Family Coordinating Group Looking for Financial Home
Leelanau County Family Coordinating Council
Meeting held Thursday, Feb. 5
Lower Level, County Government Center
Report by:
Commissioner Alan Campbell, Member
District No. 5, Leelanau County
The council is comprised of health and youth professionals, mostly in the social services field, and meets once monthly. The meeting is chaired by Sharon Vreeland of Traverse City, the group’s leader. Attending were six people on Zoom and six in person, including Sharon. I am not a member of the loosely organized group. Commissioner Rick Robbins is a member and, like me, attended in person.
Meetings are designed to last one hour; this one went over a bit.
Sharon started with a rather rosy financial report. The organization has $85,000 in the bank. A large part of those funds resulted from a donation provided by Bobbie and Jim Eckert, of which $39,500 remains. The funding was designated for use by the Leelanau Laundry Project, which was founded in 2004 by the Leelanau Women’s Foundation. The project provides needy families free machine use, along with soap, bleach, softener, and dryer sheets, on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at the Suttons Bay Laundromat. The cost varies but remains close to about $1,100 per month.
The Laundry Project served 91 unique families last year.
The downside of the report is that the coordinating council needs a financial home. The unincorporated organization does not have its own bank account. Instead, through the years, its funds have been held by other nonprofits on its behalf, the latest being United Way of Northwest Michigan. Unfortunately, United Way has recently informed the LCFCC that it will no longer act as the fiduciary holder of its funds after this month. As of the meeting, Sharon was still searching for an organization willing to serve as LCFCC’s fiduciary.
Other issues/events discussed at the meeting:
• LIFT and the Friendship Center have parted in a friendly way. LIFT — Leelanau Investing For Teens — now occupies space in the Suttons Bay school system. The Friendship Center is operating under its own new leadership. The groups previously both used the Friendship Center for programs and as headquarters.
• There was discussion regarding opioid funds included in past Leelanau County budgets for LCFCC. While I did not mention this at the meeting, I had previously reviewed funds budgeted for LCFCC by Leelanau County. The monies were received by the county through participation in lawsuits filed by many municipalities and states against drug companies. Through the two calendar years and budgets that ended Dec. 31, 2025, $128,000 had been budgeted to LCFCC. Some $50,350 had been spent. No opioid funds for LCFCC were included in the 2026 county budget.
• In a related development, Sharon discussed reviving the county Opioid Task Force, which has not met in many months. She is also looking at resuming a newsletter.
