Inspire Excellence event to fund Teens 2 Trades

The creation of the Inspire Excellence Inc. 501(c)3 nonprofit was announced on March 2, 2020. Its Teens 2 Trades program had the stated purpose of connecting teens to careers in the trades and industry. 

The organization was the mutual brainchild of Tommy Ahlquist, CEO of Ball Ventures Ahlquist (BVA), and Colleen Braga, executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County. Ahlquist was looking for ways to address the lack of workers in the trades in Idaho. Braga was looking for ways to include job training as a means to retain teens in the Boys and Girls Clubs programs, at an age where many drop out.

As Ahlquist described to the Idaho Business Review last year, he and Braga “bumped into each other” at a meeting and just started talking. By the time they were done, a plan to create Inspire Excellence Inc. and its Teens 2 Trades program was outlined. They recruited Tammy de Weerd to lead the new nonprofit’s board of directors. At the time, de Weerd had just stepped down after four terms as the Mayor of Meridian.

Inspire Excellence Inc.’s first fundraiser and awards event was scheduled for May 13, 2020. The purpose of the event was to honor nine individuals in Idaho who “Inspire, Uplift, and Serve others.” That was before COVID-19 rolled into town.

“The event was cancelled,” de Weerd told the Idaho Business Review. “We still recognized nine individuals and presented their awards and stories virtually in conjunction with KTVB. We did have sponsors for that.” The winners of last year’s awards for inspiring excellence each received a $1,000 check made out in their name to a 501c3 of their choice.

Inspire Excellence announced on July 21 the new date of its second awards ceremony and first fundraiser banquet: Oct. 13. The first annual Inspire Excellence Awards luncheon will be hosted by BVA at JUMP’s Pioneer Room in downtown Boise where nine more individuals will be honored. “Any funds over and above the cost of the event and awards will go to fund the long-term goals of the Teens 2 Trades program,” de Weerd explained. Inspire Excellence Inc. is currently taking nominations for this year’s awards through Aug. 30.

While the pandemic delayed the nonprofit’s fundraising event by just over a year, Inspire Excellence Inc. spent that time in activities to further the goals of the Teens 2 Trades program. “It gave us time to reflect and review what we want to achieve with Teens 2 Trades,” said Thomas Ahlquist, director of marketing and community relations for BVA. “We visited educational institutions around the state and formed a strong idea of where we want to go.”

“We’ve been looking at the Kootenai Technical Education Campus as an example of what a successful Teens 2 Trades program might look like,” remarked de Weerd. She explained that their first step, however, would be the creation of a position for someone to start pulling the pieces of a program together and to coordinate with the Teens 2 Trades partner, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County.

“We’re really in the initial stages,” de Weerd added. “We’ll be using what we raise (at the awards luncheon) to fund the position to coordinate our goals of connecting teens with private business and career mentors. That’s our current fundraising focus…Tommy, Colleen and I, we’re mutually excited about this.”