Teresa is many things: energetic, kind, witty, and knowledgeable.  She is a dear friend to many, loves to throw parties, takes risks and encourages others to do the same. We have been friends longer than we’ve been colleagues and our lives have fatefully intertwined over the years.  She encouraged me to apply at UCO years ago which led to my employment with President Webb and I told her about the opening at KCSC back in 1995.  We have been friends since the 1980’s when she worked in public relations for my late husband, Mike Reger.  Our lives continue to circle each other.

    But, enough of that, and to the point. Teresa’s last day as announcer at KCSC is March 31^st.  She is leaving KCSC to pursue other endeavors including channeling much of her wonderful energy into fundraising for St. Gregory University and to help her husband begin a business venture.  Those pursuits are the station’s loss and she will be deeply missed.  Brad has asked if she will return for future fund drives or as a standby announcer on occasion.  I was heartened to hear she agreed.

     I must share with you some of Teresa’s accomplishments.  Creating the KCSC Foundation was an important move for the station in April of 2002.  Thanks to Teresa’s efforts and with President Webb’s blessings, KCSC formed its own foundation, an endowment to carry us through the years and protect our finances.

    KCSC reaped the benefits of Teresa’s love for parties which resulted in years of fundraisers for the Foundation beginning with a patron’s reception in 1999 with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and a party at the Coach House in 2002 that featured guest artist and now friend, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis.  More parties followed including a fundraiser for the Foundation at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.  When I took on Teresa’s former position as Director of Development in 2004 (she left in 2002), she soon returned to the station as announcer and President of the Board. She continued to make a huge impact as a major force behind more Foundation fundraising parties, one at Café do Brasil (Teresa helped us secure our featured guest chef Rick Bayless), one at the home of Richard and Jeannette Sias, and a year later at the Oklahoma History Center.  What Teresa excelled at is, in some ways, the hardest part of throwing a fundraiser—selling tickets and tables.  She was and is very courageous about picking up that phone!  When she and I worked together on a fundraiser, we worked day and night on details, leaving no stone unturned. The result was fabulous parties.

    One memory stands out as vintage Teresa.  In the summer of 1997, UCO cut funding to the station and there was a short period when the station almost missed making payroll.  Teresa and her husband were remodeling their house at the time and she hit up every contractor to underwrite KCSC programming (which meant instant money), an effort that helped the station through a short-term crisis.  This last example is pure Teresa—whatever the station needed, she went after it with the ardor of a parent loving and protecting a child.  “Crisis is the mother of invention,” she always says. 

     I haven’t mentioned grants and underwriting she retrieved for the station, but I think you get the point and I’d rather spend my last few lines writing about Teresa, the person.  Teresa has the gift of gab (incessant phone talker), and is creative, full of ideas.  She plays the organ in her church, looks after her mother and her husband who she adores, cooks like a chef, (the best guacamole on the planet), loves Julia Child, the Coach House, Café do Brasil, anything “tartare,” the Ritz Carlton, New York Times, Splendid Table, white wine, juicy biographies, flowers from Trochta’s, and last but not least, the 14 borzois she has owned and raised plus one Irish Wolfhound named Johnny (named after Irish composer John Field).

    We, at the station, have been lucky and happy to have Teresa in our daily lives off and on for all these years.  My good blessings to Teresa, her Charlie, and their brood--Jeremiah, Scheherazade, Mignon, Diaghilev, Firebird, Princess Aurora, Catherine the Great (Cate), and Anastasia.

I became part of the staff several years ago and now see things up close and personal.  Fund drive week can be somewhat painful.  Not the long days, early hours, weekend work, or juggling of responsibilities.  It’s the asking for money and figuring out how to ask you in a way that not only keeps the week interesting, but also makes you want to pick up the phone and call us with a pledge of support through new membership or renewal.  We know each of you is elbow deep in mail from non-profits.

So it’s a challenge on our end, indeed, but what stood out to me years ago when I listened in as a bystander and today, as I sit in the thick of it, is that this group has a passion for classical music and not only that, it helps that what we offer is unique and distinctive and relevant to our community, to our society.  It helps us make “the ask” with dignity and at the end of our drive, we feel tired, and though somewhat hyperactive in those final hours, we feel good.  We have come together as a team and spent a week on the phones talking with many of you, and listening to what you have to say.

So, coming up, once again, March 22 through March 29, we scoot out of our cubbyholes—some of us clutching notes scribbled with talking points, some of us oiling up our “recall” buttons after years of fund drives, and at least one of us firing up a calculator.  It’s a week of engagement and we promise not to beg or shame—not our style—but we must do “the ask” and hope many of you might enjoy a little bit more discussion during that week about who we are, what it takes to be a classical public radio station, and what significance we play in your lives.

Hey, call me if you have your own ideas about fund drive week, how to make it more fun for you…I love to listen.  Susan C. (405-974-2120)