GREEN BAY – When the Packers' executive committee met earlier this year to come up with a farewell gift for retiring team President and CEO Mark Murphy and his wife Laurie, it wanted to do something truly meaningful.
Meaningful to the Murphys, most of all.
So it didn't take long for the conversation to center upon a local nonprofit, Journey to Adult Success, also known as JAS (pronounced jazz), for which Laurie Murphy was one of a handful of founders a little over a decade ago.
JAS's mission is to provide a support system for youth who age out of foster care, helping young adults previously in the foster system toward a pathway to self-sufficiency. The program includes safe and stable housing, job and transportation support, and life-skills coaching, among other facets.
The cause is near and dear to the Murphys' heart, as they've hosted three foster kids during their 17-plus years in Green Bay. They initially developed an interest and a passion for such efforts while periodically hosting a youth from a troubled background in upstate New York in the summers, when Mark was athletic director at the Murphys' alma mater, Colgate University.
With that as background, and with Laurie having been a JAS board member since helping found the organization, the Packers' executive committee gave the team's full board of directors (both active and emeritus status) the opportunity to make a donation to JAS in the Murphys' name. A fund was set up through the Greater Green Bay community foundation, and word circulated.
"We put it together, and the board really rallied around it," said Mike Simmer, vice president and lead director of the Packers' board. "It resonated with everybody. It's absolutely a great way to recognize Mark and Laurie.
"They've meant a ton to the Packers but also the community, and they've done things quietly in many ways."
This is making a bit more noise, however, as a total of $124,575 has been collected and will soon be officially transferred from the community foundation fund to JAS.
Unaware of the gesture, Laurie was asked to come to a recent Packers board meeting to learn of the gift.
"They presented it, and I was honestly crying," she said. "It was the most wonderful surprise and it was so kind. It came from them personally and it's honestly the nicest thing I think they could've done for us.
"I was touched and awed and grateful."
Eunice White, JAS executive director, and Barb Hoffman, the organization's newly elected board president, are similarly as stunned as they are appreciative. JAS has two housing facilities, the second one opening less than two years ago, and both are currently full.
What's next for the organization remains under discussion, and a donation like this helps ensure the program's stability and puts various possibilities on the table.
"It blows our mind," Hoffman said. "We're absolutely so thankful. We're kind of at a crossroads where we're full and need to look at options.
"Laurie was one of the founding members. Without her, we wouldn't be where we are today."
White remembers the initial meeting that started it all – a group of women involved in foster care who saw trouble looming in early adulthood as these children grew up and left their foster families.
"We saw what was going on in the community, kids aging out with nowhere to go," White said. "We were all seeing the same negative outcomes with kids leaving foster care. As a group, we decided we had to do something to address that."
Starting with one small rental property and growing since, the organization has steadily expanded its reach and hopes to continue doing so.
Murphy gives a lot of credit to JAS's residents for the hard work they put in to get their adult life started. The support system JAS provides can at times be that final boost of outside help to keep everything on the right track.
"It's a safe place for some people that don't have it, at a time in your life you're trying to launch everything," she said. "I don't think people that have a relatively traditional upbringing understand how many moves (are made), how kids in foster care get moved around all the time. It's a very chaotic way to be raised.
"It's hard to get your feet on the ground to push off after high school if you don't have a stable place to lay your head at night. That's what we knew with the different work we've done and different kids we've been involved with."
Murphy plans to stay involved with JAS during her husband's retirement from the Packers, and she looks forward to the opportunities this large donation could create in continuing the program and its work.
Hoffman can't say enough about her value to the organization and what she's meant to the mission.
"Laurie's one of the people when I run something by her, I totally trust the response," Hoffman said. "Her experience and her heart put together, she gets it from all these different perspectives. She gets what's best for the kids and how to help them move forward."
The Packers board of directors' collective donation is another step forward for JAS as well.
"I was totally taken aback that this was personal donations from board members," Hoffman said. "That made it so much more special. I can't thank them enough for looking at trying to help these kids."
Added White: "It says a lot about Mark and Laurie that people wanted to do that."
