Bellmont Partners Gives Back 365

The year is wind­ing down, and we are in the sea­son of giv­ing. At Bell­mont Part­ners, we believe in the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment – both through our work and out­side of our roles at BP. As part of our com­mit­ment to putting good back in the world, employ­ees are encour­aged to seek out vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties that align with their per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al goals and areas of inter­est using paid vol­un­teer hours through our Bell­mont Gives Back program.

In addi­tion to hun­dreds of hours of pro bono agency work for caus­es we believe in, here are some of the ways our team has giv­en back through­out the year:

Megan Derkey, Account Director

I vol­un­teer at my daugh­ters’ schools to chap­er­one field trips, facil­i­tate PTO events and take pho­tos for the ele­men­tary school year­book. I also vol­un­teer my time with Moms Demand Action, specif­i­cal­ly on the Elec­tion Action Com­mit­tee, by spread­ing the word about gun-sense can­di­dates that will gov­ern with gun safe­ty in mind. Pub­lic safe­ty and pass­ing com­mon sense gun laws is a deeply per­son­al issue to me and has only become more impor­tant since becom­ing a par­ent. I urge every­one who votes to look up can­di­dates on their bal­lot at gunsensevoter.org to see who has proven their com­mit­ment to life­sav­ing gun laws at the local, state and fed­er­al level.

Johan­na Hol­ub, Account Supervisor

I am a mem­ber of the Bloom­ing­ton chap­ter of the League of Women Vot­ers, a non­par­ti­san orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides local elec­tion and can­di­date infor­ma­tion, helps peo­ple reg­is­ter to vote and much more. Vot­ing is not just a right – it also some­times feels like a super­pow­er. It feels good to assist as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble to not only exer­cise their rights, but also make informed deci­sions about who they are vot­ing for in their local communities!

Hye­di Nel­son, Account Direc­tor, Health Strategy

Faith’s Lodge is a non-prof­it with the mis­sion of sup­port­ing bereaved par­ents and their fam­i­lies in a peace­ful envi­ron­ment to reflect on the past, renew strength for the present and build hope for the future. I have been vol­un­teer­ing with this orga­ni­za­tion since 2014, after my son Char­lie died at 30 weeks ges­ta­tion, and I’m cur­rent­ly fin­ish­ing a term on the board of direc­tors. A mem­o­rable moment for me is from 2020, right before the pan­dem­ic, when I held Con­cert for Char­lie, a char­i­ty con­cert that raised more than $10K for Faith’s Lodge.

I also just joined the board of direc­tors for Dis­so­nance this past year. Dis­so­nance is an orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides men­tal health and recov­ery resources to those in the cre­ative arts – also work­ing hard to improve well­ness in those spaces and break down com­mon stig­mas. I was drawn to Dis­so­nance because the orga­ni­za­tion is address­ing, head on, such impor­tant needs with­in the cre­ative arts com­mu­ni­ty. Being a part of this orga­ni­za­tion is a good fit because of my pas­sion for health — and a spe­cial inter­est in men­tal health — as well as for the music and cre­ative arts space. Some mem­o­rable moments over the past year have been par­tic­i­pat­ing in record­ing ses­sions with Chasti­ty Brown and Nur‑D for episodes of a video series Dis­so­nance launched this year.

Chioma Uwag­wu, Account Coordinator 

Vol­un­teer­ing with HEADCOUNT to get peo­ple reg­is­tered to vote and inter­est­ed in democ­ra­cy is one of the ways I’ve used Bell­mont Gives Back hours. We’re at con­certs, fes­ti­vals, and com­mu­ni­ty events — any­where we can trans­late the pow­er of music and cul­ture into real action. I enjoy my work with them not only for the great music but because I get to talk with many young adults and first-time voters.

Sara Gras­mon, Account Supervisor

This year, I began vol­un­teer­ing with For Good­ness Cakes, and I’m proud to be a mem­ber of the Sprin­kle Squad. This orga­ni­za­tion match­es chil­dren in fos­ter care and youth over­com­ing adver­si­ty with a vol­un­teer bak­er so they’ll get a per­son­al­ized birth­day cake made just for them. And, some­times, like one of my recent bakes, the request will be for hol­i­day treats for a spe­cial gath­er­ing. It’s a win-win, pro­vid­ing a day bright­en­er for kids and a mean­ing­ful cre­ative out­let for me. Plus, I have so many won­der­ful mem­o­ries of bak­ing with my mom – I love that I can hon­or her mem­o­ry by bak­ing for a cause. Can’t wait to put my apron on again soon!

Angela Seut­ter, Account Strategist 

I’ve been giv­ing tours to school groups at the Min­neapo­lis Insti­tute of Art this fall. It’s won­der­ful to see lots of kids back in the muse­um again and to share in their excite­ment. I’ve loved hear­ing them dis­cuss Christi Belcourt’s beau­ti­ful paint­ing, It’s A Del­i­cate Bal­ance. There’s so much local, nat­ur­al won­der to find and cel­e­brate in the piece. Every time we sit down in front of the paint­ing and talk about the beau­ti­ful flow­ers, plants, birds and insects, I’m remind­ed of the cur­rent fragili­ty of our plan­et and the inter­con­nect­ed­ness of all creatures.

Mau­reen Cahill, Partner

I’m on the board of direc­tors for Best Bud­dies Min­neso­ta. Best Bud­dies MN is part of Best Bud­dies Inter­na­tion­al, the world’s largest orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to end­ing the social, phys­i­cal and eco­nom­ic iso­la­tion of the 200 mil­lion peo­ple with intel­lec­tu­al and devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties. Best Bud­dies MN pro­vides one to one friend­ships and lead­er­ship pro­grams for indi­vid­u­als with and with­out intel­lec­tu­al and devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties (IDD). Best Bud­dies MN also has a very active local school pro­gram in ele­men­tary, mid­dle school, high school and col­leges that focus­es on teach­ing inclu­sion, kind­ness  and friend­ship. Their pro­grams empow­er the spe­cial abil­i­ties of peo­ple with IDD by help­ing them form mean­ing­ful friend­ships with their peers, secure suc­cess­ful jobs, live inde­pen­dent­ly, improve pub­lic speak­ing, self-advo­ca­cy and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, and feel val­ued by soci­ety. Bell­mont Part­ners was a proud table spon­sor at Best Bud­dies MN’s recent annu­al gala, where more than $250,000 was raised.

These are just some of the caus­es that are impor­tant to our team mem­bers, and we’re inspired by these orga­ni­za­tions and all who ded­i­cate their time to help. We’re proud of our col­leagues for shar­ing their time and tal­ents, and we look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing the Bell­mont Gives Back pro­gram to sup­port the team and con­tin­ue con­tribut­ing to our communities.