenges within their families, and a lot of them are caregivers, a lot of them are uh first gen kids, and they're just like amazing I call them rock stars because I mean I remember reading applications and thinking to myself, man, I am such a loser compared to, you know, especially at that age to this young individual.
- 9:39Tim Snow: And I had the benefit of growing up in a, you know, I had a mother and father in the same household.
- 9:47Tim Snow: My father, you know, was respected in the community, had a made a good living.
- 9:52Tim Snow: I had a lot of benefits in my life, and a lot of these young people don't don't have that through no fault of their own.
- 9:59Tim Snow: Um, and so you know, that that aha moment just for me always gets repeated every year, and that's what keeps you going, really.
- 10:09Scott Woolley: Well, I think that you've also kind of uh really cornered the market or from a standpoint from charity, from the events that you put on.
- 10:19Scott Woolley: The events that you put on are just phenomenal.
- 10:22Scott Woolley: I mean, I look at it, we go to a lot of different things over the years.
- 10:26Scott Woolley: I call them all rubber chicken dinners.
- 10:29Speaker 1: Right.
- 10:29Scott Woolley: But the George Snow Foundation doesn't put on rubber chicken dinners where you're sitting in a room and it's kind of like, okay, the night went by and all right, we raised some money, but it wasn't that exciting.
- 10:40Speaker 1: Right.
- 10:40Scott Woolley: You're putting on events.
- 10:42Speaker 1: Events, yes.
- 10:43Scott Woolley: And I've been involved in a lot of uh sat on the board of Alonzo Morning's Foundation for 12 years and Dan Marino's and Chris Everett's and so many different bandy Roddick, and the events that you do are a lot of fun.
- 10:56Scott Woolley: Well, and which really enjoyable and the staying power.
- 11:00TIffany Woolley: I mean, you haven't tired of it, you know.
- 11:03TIffany Woolley: Like people still look forward to that.
- 11:05Tim Snow: Well, and like you say, you gotta, you've gotta keep, you've gotta, you've gotta keep them fun.
- 11:10Tim Snow: As long as people are having fun, you know, they they want to come to them.
- 11:14Tim Snow: Correct.
- 11:14Tim Snow: And like you say, I think I can't remember, but we've been doing uh I think our cowboy balls coming up in March, early March.
- 11:22Scott Woolley: Which is a blast.
- 11:22Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 11:23Tim Snow: And so that we've been doing that for 32 years.
- 11:25Tim Snow: And Ballroom Battle, you know, this year will be Which is amazing.
- 11:29Scott Woolley: 32 years you've been doing the same event.
- 11:32Scott Woolley: And most events after 17 years or so far.
- 11:35TIffany Woolley: Yes, peter away.
- 11:36Scott Woolley: Sort of peter off.
- 11:37Scott Woolley: Yeah.
- 11:38Scott Woolley: You know, and don't have that.
- 11:40Tim Snow: Well, people you you know, the first event we did was a rodeo.
- 11:44Tim Snow: Okay.
- 11:45Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 11:47TIffany Woolley: I remember when it used to be on the polo grounds and they were outside.
- 11:53TIffany Woolley: And yeah.
- 11:54Tim Snow: I mean, it and it's been that that that event has its own evolution uh and its own story.
- 11:59Tim Snow: Like you say, it goes from polo grounds to old school square to Red Reef Park.
- 12:05Scott Woolley: Right.
- 12:05Tim Snow: Um, and it just and you just try to, you know, you try to just make it more fun every year.
- 12:11Tim Snow: And you know, you people keep coming as long as they keep coming and you keep making a a good return on your investment, then it makes sense to keep doing it.
- 12:22Scott Woolley: So the next one coming up is the cowboy ball.
- 12:25Tim Snow: Yes.
- 12:25Scott Woolley: When when is that?
- 12:26Tim Snow: Uh that's March 6th.
- 12:28Scott Woolley: And where's that gonna be held?
- 12:29Tim Snow: That'll be at the Boca West Country Club.
- 12:31Tim Snow: Okay, yeah.
- 12:32Scott Woolley: Same as last year, correct?
- 12:33Tim Snow: Yeah, that's right.
- 12:34Scott Woolley: Yes, which is a fun, a fun event.
- 12:36Scott Woolley: Yeah.
- 12:37Scott Woolley: And I think you kind of also capitalized over the fact the um um Yellowstone, the television show.
- 12:44Tim Snow: Yeah, you know, for a few years.
- 12:45Tim Snow: Exactly.
- 12:46Tim Snow: Yeah, that's right.
- 12:48Tim Snow: Well, that's we've been around so long before Yellowstone, but you know, listen, everybody it's the what people like about it is they don't have to put on a tuxedo or uh uh a brand new dress, you know, they can just pull whatever they got in the closet, come to the event, know that they're gonna have a good time.
- 13:08Tim Snow: Um and you know, we always have a student there telling their story, so um that kind of tugs at people's hearts.
- 13:17Tim Snow: So it's been a it's been a good good thing for us.
- 13:20TIffany Woolley: So you mentioned the board of trustees in the very beginning, you know, kind of brought you in and was like, are you ready for like let's do this?
- 13:28Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 13:29TIffany Woolley: How like designing, you know, a board of trustees, how does that even like who do you rely on?
- 13:36TIffany Woolley: Are they people that were closer to your dad, close to business operators?
- 13:41TIffany Woolley: Like, how do you even curate that?
- 13:45Tim Snow: Well, that's a great question.
- 13:46Tim Snow: Um, and in the beginning, they were all people that were close to my dad.
- 13:51Tim Snow: And but they were also very um influential people in the community.
- 13:57Tim Snow: So, for example, we had uh IBM had a huge presence uh here uh years ago, but their plant manager, you know, my dad built uh a big percentage of the people that moved to Boca Ratone for IBM, he built their homes.
- 14:14Tim Snow: So he built the plant manager's home, so they became friends.
- 14:19Tim Snow: And uh same thing with FAU.
- 14:22Tim Snow: There was a lot of people that came from outside of the area to live here, and they became my dad's friends.
- 14:29Tim Snow: And so after my dad passed, you know, a lot of them uh and you know, my brother and I knew them because socially my dad was social with them, so they would come to the house, and so um they were very uh amenable to being on the board and helping us.
- 14:52TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
- 14:52Tim Snow: And you know, your your question of how do you design a board, you do you really need to get a board that is going to help the organization and drive the organization forward.
- 15:02TIffany Woolley: But there is like a certain like you know, nuance to that because not everybody takes it to that level.
- 15:10TIffany Woolley: I mean, it it kind of seems like a pretty special initial group has you know was brought together in the beginning.
- 15:19Tim Snow: Yeah, for sure.
- 15:19Tim Snow: And it still is to this day.
- 15:21TIffany Woolley: To run with it to this.
- 15:23Tim Snow: I mean, if you if you look at our board, they're all you know community leaders.
- 15:27Tim Snow: And and and you don't, you know, for me, you've got to have somebody that's passionate about what we're doing, right?
- 15:34Tim Snow: I mean, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of affluent people in the community you could ask to be on the board, but you've got to have somebody that's committed to the mission.
- 15:42Tim Snow: And and there's you know, we again we've got a big family of people that are, and so to be able to then go to them and say, hey, listen, I'd like to ask you if you'd like to take your support to another level and be on the board and really help us with fundraising and governance, and um, you know, everybody has their sort of area of expertise.
- 16:07Tim Snow: Um, and so rely, you know, being able to rely on that expertise um is a real blessing to the organization.
- 16:17TIffany Woolley: It really is.
- 16:18Tim Snow: Um in s in almost every way you can think of, right?
- 16:22TIffany Woolley: Right.
- 16:22TIffany Woolley: So who was the driving force between behind you know setting the tone for that mission?
- 16:28Tim Snow: I'm sure there was a mission statement from the beginning and yeah, we weren't quite that sophisticated, I don't think, really, in the beginning.
- 16:36Tim Snow: And we're actually undergoing a strategic planning process right now, which has really been um we we've we did one a couple years ago, and and this one um uh we're we're starting, uh, you know, uh we we had a session, uh a day-long session not too long ago, a couple weeks ago.
- 16:56Tim Snow: And just really I'm really excited about going through that process again um because it sort of redefines, you have the opportunity to redefine your your core values, your mission and your vision, um, and then look at you know, where do you want to be three to five years and really do a deep dive into you know where are our needs, what do we, you know, how how are we gonna get there?
- 17:22Tim Snow: Um we've had a lot of growth over the last, I'm sure.
- 17:26TIffany Woolley: You know, five, six years.
- 17:28TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
- 17:29Tim Snow: I mean, if you look at a chart of um, you know, just those scholarships and support services that we award, it's it's pretty crazy.
- 17:39Tim Snow: You gotta you gotta do some manipulating to get it on one page, you know.
- 17:44Tim Snow: Um so that growth is uh wonderful, but with growth comes you know challenges as well.
- 17:54Speaker 4: Growing pains, yeah.
- 17:55Tim Snow: You need infrastructure behind it uh to support it.
- 17:58Tim Snow: Um and we've been able to stay ahead of that, you know, which is a good thing.
- 18:02Tim Snow: Uh we just opened up a 2,400 square foot.
- 18:05Tim Snow: Um uh it's not necessarily an addition that is attached to our office, but it's on the same floor as our office in the same building, and that's where now all of our scholar services team.
- 18:19TIffany Woolley: Wow, that's that's a big undertaking.
- 18:21Tim Snow: Yeah, so but it's a great, it's a great spot.
- 18:24Tim Snow: And love that, like I said, love to have you guys stop by and take a look at it.
- 18:27Tim Snow: That's where we got our podcast room.
- 18:30Scott Woolley: And so tell us about the scholarships.
- 18:32Scott Woolley: You're raising a lot of money to putting on these wonderful events for the community to come to, all for a great cause.
- 18:39Scott Woolley: I think it's like over five million dollars in scholarships you awarded this past year.
- 18:44Tim Snow: That's right, yeah.
- 18:44Scott Woolley: That's like amazing.
- 18:47Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 18:47Scott Woolley: Tell us about the program and how it's affected.
- 18:49Scott Woolley: And the process.
- 18:50Tim Snow: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
- 18:51Tim Snow: Well, uh, let me give you a little just kind of a little bit of background on it, right?
- 18:55Tim Snow: So we already talked about kind of where we started off, eight to twenty thousand dollars a year, kept seeing more kids that we wanted to help.
- 19:01Tim Snow: So and is it college scholarships primarily or started that way?
- 19:07Tim Snow: Okay, yeah, and and it really is um very much that way still.
- 19:13Tim Snow: Um, although now we've got some dedicated money for workforce uh careers, um, and that can be anything from a four-year nursing degree uh to a certification program.
- 19:25Tim Snow: So we're doing that as well, um, which we think is really important for the community to be able to help kids that you know um want to pursue those careers because it's very they're very much in need and they're very lucrative.
- 19:38Tim Snow: Um so we've kind of we've kind of morphed into that.
- 19:42Tim Snow: But the the real thing that kind of sets us apart that as we were making these awards, we were seeing and we were listening to our kids, and we were seeing kind of things that they needed.
- 19:55Tim Snow: Like the first thing was I remember a young man who was literally the valuation of his school went away to college and he dropped out after the first year.
- 20:04Tim Snow: So he had a hard time making that transition from high school to college.
- 20:09Tim Snow: So we developed a what we to this day call our high school to college transition program, and that's a one-day long program.
- 20:17Tim Snow: Actually, this year maybe we are gonna expand it to maybe two days, but we bring in and we start, yeah, we talk about look, this is this is gonna be a different world, right?
- 20:27Tim Snow: You you know, you're not gonna be talking to your high school teacher, you're talking to a professor now, and what does that look like?
- 20:33Tim Snow: And and what's the difference?
- 20:35Tim Snow: You know, you got out office hours with professors that you didn't have with teachers, take advantage of them and right so you know, everything housing situations, budgeting, financial management, uh make sure they fully understand their financial aid packages, um, just anything to make that transition easier.
- 20:55Tim Snow: Um, and then we just kept listening to the kids.
- 20:58Tim Snow: And one of the I remember one year we I don't even know how I came up with it, but I said said to everybody interviewing, I said, if you ask every kid that we interview, do they have a computer to take to school?
- 21:10TIffany Woolley: Wow, yeah.
- 21:12Tim Snow: And 75% of them did not.
- 21:15Tim Snow: So we implemented a program where they have an opportunity to get a computer from us if they want if they need them.
- 21:21Tim Snow: And that's really our you know what we call our support services.
- 21:26Tim Snow: We've got emergency fund for our kids now.
- 21:29Tim Snow: We send them care packages.
- 21:31Tim Snow: We actually, what you come by, we'll show you.
- 21:33Tim Snow: We've got a a closet, probably the size of this room, that's it's just a closet full of uh clothes and good clothes, you know, and shoes.
- 21:44Tim Snow: Uh so the kids um when they when they came home for Thanksgiving break or the holiday break, they're in there looking for winter jackets and stuff that's amazing.
- 21:55Tim Snow: Is that donated or are you buying all donated that is just amazing.
- 22:00TIffany Woolley: And I don't think I realized like that.
- 22:02TIffany Woolley: That's another level of community outreach and people to be able to partake in the scholarship.
- 22:08unknown: Yeah.
- 22:09TIffany Woolley: It's way beyond just writing a check for school.
- 22:12Scott Woolley: Yeah.
- 22:13Scott Woolley: No.
- 22:13Scott Woolley: So how are you finding these the kids?
- 22:15Scott Woolley: Where are they coming from?
- 22:16TIffany Woolley: How how are they so do they have to reach out to you?
- 22:20Tim Snow: Yeah, well, that's a great question.
- 22:22Tim Snow: So we go, so this in 2026, we're going into Broward County for the first time.
- 22:29Tim Snow: So what I'm telling you, uh, the process applies to both now Palm Beach and Broward County.
- 22:35Speaker 1: Amazing.
- 22:36Tim Snow: But in let's say in 2025, um, let's just say every school that we serve, we visit every school that we serve.
- 22:43Scott Woolley: So are they high schools, elementary schools, private, public?
- 22:46Tim Snow: All high schools.
- 22:47Tim Snow: So we're all right.
- 22:49Tim Snow: So we're looking for high school seniors who are going to be graduating in the following year.
- 22:53Tim Snow: We'll go see them in October, November of their senior year, and we talk to them about our scholarship opportunity.
- 23:02Tim Snow: We also educate them about other opportunities that they might have in the community, different scholarships that are not part of our organization, but we're, you know, trying to help the kids.
- 23:13Scott Woolley: So we have three kids in high school.
- 23:15Scott Woolley: Right.
- 23:15Scott Woolley: We go like American Heritage.
- 23:18Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 23:18Scott Woolley: We go, they have what is it, Korea Day, where they have all the different universities and colleges, right?
- 23:24Scott Woolley: Tables, and you you go meet them.
- 23:26Tim Snow: Yes.
- 23:27Tim Snow: We we go individually.
- 23:29Tim Snow: We we're uh sometimes we'll participate in like a countywide college fair, but what I'm talking about now is our staff individually going into the school.
- 23:41Tim Snow: So you call the school, set up a meeting, that's right, and then go in and talk to the kids on how you can support them and help them.
- 23:48Tim Snow: Yes.
- 23:49Tim Snow: And do you get it like a uh we'll get some in some schools overflow of too many kids when you do that?
- 23:56Tim Snow: Or uh some schools, you know, will give us uh 25 kids.
- 24:01Tim Snow: Some schools will have 200 kids, you know, in the audience.
- 24:05Tim Snow: And now that we're doing these workforce um scholarships, you know, we emphasize to the guidance counselors, look, we're not just looking for your you know top-tier speech.
- 24:15Tim Snow: We we want hard worker.
- 24:17Tim Snow: Yeah, we want young people that really have a passion about something and need help.
- 24:22Tim Snow: And so we get a we get a lot of a lot of kids.
- 24:27Scott Woolley: So do you go through those kids and kind of select who fits a certain so what the so the process is our applications online, so of course we make them aware of that, we point them in the right direction, and they have until February uh first every year to complete the application.
- 24:47Tim Snow: Um, and then we have like right now we've got over 260 people because we this year we had 3,000 applications.
- 24:56Scott Woolley: 2,000 applications, 3,000.
- 24:58Tim Snow: 3,000, yeah.
- 24:58Scott Woolley: Wow.
- 24:59Tim Snow: Uh right at 3,000.
- 25:00Tim Snow: And so um we've got 260 very dedicated people that will go through those applications.
- 25:11Tim Snow: Every application gets read five times.
- 25:14Tim Snow: Um, and then they they rank them.
- 25:18Tim Snow: We've got a matrix, we train the reviewers, talk to them about biases and implicit by explicit biases, and uh, and then we have our own formula of of of uh evaluating um the uh the rankings or the ratings at that point, their ratings, and and then we determine who we're gonna interview.
- 25:40Tim Snow: So we kind of know, like, okay, we've got 5.5 million.
- 25:43Tim Snow: This year I think we're gonna do 7 million.
- 25:46Tim Snow: So we've got $7 million to give away.
- 25:48Tim Snow: And uh that kind of translates to you know, X amount of students.
- 25:54Tim Snow: And so we for that, we're gonna need to see 500 kids, you know, or or in this case, 7 million, we'll probably see.
- 26:04Scott Woolley: Most kids looking for financial support, or most, yeah.
- 26:10Tim Snow: They're they're all they all have a financial need of some kind.
- 26:13TIffany Woolley: And are they at different levels of the financial need?
- 26:16TIffany Woolley: Do you actually say, like, okay, this person's gonna be getting this much attributed, this one's gonna be that's right.
- 26:22Tim Snow: Everybody, everybody is different, everybody gets a different amount, and it's all we do internally within our organization, we do a need analysis on them.
- 26:32Tim Snow: And it's really kind of an interesting process because you know, you'll have students um and and this is a you know, this did happen to us.
- 26:42Tim Snow: One year we had three young ladies from Belglade, which as you know is a very underserved community.
- 26:48Tim Snow: They all were going to Harvard University.
- 26:50Speaker 4: Unbelievable.
- 26:52Tim Snow: Um, but they didn't Harvard gave them full rides, but they so they didn't need um, they didn't need money, but we have a what we that that that year sparked this creation of what we call our hometown hero scholarship, which is it's not financial, but it's all these support services, right?
- 27:15Tim Snow: So these young ladies are gonna go from the community of Belleglade to the Harvard community, which is completely different, right?
- 27:25Tim Snow: And so we're we'll we are there to support them, you know, through that transition, give them the computer that they need, um, the emergency and emergency funding, whatever it might be.
- 27:38Tim Snow: And uh with that scholarship, um, you know, they'll graduate debt-free from Harvard, and we'll get them, we'll get them through there.
- 27:47Tim Snow: But we give them that support.
- 27:49Tim Snow: And in other cases, you know, it just depends on what how much financial aid are they getting from the schools, the federal government, the state government, and then we try to meet that unmet need.
- 28:00Scott Woolley: So there's like different categories of what you're you know, funding, support.
- 28:08Tim Snow: Yeah, very much so.
- 28:09Tim Snow: I mean, we kind of look at it all the same.
- 28:11Tim Snow: I mean, we're all of our our our almost all of our kids that we're that we're helping are are getting these these support services, um, along with the financial commitment.
- 28:23Tim Snow: And that's and it's a four-year commitment, and that's really important to us too, you know, because we see a lot of scholarships that are like one-year deals, and you know, that's great.
- 28:35Scott Woolley: Wait, wait.
- 28:36Scott Woolley: So you're supporting each one of these students, you're supporting them for the four years.
- 28:40Scott Woolley: That's right.
- 28:40Scott Woolley: So they're you're having ongoing communication with them through their four years of college.
- 28:46Tim Snow: That's correct, yeah.
- 28:47Tim Snow: And it's so we we we have almost a thousand kids in college right now.
- 28:52Scott Woolley: So there's like 250 in each year, kind of is probably growing.
- 28:56Tim Snow: And it is growing, yes.
- 28:57Tim Snow: So that's a lot of follow-up.
- 28:59Tim Snow: It's a lot of follow-up.
- 29:00Tim Snow: I mean, we you know, a lot of it it's interesting because um, first of all, they hear from us every we send them out uh a Monday motivational message every year, every Monday.
- 29:10Tim Snow: Um, so that kind of keeps you know them understanding.
- 29:13Tim Snow: Look, we're back here.
- 29:14Tim Snow: If you need us for anything, uh, you know, call us.
- 29:18Tim Snow: And um, you know, they they all have our staff's uh cell numbers, and our staff might get it called at 10 o'clock at night.
- 29:27Scott Woolley: I was just gonna say I gotta I have to ask, how many people are on your team or on your staff?
- 29:32Tim Snow: Well, we have 16 people total uh within the scholarship fund.
- 29:36Tim Snow: And in terms of the supports, uh the scholarship port team.
- 29:40TIffany Woolley: Almost like a foster child in a way.
- 29:42TIffany Woolley: It's like you're fostering them through this experience.
- 29:45Tim Snow: Well, that's right.
- 29:46Tim Snow: And you know, probably let's say I'm gonna say 70 to 80 percent of the students, you know, they're okay.
- 29:52Tim Snow: They they're they're plugging along, they're getting great grades, they're having they've adjusted, they're fine.
- 29:59Tim Snow: Um, so you know, we hear from them twice a year when they need money, and uh we send a check to the school on their behalf.
- 30:07Tim Snow: Uh, and then that that that 20 to 30 percent of the kids that might have a family issue or some kind of a struggle, those are the ones that that we have the most interaction with.
- 30:21Tim Snow: And um, you know, I was just reading some background today on, you know, we had a young lady who uh lost her father, so we we um paid for her flight home through the emergency fund, and the staff actually put together a little care package for her.
- 30:40Tim Snow: She they knew she had a dog, so they got her dog food and you know, just uh and and that was waiting for her, you know, when she arrived at her at her family's home.
- 30:52TIffany Woolley: This is so much more than a school scholarship.
- 30:54TIffany Woolley: I don't I don't know if that has been like drilled out there, you know.
- 31:00TIffany Woolley: This really is so much more.
- 31:03Scott Woolley: I mean, it's one thing just raising money and putting on these events, that's a whole entity in itself.
- 31:08Scott Woolley: Right.
- 31:08Scott Woolley: You're running now a whole nother organization that I'm I've been to I don't know how many of your events over the years.
- 31:17Scott Woolley: I didn't know all this.
- 31:18Tim Snow: Yeah, it's uh it's uh well it's a lot, but I tell you, we've got an amazing team uh that that are you know doing this.
- 31:27Tim Snow: Uh Leslie uh Cornwell, who's our you know, really kind of heads up our effort and and everybody kind of falls underneath her, but she's been with us for a very long time.
- 31:38Tim Snow: And you know, we tell the kids, look, you're now part of our family, and so we're gonna do for you.
- 31:44Tim Snow: Like, and that's that's what drives us.
- 31:46Tim Snow: Like, if if there's a question, like somebody says, Well, would you, you know, should we do this?
- 31:52Tim Snow: The first question we ask ourselves is, would we do that for our own children?
- 31:57Tim Snow: And if the answer is yes, then we would do it, we'll do it, you know.
- 32:02TIffany Woolley: Do you ever partner with just because of thinking locally, like FAU or like a Lynn University or any online schools, in addition to just the financial component, like helping them even getting into programs?
- 32:18Tim Snow: We have we do, we partner with um Palm Beach State.
- 32:22Tim Snow: Uh we do a little some things with Lynn, we do a lot with FAU as well.
- 32:29Tim Snow: Uh, for example, um Van Williams, who's a provost at the Boca campus for uh Palm Beach State College, he hosts a reception for every class of our kids that come there.
- 32:41Tim Snow: So uh I think we've got almost a hundred kids at that school right now, but he hosts a reception and he brings in, he brings in all of his deans.
- 32:50Tim Snow: So the financial, you know, the dean of financial aid, the uh the student life, you know.
- 32:57Tim Snow: So so our kids get to meet those people on campus.
- 33:02Tim Snow: Yeah, and so they kind of are like prior a priority for the school.
- 33:08Tim Snow: And we do the same thing with FAU, where uh their career services department we work very closely with.
- 33:16Tim Snow: They've got a whole team of people that deal with the first gen population, and so those folks, and they come to our high school to college transition program and do you know introductory uh um kind of a little seminar for them.
- 33:30Tim Snow: So, yeah, we do a lot of partnerships and we're looking uh to expand that um into not so much the local schools because we've got great relationships there, but we also have out of state.
- 33:43Tim Snow: Well, not so much out of state, but University of Florida, we have a lot of students there.
- 33:48Tim Snow: Uh all of the 75% of our students stay in Florida because they're getting bright futures and uh what about the like Florida Prepaid?
- 33:59TIffany Woolley: Can you as a charity organization do anything buying into that?
- 34:05Tim Snow: Or uh you must have done your homework.
- 34:08Tim Snow: So uh interestingly, I've been told.
- 34:11Tim Snow: So uh the answer is yes.
- 34:13Tim Snow: And what what we do is we through we have a partnership with the Florida Prepaid Foundation, and so we're purchasing last year, we purchased a hundred and I'm gonna say 135.
- 34:25Tim Snow: It's not exactly that number, but about that number, um, Florida Prepaid programs.
- 34:32Tim Snow: And so a lot of our kids are getting four years tuition.
- 34:37Tim Snow: That's just part of their award from us.
- 34:40Tim Snow: So we purchase that from the state of Florida, they match it dollar for dollar.
- 34:47Tim Snow: Um, actually, the value is is uh much more, it's maximizing your money tremendously.
- 34:54Tim Snow: And and then we'll piggyback on that more financial aid because they need, you know, they need books.
- 35:01Tim Snow: Tuition is really only a third of the cost of attendance.
- 35:05TIffany Woolley: Correct.
- 35:06Tim Snow: And like housing, housing, food, room and board, all that.
- 35:10Tim Snow: So um yeah, that's a that's a big component of what we do.
- 35:14TIffany Woolley: I mean, I was gonna say that's such a huge component opportunity to like continuing this and growing it.
- 35:21Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 35:21Tim Snow: And like I said, I did 130 uh last year, I'll do 200 this year uh because of our move in the Broward County.
- 35:31TIffany Woolley: So how did you realize now is the time to now branch out?
- 35:35TIffany Woolley: Well, uh obviously the need is there.
- 35:39Tim Snow: I mean is there but to be able to service it's taking on a lot more, taking on a lot more, but we've been very fortunate that we we got funding uh you know to do that, right?
- 35:51Tim Snow: And again, it's we it was interesting because um, and I'm I'm probably not answering your question, but um we learned uh well let me ask you answer your question first.
- 36:05Tim Snow: I guess going into Broward County, we got it, we uh we had a uh a very generous contribution from the uh Frederick A.
- 36:12Tim Snow: DeLuca Foundation.
- 36:14Speaker 1: Okay.
- 36:14Tim Snow: And so that's going to underwrite a hundred additional scholarships down in Broward County.
- 36:20Tim Snow: And so um they also understand the need for infrastructure to support that.
- 36:26Tim Snow: So they they've helped us with you know uh adding to our infrastructure, um, which we would not have been able to do it without that, right?
- 36:35Tim Snow: I mean, Broward County is a actually a bigger school district than Paw Beach County, believe it or not.
- 36:42TIffany Woolley: I don't think I realize that.
- 36:43Tim Snow: Yeah, and and it's a different um, it's sort of uh demographics are very different down there.
- 36:49Tim Snow: And so, but we've been really embraced.
- 36:51Tim Snow: The the school district of Broward County has really embraced us so much.
- 36:56Tim Snow: Um, so we've got a great relationship with them.
- 37:00Tim Snow: And again, we're going to every school down there, did go to every school down there.
- 37:04Tim Snow: Um, I think we got 1200 applications from that county for our first year.
- 37:10Tim Snow: That's was crazy.
- 37:12Tim Snow: I thought if we got 500 applications, we'd be doing good.
- 37:15Tim Snow: Um so yeah, so it's um then that's what's gonna kind of push us over probably the $7 million mark this year.
- 37:24TIffany Woolley: It's so exciting.
- 37:25TIffany Woolley: One thing that I appreciate about the foundation too is it's kind of based on such a positive growing step in somebody's life.
- 37:34TIffany Woolley: It's not like a hard luck situation.
- 37:37TIffany Woolley: It's not like somebody coming back from something, it's really giving foundational support to giving a chance to those in need.
- 37:50Tim Snow: Well, you're you're a hundred percent right.
- 37:52Tim Snow: I mean, it's uh listen, I've been doing this for 44 years, right?
- 37:56Tim Snow: Which is crazy to actually say that.
- 37:59Tim Snow: But um, and and and I know that you know a baby born in Belle Glade or Pahoke is gonna have the same talent and ability as a baby born in Bobber's own, right?
- 38:15Tim Snow: Absolutely.
- 38:15Tim Snow: The thing that they don't have is the same opportunities, and so that's what we're here to do is to make to level that playing field out for those young people that don't have necessarily the opportunities that uh someone born uh again.
- 38:32Tim Snow: I look at myself, I had all the opportunities and um I didn't have challenges necessarily.
- 38:39Tim Snow: Um, but these young people do.
- 38:41Tim Snow: And so and I I can tell you without a question, um these young people that I'm talking about, they are amazing young people.
- 38:54TIffany Woolley: Well it's like rewarding good behavior.
- 38:55TIffany Woolley: I mean, I love that, you know, to really be able to dive in and support somebody who just needs that extra support because they're willing to work hard.
- 39:05TIffany Woolley: They're willing to believe that they're capable and deserving.
- 39:09Tim Snow: And well, and by the time they get to us, they've got a track record of that.
- 39:13Tim Snow: Right.
- 39:14Tim Snow: That we can see and we know that they are willing to help again, help themselves or and others.
- 39:21Tim Snow: And um and so who doesn't want to help somebody else?
- 39:24TIffany Woolley: No, and I feel like that's so unique to so many to different foundations that are around today.
- 39:29TIffany Woolley: I feel like a lot of them are, you know, like I said somewhat more of a hard luck story where this is really just you know rewarding good behavior.
- 39:38TIffany Woolley: And I feel like our world benefits from that in a lot of ways.
- 39:42Tim Snow: Aaron Powell Well, it does, and we need to we need to give them up that opportunity because our community in the end benefits from it, right?
- 39:48Tim Snow: True.
- 39:48Tim Snow: When they come back, they're you know, I mean, I I tell you a story about which my uh but you know, young man from Belglade, and now he's back in the community, and his his family literally were working in the fields in in Belglade and the Western communities, and and he's now graduated from the Harvard uh Kennedy School of Government.
- 40:14TIffany Woolley: Unbelievable.
- 40:15Tim Snow: Uh and he's back in South Florida, uh not only contributing to our community, but you know, selfishly contributing back to the scholarship fund as well.
- 40:26TIffany Woolley: That's amazing.
- 40:26TIffany Woolley: So, how many do come back to South Florida?
- 40:29TIffany Woolley: Like, have you been able to track that?
- 40:31TIffany Woolley: Or does it have a lot of people?
- 40:32Tim Snow: That's something we would we want to we really want to dive into.
- 40:34TIffany Woolley: Almost like an alumni association.
- 40:36Scott Woolley: How many have come back to South Florida?
- 40:38Scott Woolley: How many have you actually helped over 44 years?
- 40:42Tim Snow: 3,600 students, yeah.
- 40:45Tim Snow: So we'll probably we'll probably get over that 4,000 uh mark in 2026.
- 40:51Scott Woolley: Wow.
- 40:51Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 40:52Tim Snow: Um but that that's a good question.
- 40:55Tim Snow: It's something we want to know.
- 40:57Tim Snow: And um and a lot of a lot of uh a lot of the reason we want to know it is we want to know why they're not back here, right?
- 41:06Tim Snow: We know housing is a big issue for a lot of them.
- 41:10Tim Snow: You know, so is there something we can do in that arena that might be helpful to them?
- 41:15Tim Snow: Um, but we also want to get them internships here so that they make relationships.
- 41:20TIffany Woolley: I was wondering too, yeah, partnering with especially with so much growth in South Florida now, right?
- 41:26TIffany Woolley: That I would think there's some strategic growth there.
- 41:30Scott Woolley: Yeah.
- 41:30Scott Woolley: So is that a new initiative that you're working together?
- 41:33Tim Snow: It is, yeah.
- 41:34Tim Snow: We've just in the last couple of years developed a career development uh department where we've got, you know, um experts really that are guiding our kids and trying to give them hard skills and soft skills that they need to get the best job that they can get after they graduate.
- 41:53Tim Snow: So um, you know, a quick example is uh Danielle Rossi in her restaurant um Oceans 234 does a uh dining etiquette course for our kids.
- 42:07Tim Snow: You know, and she does an amazing job with it.
- 42:10Tim Snow: Um and so they you know they learn the things that they they just don't know, right?
- 42:16Tim Snow: Right.
- 42:16Tim Snow: And they and uh what I love about the way she does it, she's she doesn't just serve them uh a meal, it's it's things that they maybe have never eaten before, you know, oysters or carpaccio or uh sushi or uh ceviche, right?
- 42:32TIffany Woolley: You know, broaden their palate, yeah.
- 42:35Tim Snow: They just um and it's fun to go through that with them.
- 42:38TIffany Woolley: Absolutely.
- 42:38TIffany Woolley: So would you like using that as an analogy?
- 42:42TIffany Woolley: I mean, there's obviously a lot of mentors then also.
- 42:46TIffany Woolley: Are these people doing this as a community service, or how does like, you know, donating time, how can one get more involved?
- 42:55Tim Snow: Well, there's a ton of ways to get involved with us, really.
- 42:59Tim Snow: Um and we've got a whole section on our website that folks can go and look and see what the different opportunities are.
- 43:07Tim Snow: Uh everything from baking cookies for our care packages that we send to the kids every uh every winter when they they do the right before their final exams, we send it to them.
- 43:20Scott Woolley: Uh to sending packages to the schools for the kids.
- 43:24Tim Snow: We sent we sent over 700 uh care packages out this year and had I don't I can't even tell you over 150 people baking.
- 43:33Tim Snow: I I baked 24 people.
- 43:35TIffany Woolley: I was gonna say, I we can I mean I this is all such really great information.
- 43:39TIffany Woolley: I love that because there's so much like even we could be putting our kids involved in.
- 43:45Tim Snow: Well, and that that's what the like the bait you talk about that, but that like that's the a lot of our the people that bake, they they engage their kids in it.
- 43:54Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 43:55Tim Snow: And their kids are writing notes to our kids, you know, saying good luck and It really, you know, it is totally a community deal.
- 44:03Tim Snow: I mean, all the way around.
- 44:05TIffany Woolley: It really is.
- 44:06TIffany Woolley: So how so obviously in addition to the fabulous events that we do attend and and you have obviously the website.
- 44:14TIffany Woolley: What are other ways that you can partake in the community during the year, getting involved?
- 44:20TIffany Woolley: Like do you come to your office or is it donations or mentoring?
- 44:27Tim Snow: Donations are a big a big part of it.
- 44:30Tim Snow: Um obviously, right?
- 44:32Tim Snow: Um people uh you know, people come to us, they they know that we have the infrastructure to uh a lot of people come to create their own scholarship programs with us.
- 44:41Tim Snow: Um you know, they they just it's we make it turnkey.
- 44:46Tim Snow: They they have to do three things.
- 44:47Tim Snow: They have to figure out what they want to name it, how much money do they want to give to it, and what's the criteria of student that they want to help.
- 44:54Tim Snow: And we handle everything from from that point on.
- 44:58Tim Snow: Uh, and so we have a lot of folks that do that, a lot of people that just make general contributions to us, which we absolutely need.
- 45:05Tim Snow: Um and then with our programming, you know, it's I I liked uh it's very hard to you know get specific on um what we need, but you know, like I remember somebody he was a quantitative analyst, and he kind of, you know, he we had lunch together and we talked about his work and we asked him to come in and analyze our selection process.
- 45:32TIffany Woolley: Right.
- 45:32Tim Snow: Right.
- 45:33Tim Snow: And so you can everybody's got something that they can they can offer us to make our organization better, to make our programs better.
- 45:43Tim Snow: Um you know, if you've got, you know, um, like I said, we're given computers or there's just so many different ways.
- 45:51Tim Snow: I mean, I could go on and on.
- 45:53TIffany Woolley: So what's the initial ask, I guess, to create a scholarship underneath your so they should be ready to commit $10,000.
- 46:01TIffany Woolley: Okay.
- 46:02Tim Snow: Um, and then it goes up from there.
- 46:04Tim Snow: Um a lot of people create endowments with us as well.
- 46:09Tim Snow: Uh our average award this last year, 2025, I think was about $14,000.
- 46:16Tim Snow: And so we're trying to, you know, get a meaningful financial contribution to the students, uh, again, lasting over those four years.
- 46:26Tim Snow: Right.
- 46:27Tim Snow: And so um, but ten thousand dollars is what we would look for.
- 46:32TIffany Woolley: Two.
- 46:32TIffany Woolley: And that's like creating a foun uh scholarship in in somebody's name.
- 46:39TIffany Woolley: Okay, you know, and and they'll you know, they'll come to the awards reception that we host and present the kids with a medal and get their picture taken with them and and meet the kids, their parents, and feel that gratitude these young people with the face and the absolutely the story kind of on a personal.
- 46:59Scott Woolley: Is there a particular story of a student over the years that stands out?
- 47:05Tim Snow: That's I mean, we've got so many, we've got people working on the Artemis project right now.
- 47:11Tim Snow: We've got at least a couple kids up there.
- 47:13Tim Snow: So, you know, we've got uh my dermatologist was uh one of our scholars.
- 47:20TIffany Woolley: Wow.
- 47:20Tim Snow: Um you know, again, it's just they're they're amazing people and they they come back and they they're they're part of the community, and that that's what we want to just keep going because again, it makes our community better place.
- 47:34TIffany Woolley: So you said keep going, and obviously, like the growth has speaks for itself 40 years and continuing and growing exponentially.
- 47:42TIffany Woolley: I know you mentioned you have a podcast coming.
- 47:45TIffany Woolley: Tell us a little bit about that.
- 47:49Tim Snow: Well, so we've been doing a podcast for about a year now, and our objective there is, I mean, I don't have any aspirations that I'm, you know, we're gonna be any uh social media uh star or anything, but really all we're trying to do is educate young people and their families about um continuing their education after college, right?
- 48:12Tim Snow: Whether that's uh through a uh vote or uh four-year career uh after college.
- 48:18Tim Snow: I'm sorry, after high school.
- 48:19Tim Snow: Yeah, thank you for correcting me on that.
- 48:22Tim Snow: Uh after high school.
- 48:23Tim Snow: So we talk about student debt, we talk about financial aid, we talk about you know, writing uh college applications, resumes, everything.
- 48:35Tim Snow: Uh, and trying to get you know experts to come in to advise our kids on it.
- 48:41Tim Snow: Um and it's it's been it's been it's been fun.
- 48:45Tim Snow: And I think, you know, uh the podcast I think is really um it's first of all, it's gaining traction, but it's really giving valuable information to young people who are, you know, who need answers.
- 49:01Tim Snow: Who need answers, and they can listen to this and make informed decisions.
- 49:06Tim Snow: You know, I talked about the student debt, you know, we educate the kids a lot about the student debt.
- 49:11Tim Snow: Well, that's a big thing with college right now, is so many people are coming out in so much debt that like but kids are picking, you know, they're they're maybe not making a wise choice on where they want to go to school, right?
- 49:24Tim Snow: They want to go to the University of Alabama, they're gonna have to pay out-of-state tuition, they're gonna have student debt when they can, you know, literally stay in in Florida, get an outstanding education, and maybe graduate debt-free.
- 49:39Tim Snow: So those are the kind of topics that we we like to cover with our podcast.
- 49:44TIffany Woolley: Which I think is so amazing because everybody's story in general you learn from through communicating and you know, being out there.
- 49:54TIffany Woolley: Everybody has something to share and you can gain something from there.
- 49:59Tim Snow: Absolutely.
- 50:00Tim Snow: Absolutely.
- 50:01Scott Woolley: So you have the cowboy bowl coming up.
- 50:04Scott Woolley: What else should you have?
- 50:05Scott Woolley: Events for the public.
- 50:07Scott Woolley: Because I think that's a place where the more people that attend and learn, yeah, fun in that.
- 50:14Tim Snow: So we'll do a golf tournament in September.
- 50:17Tim Snow: Okay.
- 50:17Tim Snow: We're doing that at roll palm.
- 50:19Tim Snow: Um I'm not sure if we have a date for that, but it'll be probably in late September.
- 50:25Tim Snow: And then this year, uh ballroom battle, which we normally would do in September, is gonna take place on November 7th.
- 50:34Scott Woolley: So tell us about we know what that button is.
- 50:36Scott Woolley: I know, but I and I do love that.
- 50:38Scott Woolley: Let's talk about that for a few minutes.
- 50:39Scott Woolley: Yeah, for sure.
- 50:40Scott Woolley: That's a very interesting, fun episode event.
- 50:44TIffany Woolley: How that came about, how you select everybody.
- 50:47Tim Snow: Yeah, well, we it came about So before you come how it came about, what tell us what it is.
- 50:52Tim Snow: So people is it's uh we it's called Boca's Ballroom Battle, and we select eight people in the community, recognizable people in the community, uh, to be what we call our community dancers, and we partner with the Fred Esther dance studio in Boca Ratone, and we we pair them up with a dance professional, and they learn a dance routine.
- 51:17Scott Woolley: So so dan it's like dancing with the stars, but in Boca Ratone.
- 51:22TIffany Woolley: The stars are the stars in it's becomes really a great event.
- 51:26Scott Woolley: Living in Boca, South Florida, right?
- 51:29Tim Snow: And uh we sell it out every year, we sell out every sponsorship every year.
- 51:35Tim Snow: It, you know, there's 900 people over at the Boca Ratone.
- 51:38Speaker 4: Wild.
- 51:39Tim Snow: Um, and it it it's it's it is such a great event for so many reasons.
- 51:46Tim Snow: But what I love about it is all the positive energy that's in the room.
- 51:50Tim Snow: So people go oftentimes they're there to support one person, but they end up cheering everybody on because they, you know, look, everybody says every America's number one fears public speaking.
- 52:02Tim Snow: Well, that's nothing compared to dancing in front of the 900 people, I will tell you.
- 52:07Tim Snow: So it takes a lot of courage to agree to do this, and we've been really fortunate.
- 52:13Tim Snow: I think we've got had 144 people do it already.
- 52:16Tim Snow: Wow.
- 52:16Scott Woolley: Um there's a lot of energy in that room, a lot of positive energy in that room.
- 52:22Tim Snow: And uh it's just and they do such a great job.
- 52:25Tim Snow: I mean, Fred Astaire does such a great job of um, you know, having them learn this routine and teaching them a routine, and and uh it it's just it I don't know.
- 52:37Tim Snow: I can't say enough good things about it.
- 52:39TIffany Woolley: I couldn't agree more.
- 52:40Tim Snow: Unfortunately, it's not a room bigger locally because we could we could sell more tickets.
- 52:45Scott Woolley: Oh, you got to think you could sell twice as many.
- 52:46Tim Snow: Yeah, it's uh it's a big it's a big deal.
- 52:49TIffany Woolley: How do you go about deciding who to bring on?
- 52:53Tim Snow: Well, we we just we kind of keep a running list, believe it or not, of folks, and then we kind of sit down and it's interesting because obviously for us, what we're trying to do is cast a wide net of uh spheres of influence, right?
- 53:10Tim Snow: So we're not gonna ask somebody that you know maybe our best friends that they're gonna be calling the same people to raise money because it's as you probably know it's not a it's not a dance competition, it's a fundraising competition.
- 53:25Tim Snow: Right.
- 53:26Scott Woolley: Who can raise the most amount for their dance?
- 53:29Tim Snow: That's right.
- 53:30Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 53:30Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 53:31TIffany Woolley: And so and all the mini events that take place along the way to it's wild.
- 53:38Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 53:38Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 53:39Tim Snow: So it's it's it's it's been a game changer for us.
- 53:41Tim Snow: You know, when we started this 19 years ago, we were giving away $330,000 a year, and now we're giving away uh, I think over seven million dollars in 2026.
- 53:52Tim Snow: So uh and and a lot of that it's been a it's been a blessing not just from the financial part of it, but it it brings awareness to the organization and what we're doing.
- 54:04Tim Snow: Um, and again, it it's people that maybe have never heard of us before.
- 54:09Tim Snow: They come to that event, they hear one of our kids speak, they hear about the numbers, they hear about the support services, and uh it's just been a remarkable benefit to us to be able to spread the word and then to grow our our population of people that help us.
- 54:26TIffany Woolley: So is that your biggest event of the year?
- 54:29TIffany Woolley: Yeah, definitely.
- 54:31Tim Snow: Okay, definitely by far.
- 54:33TIffany Woolley: Well, that's a fun one.
- 54:35Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 54:37TIffany Woolley: Well, that's exciting.
- 54:38TIffany Woolley: And then the cowboy ball, as Scott mentioned, is coming up.
- 54:42Tim Snow: Coming up, yeah, March 16th.
- 54:44TIffany Woolley: And then you do the golf.
- 54:46Tim Snow: The golf.
- 54:46Tim Snow: So we do we do three fundraising events.
- 54:48Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 54:50Tim Snow: And we our events, we've got um some great people in our events department, but we do other events like our awards reception, which is really not open to the public, but you know, to our donors.
- 55:00Tim Snow: And then we do two guidance counselor appreciation breakfasts in both uh one in Broward County and one in Palmich County.
- 55:08Tim Snow: And so that really is our opportunity to get the guidance departments teed up.
- 55:13Tim Snow: Look, we're gonna be coming into your school.
- 55:15Tim Snow: These are some new initiatives that we're you know promoting.
- 55:19Scott Woolley: So you're looking for, I would guess, volunteers to help you with these events.
- 55:23Tim Snow: We're looking for volunteers to help us with it.
- 55:25Tim Snow: We're looking for sponsors to help us with it, too, right?
- 55:27Tim Snow: Because those those things are programmatic, but they still cost us a lot of money to host 150 people at a hotel down in Broward or Palm Beach.
- 55:39TIffany Woolley: So where do you see the scholarship, George Snow scholarship going in the future?
- 55:45TIffany Woolley: Obviously, you're going into Broward County.
- 55:48TIffany Woolley: Is your hope to see this go throughout Florida?
- 55:52TIffany Woolley: Do you partner with any other scholarship funding in other states?
- 55:58Scott Woolley: Do you have future plans, aspirations, and goals?
- 56:01Tim Snow: I I think really looking at it, at least for me realistically, is because we we are so hands-on with our kids.
- 56:09Tim Snow: That's the most important thing for us is the quality of our programs.
- 56:14Tim Snow: So we're not going to expand unless we're able to continue that same level of service to our kids.
- 56:23Tim Snow: And so that that's what really determines our growth to me.
- 56:28Tim Snow: I I somebody could say they want to do a scholarship in Dade County, but unless we were able to really, you know, because it let's let's say somebody wanted to do that, I'd have to go to every school in Dade County, and I can't do that.
- 56:41Tim Snow: So it's really a function of maintaining the quality of service to our kids, and then, you know, uh and then you know the funding to to send them to school.
- 56:52Speaker 1: Right.
- 56:53Tim Snow: And um and then we take it, we just take a look at, you know, everything in that in that kind of lens and make a determination on that uh from there.
- 57:05Scott Woolley: So for people who are listening or watching, where should they go to learn more?
- 57:10Tim Snow: Uh we've got a great website, scholarship.org.
- 57:14Tim Snow: Um, and they can go there and learn everything they want to know about us.
- 57:18Tim Snow: Scholarship.org.
- 57:20Tim Snow: Yeah.
- 57:21TIffany Woolley: Well, that was wonderful.
- 57:22TIffany Woolley: Thank you so much for your time today.
- 57:25Tim Snow: I appreciate you guys sitting down and talking with me.
- 57:27Tim Snow: Yeah, having a lot of fun.
- 57:28Tim Snow: Yeah, well, we we certainly welcome that.
- 57:35Tim Snow: We appreciate all that you do for us.
- 57:37Tim Snow: And like you say, you know, uh known you guys for a long time.
- 57:41Tim Snow: We have a lot of history together.
- 57:42Tim Snow: Hey no, we've done a lot of stuff.
- 57:47TIffany Woolley: We're glad stewards and everything.
- 57:49TIffany Woolley: So thank you.
- 57:50Tim Snow: Thank you guys for coming.
- 57:52TIffany Woolley: You've been thank you for listening to iDesign Lab.
- 57:57Voice Over: iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW group production in association with the five star and TW Interiors.
- 58:04Voice Over: To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit TWinteriors.com.