Jones Foundation is still there for children’s medical and educational needs
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Monday, October 13, 2008
After 35 years, the Jones Foundation continues to provide medical and educational grants to children in Lyon, Coffey and Osage counties — and its executive director and board of trustees would like to see more applications from residents in the tri-county area.
The Jones Foundation awarded almost $1 million during the past fiscal year to a total of 941 people.
The trustees approved 706 requests for medical grants and 235 requests for education, for a total of 941 children served.
“Over the years, we managed to award at least a million a year,” said executive director of the foundation, Sharon Tidwell.
The foundation money comes from a trust fund set aside by two Coffey County ranchers, Walter S. and Evan C. Jones, and Walter’s wife, Olive.
Monies in the trust are derived primarily from oil wells and natural gas fields.
The Jones brothers had been good stewards of the land and a perfectly matched pair to succeed, Tidwell said. When Walter’s and Evan’s parents died around the turn of the last century, the elder Joneses left each of their nine children about 100 acres of land apiece.
“Walter and Evan were the only two that persevered,” Tidwell said. “Walter was kind of the thinker, Evan was the doer.”
Together, they amassed a fortune and expanded their land holdings from the basic 200 acres to about 56,000 acres. Approximately 40,000 acres of that is located in Texas.
“What’s interesting, too, is there was Olive, Walter’s wife, who was extremely involved in this as well,” Tidwell said. “Behind every good man, there’s a great woman, and it’s Olive.”
The Jones brothers and Olive each had a will that mirrored the others in providing money to set up the Jones Trust Fund for children in this area.
The two men died in 1953, and Olive, who was not in good health, ceded management of the trust to Citizens National Bank. When she died in the mid-1950s, probate of the will dragged on for years.
The document that emerged from court around 1960 provided not only for the medical needs of children in the three counties, but for educational needs, too.
A bonus for each of the cities in the three counties came soon after six years of probate, because of the interest that had accrued during the wills’ time in court.
“That’s why you go into every town in Lyon, Coffey, and Osage County and there’s a Jones Park,” Tidwell said.
The trust was administered by Citizens Bank trustees until 1973, when officials recognized that the massive trust, with its abundance of applicants and recipients, needed to be divided into two separate, but related, entities.
The Jones Trust Fund that emerged became the “bricks and mortar” entity, Tidwell said; it continues to be run from the Citizens Bank building, although the bank now is owned by Bank of America. The Jones Foundation was created at that time to handle applications and disbursals for individuals’ needs.
And the applications are plentiful.
“Just this past month, we wrote 83 checks,” Tidwell said.
The checks are used to pay children’s medical and educational needs, as determined by the foundation’s board of trustees — Tom Thomas, president; Jeffry Larson, vice president; Max Stewart Jr., secretary; Arnold Graham, treasurer; Megan Evans, representing Coffey County; Jeff Longbine, representing Lyon County; and Stephen Jones, representing Osage County and no relation to Walter and Evan Jones.
The Trust still funds the foundation.
“What we don’t spend here, the trust gets to spend,” Tidwell said.
The Trust, administered by James Mueth of Bank of America, funds projects such as the Jones Chair at Emporia State University, the Granada Theatre renovations, playground equipment, and other similar projects are the purview of the Trust.
It’s the individuals, however, that Tidwell wants to serve. She talked recently about criteria for the foundation and reasons that applications may not be as abundant as they could be.
Federal and state government programs, such as Medicaid and HealthWave, have provided insurance that funds medical needs for many youngsters in the area. As a result, people that would have applied to Jones in the past now receive benefits from other agencies.
Misconceptions about income guidelines also may deter some from applying.
“So many people think that we are for the indigent and they don’t think they’d qualify, and they don’t inquire,” Tidwell explained.
They could be wrong. Each application is handled on a case-by-case basis, she said. A family with a $100,000 annual income might normally be able to handle medical costs. However, if a serious or critical illness strikes a child in the family, the costs not covered by insurance, in addition to related costs such as travel and motel expenses, could push that family toward medical bankruptcy.
The key to getting help from the Jones Foundation is prompt application for funds.
If a child needs a tonsillectomy, Tidwell said as an illustration, the application has to come before the child has an appointment with a specialist to have the tonsils removed.
“It’s important that people call us and ask,” Tidwell said. “That would be prior to seeking medical assistance unless it is a medical emergency.”
Emergencies, such as accidents and appendectomies, are handled differently.
In the past, applications needed to be in within 24 hours. Families now have 15 working days to make application, and the first contact can be by telephone.
Most applications are made by mail.
“You no longer have to interview for assistance,” Tidwell said.
The old process, requiring parents to take time off from work and drive to the Foundation office seemed counterproductive for families already caught in a financial bind from medical problems.
“It really did not make sense to me, incurring more expense to get help when you really didn’t have money in the first place,” she said.
Tidwell does follow up on questions that arise and occasionally does ask families to come to the office to talk more in depth about the situation before the board of trustees makes its decision.
Some funds are available for dental, vision (usually up to $245), and orthodontic needs, though money for orthodontics no longer is granted routinely.
The foundation has an outside consultant that reviews all orthodontic applications to ensure there is a medical, rather than cosmetic, need for braces.
Tidwell would like to see more applications from parents of young children ready to go to the dentist for their first check-ups. Lack of early and continued dental care can cause permanent damage to the mouth and general health, and that is something that could be avoided with early and continued dental care.
“That’s just an area that gets overlooked until a tooth hurts,” she said. “… We will look at routine dental exams. If the family is eligible we’ll pay up to two a year.”
The medical side of the foundation takes care of children under 21 who are residents of the three counties.
Funds for higher education, however, can be granted to people of all ages, she said.
Applicants must be U.S. citizens and true residents of Lyon, Coffey, or Osage counties for a minimum of one year continuously prior to application. The requirement protects of the trust and the interests of residents of the counties by eliminating applications from people who move into this area to attend Emporia State University or the Flint Hills Technical College.
“You cannot move into this county, attend school a year, then become eligible,” Tidwell said.
The foundation has no academic requirement for applications, though it does require certain outcomes.
“Once you get in here and you get a grant, then you have to maintain good grades,” Tidwell said.
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Posted by Happiness08 (anonymous) on October 13, 2008 at 2:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm sorry to hear that the foundation no longer pays for orthodontic's for cosmetic purposes. Self esteem is extremely important to a child's development, and children can be awfully mean. I'd like to see the orthodontic issue done routinely as it used to be.
Posted by hjcary (anonymous) on October 15, 2008 at 3:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The Jones Foundation helped my parents with my orthodontia 21 years ago. It is amazing that it is still helping children get the services they need. What a blessing.
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