Breathing a deep sigh of relief as she finalizes reports for this fiscal year, Kody Suanny, executive director for Great Plains Youth and Family Services, Inc., is pleased with the outcome.
With little time to celebrate another year helping the community, she and the staff already have begun gearing up its annual “Fill the Bus for A+” school supplies drive.
Approximately 200 students in the organization’s service area benefit from the “Fill the Bus for A+” each year.
To offset the initial cost of school supplies, which often stretches families’ monthly budget, the group’s staff has worked with local businesses to buy supplies in bulk. Organizers purchase supplies and fill backpacks according to each child’s needs.
Suanny, a Hobart native, says giving back to the community is second nature to her and is something she instills in her children.
As a youth, Suanny noticed that her family was always actively supporting the community. Her grandfather, Fred Gray, is among those memorialized on a plaque in the Great Plains office.
Hobart Public Schools’ Fred Gray Memorial baseball field also is a tribute to his community contributions.
Suanny and her husband are raising their sons to be huge supporters of the Hobart Bearcats as well as being involved in the community.
“I think that’s a deep reflection of his (her father’s) service to the community,” she added. “I’ve shown my kids that their great-granddad’s name is on the wall and they know it means a lot to me.”
After graduating from Hobart High School, Suanny received her Bachelor’s in Human Development and Family Sciences from Oklahoma State University.
Shortly after beginning her career with Great Plains Youth and Family 16 years ago, she earned her Master of Education degree with an emphasis on Community Counseling from Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
During her time with the organization, Suanny has seen the group grow to meet the needs of the community. When Great Plains opened in 1978, the budget was about $20,000, she said. Now the operating budget is well over $1 million, all of which comes from the state.
Across the state, Youth and Family Services’ network is comprised of 38 facilities to provide resources to members of the communities in which they serve.
Through grants and collaboration with civic groups, members of the community and local businesses, the organization is able to stretch donation dollars to cover more needs.
And to better serve the communities in Jackson, Tillman and Harmon counties, late last year Great Plains opened its Altus location.
The organization offers parenting and co-parenting classes, childcare resources and referrals, individual and group counseling, foster and respite care and more.
Each of the 20-member staff is compassionate about helping the community thrive, said Suanny.
“I have great people with great skills and abilities,” she said. “We are diverse from an educational standpoint. They’re all good at different things and that’s what makes us successful.”
Because office visitation is currently limited, Suanny and the staff have placed more emphasis on helping families with school-age children while utilizing safer social distancing practices.
When schools were shuttered due to the recent coronavirus outbreak, staff members began putting together activity bags to give the kids some form of constructive creative expression, she said.
Family members can pick up the activity bags at the office and get step-by-step instructions through the organization’s Facebook page.
While noting donations to Great Plains Youth and Family Services, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, could be tax deductible, Suanny explained that the staff has also received cash donations from community members as a sign of gratitude for the extra activities the organization initiates.
“We want families to grow and learn,” said Suanny. “We couldn’t do a lot of our extra stuff without the support of our community. The community knows that and just backs us 100 percent, which is just humbling.
“One day we were outside doing our normal activities and somebody new came through the line,” said Suanny. “They handed us a cash donation and just thanked us for all the work we’ve done.”
Over the past few months Suanny has been challenged to help create emergency plans to provide relief for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization has plans in place for heat, tornado, fire and several other disasters – but this was different, she said.
“Being a younger professional,Ireally had to do a lot of research to develop emergency plans and then rephasing – doing 100 percent remote work. How that looked. Who was going to take care of the mail? The phone system and having to circulate those calls to different staff members. I mean, that was just a big challenge.”
Suanny is on the Zoning Board of Adjustment for the City of Hobart and is the organizational committee member for the Hobart Chamber of Commerce who also serves on the promotions committee for Hobart Main Street. She is a member of the Hobart PTA and past president of the Kiwanis Club of Hobart.
She is also board member of the Kiowa County Coalition and represents the Southwest Cluster on the board for the Oklahoma Association for Youth Services.
“Any group of colleagues that are here to support Hobart, I want to be surrounded by those people,” she said. “My kids will graduate from Hobart schools and I want the best for them.”
Although she has helped community members who have lost their jobs and faced uncertainty, Suanny has found a silver lining in the pandemic.
“There have been positive things that happened,” she noted. “We started to spend more time as a family, which meant more outdoor play and utilizing nature as an escape from being stuck indoors and at home.
“I would love to see families continue spending time as a family and fall back in love with the outdoors versus the crazy, busy lives we had before the pandemic hit.”
As leaders weigh in on options to safely reopen schools and businesses, Suanny and the Great Plains staff will continue to help area families in need.