Cook County resident Pat Campanaro has been busy networking and volunteering since she moved here full-time after retiring from the business world two years ago. She has started Connecting the Dots, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building community by connecting resources to maximize efficiency and profit. She believes Cook County has loads of talent that could be tapped to enhance the community. She is pictured here with her grandson Ashton. She is a great believer in promoting future economic growth by providing educational opportunities for youth.
Figuring out how to meaningfully spend the 80 hours a week she used to spend at work has been a challenge for Cook County resident Pat Campanaro. The solution is turning out to be a benefit for the community.
Campanaro spent 32 years in the telecommunications industry. In the 15 years before her retirement two years ago, she managed a sales team that sold equipment to Fortune 500 companies. After she retired, she moved to the cabin she and husband Stan Tull own west of Grand Marais and started networking in her new community. She had a lot of connections in the Twin Cities. When she started over here, she knew making new connections would take time. She got right down to business.
Making connections
Volunteering is a great way to get connected, and Campanaro had done plenty of it before moving to Cook County. Once she was here full-time, she got busy volunteering.
Campanaro has been very interested in improving Cook County’s economy and in 2011 landed seats on the Boreal Access board and on the Cook County Broadband Commission, where she became vice chair and was appointed its education liaison. She sees educational institutions as “the feeder pool to future economic growth.”
Campanaro began volunteering in first- and second-grade classrooms at Sawtooth Elementary School and in the third- and fourth-grade classroom at Great Expectations School and is now serving as ISD 166’s volunteer coordinator. Seeing things firsthand helped Campanaro develop a vision for connecting people with needs. She joined the Cook County Schools District Education Foundation in 2012.
“With the depth and wealth of experience that exists in our county residents, I feel there is much that can be shared with students; however, it’s a big job to make it easy for the teachers and the volunteers to mine and use this talent,” Campanaro said. “We now have volunteers coordinating the fourth grade Math Masters program and working with youngsters in developing reading skills. We are also starting two additional programs in February, a fourth-grade math skills drill team and a writing workshop. We’re just scratching the surface and I have great dreams for this effort.”
Campanaro worked with ISD 166 staff to procure a $57,678 grant for the purchase of 60 iPads and supporting technology that is being used to create a math-based curriculum for use in grades 1, 2, and 6. She worked with school board member Jeanne Anderson and Principal Gwen Carman on landing a grant to enhance school security through computer software that will keep track of visitors, students, staff, and vendors in the school complex.
Campanaro has been presenting career readiness curricula as a volunteer for Junior Achievement, an organization that empowers students to take what they learn in school and apply it in the professional and business world. She is a representative for the Foster Grandparent Program that offers young people role models, mentors, and friends. She has developed two job-seeking classes for the Incredible Exchange program, which now provides internships for high school as well as middle school students. She is working with Gwen Carman on developing a training curriculum for substitute teachers and paraprofessionals in the schools.
When she’s not busy with all of that, Campanaro is a substitute teacher, remains active in DFL politics, and is coordinating a youth leadership event scheduled for March.
People are willing to help if you just ask, Campanaro said. For example, she posted a notice on Boreal Access asking if someone had a kicksled they would let her try out. She was thinking about buying one to use for outdoor exercise in the wintertime. Three people responded.
One key to finding willing volunteers is to ask for time-limited commitments. Campanaro realizes that people are busy, but that doesn’t stop her from asking busy people for help. They just feel more comfortable saying yes if they are given a starting and ending date.
Coopetition
Campanaro sees the value in contributing to volunteer efforts directly, but she also has a passion for connecting people and programs with people who have the skills to enhance those programs. Realizing that the residents of Cook County have a great deal of skill, education, talent, and experience that could be shared to enhance the community, she has started Connecting the Dots, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building community by connecting resources to maximize efficiency and profit. “Why re-create the wheel?” she asked. “Instead, connect with a resource that can help.” She plans to focus on networking, grant writing, and research.
In the business world, collaboration is called “coopetition,” Campanaro said, and it’s similar to bartering. She helped Great Expectations and ISD 166 start working together. “It was hard to get the conversation going,” she said, “but once it gets going, it takes on a life of its own.” She also sees potential for young people to help business owners— and vice versa—through meaningful work experiences.
Listening to understand people’s interests and needs is crucial to making good connections. As she networks, Campanaro asks a lot of questions—who knows how to do what, who needs what, who is interested in doing what. “There’s not just one way to get anywhere,” she said. “I don’t believe there’s anything in this world that can’t be done.” In the world of sales, she heard seven nos for every three yeses. “You just can’t let that knock you down,” she said.
She gave the Cook County Local Energy Project as an example of an organization that has achieved success through persistence. Campanaro’s advice is to listen to the people saying no, understand what their issues are, acquire all the information you need, and keep looking for solutions.
Campanaro considers herself an optimist. “My middle name is Pollyanna,” she said. “You have to find the magic key— it’s out there.” With a handle on the things it takes to make things happen—collaboration, listening, asking for the right things, making achievable goals, matching needs with opportunities, persistence—it sounds like Campanaro holds the magic key ring.
“After all,” saids Campanaro, “we’re in this together!”
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