Difference Maker: Don Fulford uses not-for-profit experience in giving back to Perryville

Don Fulford has spent most of his career working for not-for-profit organizations and considers it part of his job to share the knowledge and experience he’s gained with others.

In 2013, Fulford moved to Perryville, Missouri, with his family and took on the role of president and CEO of the Association of the Miraculous Medal at the National Shrine of our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. The organization had been struggling and Fulford used his experience to transform the organization into a vibrant part of the community.

When Fulford first moved to Perry County he said he saw the generosity of the people in the community and thought, “Man, I gotta keep up.”

“I’ve always believed that if you show up in a community, you can’t just take from it. You gotta give back,” Fulford said.

Fulford believes “you get so much more out of life” when interacting with your community. He said that’s how he got involved with Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial.

“So, a friend calls and says, ‘Hey I got this anonymous donor who wants to build a full-size Vietnam wall,” Fulford said. “That’s how I met Jim Eddleman, and I asked why they approached me? They said, ‘Because we don’t know anything about starting a nonprofit.’”

Fulford credits his parents for fostering his spirit for helping others. He said his mom worked for the Red Cross and he remembers her receiving calls, often late at night when she would be called in to serve. He said he also remembers his father bringing him to the fire department where he volunteered “to see what they did and how they helped others.”

Fulford said he used to think he might become a teacher or superintendent to “just help people get over the finish line.” But when his mother passed away, Fulford said he started “looking around in the world,” and asked himself, “Do I want to spend my entire life in a General Electric or similar large corporation?”

He said he considered the pain he’d experienced in his life and thought, “If I can help people through those times, then maybe that’s the place for me.”

Fulford said he’s seen so much that he can share with others through his work with organizations like the Life Adventure Center in Kentucky, which hosts outdoor adventure camps for individuals who have suffered traumatic experiences, and Feeding America, a domestic hunger-relief organization with a network of food banks, pantries and meal programs across the country. This willingness to share his knowledge and experience is what led him to join the Perryville 2045 committee.

“I’m a creative guy, but my creativity doesn’t come from my ability to problem solve, it comes from what I’ve seen in the places I’ve been,” Fulford said. “I’ve seen the struggles that cities bigger than Perryville have faced and how they’ve been able to tackle them. So, why not share that idea I learned that I thought was really cool in a different town?”

Fulford said Southeast Missouri is full of difference makers. He said he’s met people of all economic statuses volunteering their talents, time and sometimes money to make a difference in their community.

“There’s these groups of families that are quietly funding literacy programs, feeding programs, homeless programs and sports programs,” Fulford said. “There’s not a lot of fanfare. They’re not on the front page of the paper. They just quietly do their thing, and that’s always impressed me.”

Fulford said seeing the giving spirit of his co-workers and the people of Perryville is like a “quiet thread of the blanket of the community.”

“You get enough [of] those threads together [and] it’s a warm, great place to work,” Fulford said. “It’s a warm, great place to live. It’s a warm, great place to raise a family and to have those influences on my own kids. That’s cool. That’s the good stuff. Yeah, that’s the good stuff.”