I think their legacy is going to be a better Elkhart.

I respect Scott and Kim for that.

putting our friendship, our close friendship with them aside, because so many people are close to the Welch's and they're close to other people, they make everybody feel important, they give back so much more than I think what a lot of us feel we can give to them.

the times that we get together, all the families, I mean, our kids, their kids, and it's just like every time it does, you don't have to find out where everybody is that everything, the fun just starts they're both very faithful people.

And to me, if you can leave this world with love and faith, you've done a good job.

Legends of Michiana Kim and Scott Welch is brought to you by our presenting sponsors.

The Community Foundation of Elkhart County works to improve the quality of life in Elkhart County by inspiring, generous, giving of time, talents and treasure.

The Rex and Alice A. Martin Foundation.

Missy and Todd Cleveland congratulate our dear friends Kim and Scott Welch on this special honor of recognition from WNIT and our platinum level sponsors.

Bartels Family Foundation, Walter Foundation and our gold level sponsors and our silver level sponsors.

Thank you.

I was actually born in Rochester, New York.

My dad and mother have been together since they were 14 years old.

And my dad was in school at Rochester Institute of Technology.

And so that's where I was born.

And we quickly moved to Elkhart shortly after that.

And so I spent the majority of my life in Elkhart, Indiana.

So dad was a salesman.

Very, very modest upbringing.

My mom stayed home.

My dad sold tooling.

we lived a very modest.

We moved around a little bit.

Lived in Illinois.

I mean, I was born in Illinois, had a small stint in Wisconsin, moved back to Illinois, and then we moved here when I was in seventh grade.

Kim and I went to high school together and I'm a year ahead of her in school, We never dated in high school.

We kind of ran a different crowd.

And, you know, Kim likes to have fun and I'm a little more task oriented, I would say.

Scott's a year older than me I didn't know him really well In high school his senior year, we were both in a play, a musical, which is really funny if you know Scott but I think it was a it was South Pacific and the Director Cole Strain, I think had made a made up which was trying to get all the jocks in the film.

And Scott was a jock, obviously in high school he played golf and football and I actually was very shy.

So we were in the play together.

Got to know him a little bit there.

I actually had a calculus class with him.

I always say I got him through calculus.

Scott's senior year at DePauw.

He came home for the holiday basketball tournament.

back then, everybody everybody in Elkhart went to North Side Gym for basketball.

So I was happened to be at that holiday tournament.

And I was on one side of the gym.

And I think I must have seen some friends or something across the gym.

And I went to go behind the basket, and I literally ran into Scott, DePauw had a winter term and I was going to work for Riblet products and I literally ran into Kim at a basketball game and I was like, Wow, she's kind of grown up and she's a woman now.

And she's she actually said to me, Hey, what are you doing after the game?

Do you want to go out?

and I hadn't seen him since we'd been in high school.

So, you know, like, Hey, Scott Welch, how are you?

And we chat for a little bit and I say, Well, what are you doing after the game?

You want to take me out?

So we went out, had a great time.

And then with myself being home that 30 days, you know, we spent probably the whole, you know, the last week of December and the whole month of January together.

And, you know, just things really hit it off.

there you have it.

We ended up going for pizza started dating and here we are now.

I when I got out of school, I was going to play pro golf and Kim and I were dating.

And, you know, golf was a high priority for me, but she'd literally come off work and, you know, we shagged golf balls.

I'd hit them and she'd put them in the shag bag.

And so after doing that once or twice, and I really thought to myself, how many people are going to be that dedicated to their partner?

And so it was like, I think this is really serious.

And, you know, she had many endearing qualities, but just the fact that she would, you know, give up her time to come out and help me pursue my career, I just thought that was really unique.

And so we got serious pretty fast after that.

It's so funny and because as we talked about it, you know, kind of talked about it and, you know, as you can probably tell a little bit, I'm a little forward.

And I always was like, Hey, if you're going to propose to me, you're going to be in a three piece suit down on one knee.

we were at his house and we always would watch movies in their back den.

We were watching a movie and he went upstairs and obviously he put a suit she was over at the house and my mom and dad were in the other room and I went up and I put on a seersucker suit.

I remember I didn't have any shoes on, but I she always wanted the you know, her dream was for somebody to propose get down on one knee.

So I had my suit on, get down on one knee and proposed to her.

And fortunately for me, she said yes.

he did it, you know, God bless him.

He put that suit on and he got down on one knee.

So I laugh about that all the time my original partner when I started Elkhart Container was a gentleman named Don Kent and his vice president of operations had told him, Hey, this guy's starting a business and he's been a good supplier.

Do you mind if we switch some business to him?

And I think Don knew me from some golf tournament or something, and we connected and he said, Hey, if you want to do the work, I'll put in the money and you can actually make the stuff, not just buy and sell it.

And so was very good at golf and he had a crossroads of do I go play professional golf or do I start my own business?

And he chose the business over his golf.

And the dedication he put into golf is nothing compared to what the dedication he puts in the business and making the business grow in the relationships he built.

know, I look at Scott and take analogy, a light switch.

Most people turn this on or turn it off.

He's like a dimmer switch.

It never goes all the way off, you know, whether it be work, his family, it's always going.

And I reached a point where I needed to control my own destiny.

So when we decided to start the business, I was Elkhart container.

At the time, there were four people.

Kim took off a couple of weeks.

The first couple of weeks we were in business to help us out.

it's just survival when you start.

And I'll go back to athletics or sports, I mean, losing or failing, not an option.

So, you know, you just you grind it out and we worked an awful lot early those years.

You know, In fact, it's funny because I remember I won the city golf tournament in 1984 and then 85 came along and I started the business.

And I mean, it just broke my heart that my golf game diminished pretty quickly because golf is a game you got to work and at least I have to work at it to be any good at it.

you know, I've been blessed because I've been able to work with many people I just enjoy.

And from those early years, you know, we had we had nine people that actually worked at Elkhart Container that first year in 1985.

And, you know, Kim and I, Jeff, Darnell, Dave, we're all still working here.

And Roger's passed on.

Cliff has passed on.

Darlene's a stay at home mom.

There's only one guy, Dave, Pete, that, you know, really kind of, like, flew the coop.

But to have those kind of relationships my whole life.

I mean, Dave Miller's another one.

You talk about who impacts your life.

He's been a friend of mine since high school, and he came to work with me in 1985.

Never missed a day of work, but more importantly, just those guys that just overcomes adversity every day.

I've known Scott for probably close to 50 years.

He was a year behind me in school, we got to know each other through the football team and then just have stayed friends since then.

I'd pick him up before football practices and football games.

A lot.

And we always put the Doobie Brothers China Grove in.

Back then.

I had a I had a Chevy Nova with an eight track tape player in it right back in the day.

And we would we would put that tape in and we would just crank it up, man, before games and before practice.

And it really got us, got us energy So yeah.

Hill to this day he'll tell you China Grove is probably one of his most favorite songs.

will tell you that Scott wasn't the biggest he wasn't the fastest.

He wasn't the most talented.

But nobody would outwork him.

he actually went then on to DePauw to play football.

So he obviously had a successful career.

I do know down there, I think they call him Chicken Hawk, I don't think you can run a successful business without having an edge, without having without being competitive and want to outdo the, you know, I'll sell the next guy or, you know, produce a better box than somebody else.

So yeah, very plays very heavily into building a successful business.

With Kim grew more as I got older and into the company because again, she was older than I was.

We were different, different stages, but I was close with all my sisters.

childhood memory of Kim and really all my sisters is they would literally just tease the heck out of me and I would whip them with those orange matchbox car thing, car tracks.

And it was just a constant, constant battle.

So but we had a I mean, we had a great time.

It was it was a lot of fun.

So.

Welch Packaging today Manufacturers, corrugated shipping boxes is our core business.

We try to focus on local customers.

It's there's we're in a variety of communities, but we also try to stay into, you know, whatever the customer wants and furniture customization.

We don't make stock boxes where somebody calls and says, okay, I want a ten by ten.

By ten, we go out, we meet with customers, we understand what they need.

We design.

We have an engineering staff that designs the product they need.

We try to take cost out of our customer's business by using engineering.

Not just my box is cheaper than your box, but hey, this material would be different or this design would be different.

And when you can reduce the material content in the box, you can save people money.

So that's really what has differentiated us over the years.

We've migrated we, we have a graphics business that focuses on point of sale.

So if you go into retail environments, the prettier, more sexy box, we have a group that only does that.

We've been fortunate to vertically integrate where we actually make the raw material.

We buy paper and then we make the corrugated board and then we convert it into a shipping container or custom box.

So, you know, there's there's a lot of special things you can do with the box.

I mean, we've we've tried ventures of making corrugated furniture and went to college campuses.

You know, we've we've made cornhole boards.

We've done a lot of different things.

But after the years you come back and focus on what you really know, what you're really good at.

I was in high school and Scott was dating Kim, or he might have been married to Kim.

And after high school, I had no idea what I was going to do.

I knew I wasn't going to college and Scott had opened up Elkhart container at the time and he had just said, Hey, why don't you come work for me for the summer?

So in April of 85 is when I started with Scott and just started working through the summer and absolutely loved it and stayed with it and just kind of work my way through and and up into what I wanted to do.

we started Elkhart Container, he would actually be out.

I mean, he I remember distinctly having him go out and sell in the day.

Then he'd come back later in the day.

We'd be working in the plant and he'd say, hey, you know, we've got a customer that needs boxes tomorrow, so why don't you guys go ahead and and finish your day, go home, take a nap, eat some dinner, and I'll meet you back here at eight or 9:00 at night.

And Scott would come back and he'd work on a machine with us and help us get orders out.

I've been at Welch Packaging going on.

Well, they've been in business for 38 years, but, you know, I took a intermission for a while and come back.

I was going on 31 years.

1985.

I mean, I grow with them as a young age.

20 years old I was where Scott offered me a job coming out of Chicago with two kids and a wife.

I ran into his little start up business that he was starting up, which he had four employees at that time.

And I was one of them just great people, you know, to have in your life, and to see so much about them, you know, I mean, they care about one another.

They care about their employees no matter what when we started, I was Day gluer.

I worked I worked the university's core.

I did a lot of hand assembly because that's what we started off doing, hand assembly.

we started off like that.

I was doing all that, you know, I was doing it.

Most the majority of the glue tape and the stitch.

I mean, I did it for so long there where, you know, I advanced in being a material handler.

I went into shipping, which I'm still in, you know, I'm the takeoff guy.

You know, I'd be the last the last ass to see everything, It's funny in a way to look at Welch packaging today.

It's a very substantial, vast business and very successful.

It started very humbly, if I can use that term.

Its beginnings were quite modest.

I remember going out and visiting Scott and then having many follow up visits after that first day, and it was a small operation, to say the least, and it had virtually no staff.

They had nothing.

So Scott would go out in the afternoons and try to get orders, and then he would come back in the evening and he would run the product on a couple of machines they had.

And then the next morning he would sort of go out and deliver them and then he would do the cycle again, calling on customers.

And Kim would even occasionally come in and she was working at a veterinary clinic.

So she's the one that was actually making a little money for them and I think probably had health coverage and things like that.

She would even come in in the evenings and sometimes help with running things on the machines.

Kim would do the same thing.

I mean, Kim would come in, Kim would work, Kim would take care of everything outside of Elkhart container for Scott so that he could focus on this.

But Kim was, was instrumental.

And I mean, without Kim and without Kim's support, this wouldn't have been possible.

So Kim is Kim has been a major role in this.

And again, she doesn't she kind of stays behind the scenes, but she does so much Rock at home rock here.

I recall, if my memory serves me, he bought was buying vehicles from us on a personal level before he started his business.

in 1992, he bought our first Nissan medium duty cab Ford truck with a box on the back, and it was about the same time he made his first business acquisition.

He bought a local company, and that probably was the first delivery truck he had.

their family his employing hundreds of people here in Elkhart through Welch packaging and the Welch group of companies.

So that's a big impact in and of itself.

They probably are one of the top ten employers in the county.

I think from everything that I've I've heard and seen, they they pay very well.

Their benefits are very good.

They like to promote from within.

And so when you work at Welch you have a lot of opportunities to to grow in your career.

Scott doesn't stand still.

Something's wrong he wants to solve now.

So I was single at the time, had a lady over, she cooked me dinner.

We were just going to watch a movie and it was like, I think it was 930 at night.

I got a call from Scott and he's like, Hey, Jeff, I got Chris, Dave Miller, and I can't remember who was Dave Wilkerson.

They're coming over to the house.

We got to we're going to meet because we were having some issues when in the plant, so we had to tell the lady who this was my first date.

Yeah.

Hey, thanks for dinner.

I've got to leave.

Growing up, I never really understood it.

You know, selfishly, for me, it's like, gosh, my dad's just putting everything into this company and he's not even spending time with the family.

And once I had the opportunity to come into the business and to see the impact that he's making, totally understood it, you know, every day instead of, you know, just impacting the five of us.

I mean, he's impacting 1500 people's lives I look back and this.

It just freaks me out because we used to only have maybe four or five people in the office in about maybe 10 to 12 people in production.

And now we are up to 18 plants and 1400 employees across the company.

And it freaks me out to how fast we've grown and what we've done because it's a miracle.

What what we've done compared to our industry and how we've done it and how fast we've done it.

There's no other story like it.

Scotty knew from day one that he wanted I mean, this his goal was always to be this way.

And he knew that he had to get people surrounding him that can support them.

So he didn't have to make every decision, everything internally.

So that's why he would pick people and then boom, go at it, Dave or go at it whomever and do your job and do the job the best as you can.

The engine that's driven it has been Scott's entrepreneurial spirit and it's 24/7 365.

He is thinking of ways to make that business better and grow like almost no one I've ever seen in business.

One of the stories that I've heard is that when Scott goes to one of the other factories, not not in Elkhart, that he knows 90 to 95% of the people that work in every company, you know, that he goes there.

He doesn't just know the people that are working there.

He knows their spouses name, how many kids they have.

He knows the names of their children, and he'll go in and just talk to people, you know, And that's that's the kind of people that Scott, that Scott and Kim are, I started traveling to some different companies, you know, box companies specifically.

And I remember vaguely, I was walking the floor with an owner and this guy knew nobody's name.

And it like so I got back from the trip and Dad was like, how was it?

And I said, I said, it was really weird.

I was like, Why?

And I said, The owner didn't know anybody by name.

And he was like, That's what you took away?

I was like, Yeah.

So it it is truly incredible when he not only knows their name, he knows they're their partner.

She knows their kid, he knows what they're involved in.

He, he will text hundreds, literally hundreds of people a week.

And we've always had an open door policy here that if you know you're not happy with something, literally call Scott or go talk to Scott.

And he truly stands by that.

I do a lot of amazing things here.

You know, I try to keep the morale up, everybody had they ups and downs, you know, But, you know, you pose to pick another person up.

it's a lot of amazing things you could do around here it's a land of opportunity when we first started this business, that's that's the number one goal, land of opportunity.

You know, you can advance to doing other things.

You know, a lot of people have done that.

a lot of people started from the bottom and worked their way up.

after ten years, machinery start coming.

Everything was made by machines, Scott Welch went out and bought other machines.

I mean, we had like four machines, 160 press splitter and a 42 inch press.

That's all we was working with.

And the rest of the thing was like hand assembly, which I ran that department, they all about the community.

They give back to the community.

They do a lot of fundraisers and they do a lot of charities.

amazing, you know, that they go out and they give back to the community.

it's a blessing to have the Welch's part of the community.

we started the business in 85, didn't have our first child till 87.

I was with them all the time because Scott was working and it's just a boy.

It's the hardest job.

There is really, truly hardest job there is grateful that I got to stay home and do it.

But it's it's it's it doesn't end.

It just keeps going and it's great.

And I don't know, I, I think probably I would say my our best accomplishment dad was going to build this empire that we have today and mom was going to really step in and obviously do what she needed to do for us kids.

And it worked.

they made a commitment to each other when dad decided he was going to start the business and figured out what it's going to take to do that.

And they were all in.

blessed to have my mom stay home with us.

My mom was a little bit more of like the fun, but she was also the disciplinarian.

So actually, while she was the fun one, fun one she was always the one that disciplined us.

So she was always kind of the one that I was scared of.

But they both they instilled really good values.

We went to church every Sunday, was a tenant of the house and dad worked a lot.

That was in the early years of the business.

So, you know, he was a grind in day to day.

And we'd go to the office in the evenings and kiss him goodnight and rub the dogs on the head.

so my mom would bring us to say goodnight to him, you know, when we were in our pajamas and then when we would have our Christmas parties early on, when there wasn't a there weren't a ton of employees back then, we would have the Christmas parties out in the plant and we would play on the conveyor belts, on the rollers, and we would play hide and seek and back it all the the box, the stacks of boxes or the stacks of corrugated.

We would play hide and seek back there.

So just fun memories childhood was adventurous, I've got great memories of With Roller Blade through the plant, we'd go out and play hide and go seek in the warehouse.

So it was all fun.

But we never we never worked here until high school.

We all got along very well, even in the extended family with our cousins and stuff, when we would get together, you know, we all similar ages had similar interests.

And so, you know, I would say it was it was a lot of fun growing up.

We did a lot together, supported one another, kind of looked out for one another.

know, we were blessed.

Our parents have been together for almost 30 years at this point now, you know, and that that love kind of permeated all of us.

So I feel like we were raised with, you know, good core values and, you know, high integrity, high character, high trust, you know, And I think that, you know, very, very loving family, mom was very good at transporting us around and, you know, making sure we were well-fed and taking us to school.

She raised us kids, She cleaned the house, she mowed the line, she fixed stuff.

It's funny, if some if a light bulb or if something goes wrong in the house, we'll go to her and say, Mom, you know, so you know, the water's leaking or, you know, whatever, and it's her who does it.

And my dad clueless, but that works for them.

Yeah, You know, my grandfathers were pretty instrumental in my life.

And, you know, my mom's dad was an Italian shoemaker and he worked for 50 years.

He worked six days a week.

And I just really learned a lot about being a provider from him.

And so I think I've always had that that challenge in my life of wanting to be that good provider and then wanting to be a good husband and then wanting to be a good father.

so as I reflect back, you know, I certainly I worked a lot and but I just been blessed with great kids and they've been very understanding mom came to every soccer tournament, She went to every soccer practice, every basketball practice that actually coached our sports teams.

He coached my basketball team and from fifth to eighth grade, but they were always super involved, never missed our events.

And even today, they're incredibly involved in my kid's life.

You know, we see them every single week.

They go to their dance recitals or volleyball games, they've always been heavily involved.

Beauty of the grandkids is, is, you know, you get a chance to do the things you didn't do well the first time.

just this summer, he was teaching my 18 month old son how to hit a golf ball because, you know, my dad was a really good golfer and and so, you know, just seeing him be able to kind of live out some of his life through these grandchildren has been really fulfilling.

And my my son in particular has he is just obsessed with my dad.

They call him Popo.

That's what we always called my dad's dad.

And so they call him Popo.

And my son just walks around po po po po.

I mean, that is like his idol and my dad just eats it up.

And then also I see such a soft side with with my Sophie, my daughter and my dad, and just, you know, she has a rare condition and we weren't quite sure what her life's going to look like.

We still aren't sure a lot about, like, what her future will look like.

But my dad has been so supportive and I can just tell that she melts his heart when they are together.

And he has offered so much support and help and, you know, my husband and I just navigating this new world for us and That's the best because then you don't, you just send them home.

I mean I can have all the fun I want with those kids and then they, then I can sleep at night and they go home.

I love, I mean it's, it's the best.

And we're so blessed because our kids are all here.

So all the grandkids are here.

And, my, it's a lot.

I mean, we've got we've got eight grandchildren.

Six of them are our four and under.

So, you know, my God, look around.

Now, as I told you in my house, all the toys that I didn't have when the kids were little I have now.

But being a grandparent is.

And the funny thing, it'll be really interesting to see what the kids say.

But the funny thing with Scott is because he was always working when the kids were little, he as they got older, you know, he coached their teams and did those kinds of things.

But he was busy.

I mean, he was not home a lot.

And he's so much different with the grandkids.

I mean, he we had had two of them over the summer one day, and they were out at the pool and I started video.

I don't I'm not a I don't take pictures a lot or take videos.

But I was videoing Scott and he was running around with the squirt gun squirt and the girls.

And they were my daughter, Lindsey's children.

And when I center the video, she said, Well, I never thought I would see the day the day I would be running around a pool with the squirt gun, you know.

So he's he's different with them, too.

But it's it's it's a really cool it's a really cool thing.

And to watch your kids be parents, I mean, you got to keep your mouth closed.

That's really hard for me.

But I try real hard to not do that.

But yeah, and the kids call me Kiki.

So, Kiki, I love I love that.

I love that job for sure.

it made a big difference in my life because it made me a be a better father.

On my down days and the terrific year I had by losing a son Welch packaging was right there to back me up.

lift my spirits, it changed my life a whole lot, you know, Made me to be a better person.

I work hard, you know?

Never missed a day of work since I've been here.

some people ask me why you ain't never why.

You just don't take you a couple of days or call in.

I don't know the number.

I say I don't know the phone number.

You know, that's what I tell people.

You know, the the really in that conversation, you know, but just the own funny part.

You know, they have fun with people I mean I work with a lot of intelligent people with here, you know, a lot of them that I work with back in the years.

I mean, they moved on to better things in life, But Welch Packaging will always be they home.

You know that's one thing about Scott you know I mean he will let people know Welch is always here when you need them, and a lot of people have left and came back open doors not no question that I went to Brookdale Junior High and my very first day at Brookdale, you know, like I said, it was the middle of the school year.

Even so, I was a seventh grade girl going into the junior high world and a new school.

But over the announcements came that morning that Dr. Brazile at the animal care clinic in Elkhart, Indiana, here, was looking for a kennel person.

Well, I got right as soon as I got home, I called.

And long story short, I had to get a work permit and he hired me.

And so my love of animals really started then when I work there.

when I got home from Purdue.

I went back to Dr. Brazile and he hired me to work at the front desk there.

And I eventually that was at a time when you didn't have to go to school.

Eventually, he trained me to do technician work and I did that until Scott and I had our second child.

Scott and Kim, you know, they will always be friends of the Humane Society.

this facility we're setting in right now wouldn't be here without Kim and a few other people in the community really coming together and making it happen.

The Humane Society is IS has always really has been my passion.

When I got involved with that and I, I chaired co-chaired the Capital campaign to build a new building.

So not me and so not in my comfort zone, but probably the thing that I am for me the proudest of because it was really needed and it was more work than I ever thought.

every year we do our best in show, which is our largest fundraiser, and and Kim is one of the co-chairs of that event, will be the co-chair of the event and working so hard on the event.

She never sits down to eat, you know, So.

So Scott will have a table full of people at the event and bid on things.

And, and Kim is running around the whole time.

So the end of the night after everyone else is gone, we commonly have cookies as one of the things that's there.

And so we're going around the room scavenging cookies off the plate.

And so you see Kim and her in her evening gown, you know, munching on cookies and just trying to find whatever we can to eat that at 930, 10:00 at night.

We're a big supporter of the Elkhart Humane Society benefit that that Kim Kim co runs.

And, you know, I just see both of their commitments there.

And that's that's just one of many, many, you know, charitable endeavors that those to work with.

But when you watch the energy, the passion, the commitment that they generate, that is a reflection to me of their commitment, you know, and the success of that endeavor in particular is something that I see as just the way that they work and is attributable to all the efforts that they put in.

But that's just again, that is one of many that they're involved with.

That's the one that we're most closely involved with in partnership with them.

But again, I just watch the way they do things and it's just a really inspiring energy commitment that you can see, you know, true heartfelt passion, you know, in anything that they commit to.

So during COVID, we had one period where a good number of our staff were, were sick with COVID and were out of the building, and we had to have a few board members come in and Kim came in and cleaned cat cages and mopped floors and actually had a really good time.

So it was it was fun to have her in the building doing that.

And and she's a hard worker, so we'll take her help any time we can get it.

I think it was back in 2015 or 16, you know, she was one of the co-chairs of raising over $5 million for the expansion or the new building for the Humane Society of Elkhart County which she takes great pride in, that We try and help wherever we can and just make a difference.

I mean, that's that's really been Welch packaging in the mission statement.

We just really try to make a difference in the community we live in in people's lives.

But the Humane Society is is is what I am.

Still.

I just gave up my board chair last year, but I'm still involved at the shelter.

It's it's my passion.

Elkhart has an incredibly strong history of people in the community giving back to the community and making it a better place.

And and Scott and Kim have done that over the last several decades, both Scott and Kim deeply about the Elkhart community.

They grew up in Elkhart, both of them.

got married in Elkhart, built a business in Elkhart, and they raised their children Elkhart.

They're their community leaders.

I think they're the silent donors that give so much to this community that a lot of people have no idea how much they help nonprofits, especially.

I'm a fund raising chair of a nonprofit, and Scott and Kim believe in the mission that I'm involved in.

Also.

she was on a part of the board with me as a friend of Vasher for many years.

And we did a couple of fundraisers together.

And I'll never forget one fundraiser.

It didn't not as many people came as we had expected.

And so right before we get ready to go out and welcome everybody, she comes up to me, she, me, my arms, she goes, This isn't going to go well.

And I remember I was like, What?

And long story to be told, You know, our first fundraiser, I think we raised $15,000 and that was more than I ever anticipated.

But, you know, she's real.

She's fun.

We know Kim and Scott care for animals, but it's also caring for the people.

They do so much for our staff.

You know, one of the things that that gets overlooked in in a humane society or an animal shelter are the people that come in and and do some of the less desirable jobs.

And those are the first people that Kim and Scott With Kim having been on our board, that was my real introduction to her.

And I remember her being able to use so many of her relationships in the community and she's really also one of the reasons that we've been able to connect so much with the Humane Society.

Kim is absolutely someone who they'll do whatever they can to help you.

And I love that she's actually helped to foster the relationship between the Humane Society of Elkhart County and Wellfield several times throughout the year, where we're engaged.

And whether that's having special nights here at Wellfield during holiday lights for our Giving Tree project or purchasing tickets on a night that might actually benefit the Humane Society as well as Wellfield.

That's where Kim has been really integral in that.

I know that her time both spent on Wellfield's board and on the Humane Society Board and part of their fundraising.

She's an ideal person for that, but she's kind and sweet and I'm just always happy and she makes me smile whenever I talk to her.

I think a lot of people think you're in business just to make money.

You know, I'm in business to impact people and, you know, maybe a little righteous to to think.

But, you know, if we can help people and, you know, influence their values and and try to make our community better through the efforts of others, that's a lot of responsibility.

And so I think even from the early years at Welch, you know, we've always tried to have a family environment and and get people to do more than just come to work There are so many good causes and so many people that that help those for our family, we actually have family meetings every year and see, you know, who's who's got what.

We all have our one cause that we love.

And you think of the small town home town that we live in, for dad to have grown up and and make the impact that he's he's able to make now and give back to a community that has awarded him the successes I think is incredible.

was we brought him out to Habitat and he built a house and he thought that was a cool thing.

We were laughing cause he's never use a saw.

So he's he's he continues to do it in different ways, which which is neat to see as well.

But it's really, really important and it ranks very highly on his his book to make sure that he continues to be that involved Scott truly believes in investing in his people and in our associates.

associates go through things, right?

I mean, they have health issues.

They may have relationship issues, they may have aging parents, anything like that.

So they may have catastrophes happen in their life.

You know, heaven forbid they had a fire or something like that.

So Scott started Scott and Kim started a few years ago this make a difference fund any employee can contribute to it.

So and I know a lot of people that have and I don't know how much the fund is built up, but any employee that is going through some kind of hardship can apply for a grant.

And that's literally what it is.

It's a grant.

They need help to, you know, maybe get through a particular rough time in their in their lives, etc.. And I remember the first time I met Kim, she was just a person that was so warm, fun, full of life.

And I just thought, you know, I'd like to get to know her, you know?

And unbeknownst to me, I think she kind of felt that way about me, too.

Brock is their only son.

I was the mother of five sons at the time.

And a lot of sports sports has always been important.

So we started that way.

explained Kim.

She's she the only thing I'll say about Kim is and I always say this to Kim, she made me so I was kind of a shy guy.

I always kind of have been quiet.

And Kim very early on drew me out and kind of made me was, I would say, her special project.

The way I think about Kim is if I had to have a friend in high school or in college, and even today that would be the friend I'd want, just like Kim.

She's funny, she's serious, she curses, which I mean, if we kind of get along in many respects that way.

And she's also very loving and Very loyal as a friend and very protective.

She would go to bat for you.

She'd go to bat for anybody.

She'd give you the shirt off her back.

But having Kim in your corner is the person you want in your corner, You can call her at three in the morning.

And she says, What do you need?

I can call her and say, And this is a true story.

Kim, my dog.

Lucy's missing.

What do I do?

And here comes Kim and Scott searching the neighborhood for my dog when she was really down the basement, being very quiet.

Kim is.

Kim is someone who would give you the shirt off her back.

But she's one who will do anything to make you laugh.

It's really kind of funny because once we found the dog, now we had to find Scott because Kim let him off at the front on the other side of the subdivision.

And he started walking through and then she came right over to the house area.

And so tracking so then we had to find Scott afterwards so that Lucy was fine.

Scott We had to wait a while for Well, Scott started a business at about the same time that I started a business, and he was a supplier to my company.

And that drew us a little bit closer.

Scott was a great supplier of boxes to my business, of course.

I was in extrusion at that point.

So plastic extrusion we were making like Play-Doh.

You'd put plastic in a machine and press it through and we make different designs out of it.

And Scott sold so many different boxes, actually, that we would package up all that product.

and it just kind of grew from there.

Again, we probably spent our first ten years weekends together all over the state of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, sitting in the stands, playing soccer together when I wasn't, you know, sitting around a lunch table talking about boxes with them.

it's just kind of been unbelievable how they just you know, you never have to ask.

They just do.

They're doers and they do it silently.

They're very humble about what they do.

And they have given so many kids and animals in our community opportunities that they never would have had.

whenever you're with Scott and Kim, you just see incredible passion.

You see, you know, incredible energy commitment.

You see humility.

You know, they like to ride below the radar and, you know, but there's so many things that they do, you know, that that I see in the community as it relates to their influences and their commitment to this community.

That's just a wonderful representation of who they are.

And so I take away in all my personal experiences with them, again, the energy, the passion.

It's easy to see and be invigorated by the way they look at things and the way that they commit to things.

I just see their kindness as being something that really stands out to me.

I they, they treat people.

They really they believe in that platinum rule.

You know, they treat people the way they want to be treated.

so as you get get older and learn more about the impact that it's had only on the people and the customers and the community.

But you know what?

It's what it's been able to do for our family takes it to a whole new level of, you know, appreciation.

I'm extremely proud of what everybody here has accomplished.

I mean, from the beginning to right now.

I mean, it's it's been something to see.

And I mean, I feel fortunate.

I mean, fortunate to be a part of something that was that small to grow into what we are now.

And there's no stopping it.

It's it's going to keep going.

So I just consider them a very good team.

Kim, I'm sure, is a really good sounding board for things that they want to do and their lasting legacy is going to be they did it right, they did it the right way.

They were they were their their ethics and integrity is above reproach.

when you look back, you always like to think, did I leave the place where I was better than when I was there?

When I leave, is the place better when I was there?

And I would tell you, Elkhart and its community will be way better because Scott and Kim were here, stayed here and lived here.

he inspires people to want to be the best people that he can be.

Their legacy touches the lives of many different people.

And is able to help many people and their remembered as being strong community leaders who cared.

you don't do anything for the recognition, but to see the impact and to see so many different needs within our even just our local community here in Elkhart.

And to just think that our family and particularly my parents have a have an impact in that as big or small as it may be, I think their legacy, if anything, it'll be how much they cared for the people that were in their family, in their company, in their environment, and what they could do to help them live a better life.

He wants to help people be more than what they can be.

And also the people who are downtrodden and need some help and need a little bit of love.

He helps them out all the time.

I don't think Scott and Kim do anything halfway.

You know, if they're putting their name on it and they're getting involved in it, it's 100% Scott wanted this to to carry on past when they're here to again provide jobs and everything for the community.

But I mean, they're they're legacies for what they they do for the entire community and for just individuals They want to make a difference with their customers.

They want to make a difference with their employees.

They want to make a difference in their community.

I think the legacy that they will leave behind is, in fact, they have made a difference, a big difference and a positive one that I hope they're very proud of and I'm sure proud of them and observing what they've done as great friends.

it's fun to be a part of something like that and to know that, you know, we've we've been fortunate.

There's a lot of entrepreneurial, successful people here, but people are afraid to share We try and help wherever we can and just make a difference.

I mean, that's that's really been Welch packaging in the mission statement.

We just really try to make a difference in the community we live in in people's lives.

Legends of Michiana Kim and Scott Welch is brought to you by our presenting sponsors.

The Community Foundation of Elkhart County works to improve the quality of life in Elkhart County by inspiring, generous, giving of time, talents and treasure.

The Rex and Alice A. Martin Foundation.

Missy and Todd Cleveland congratulate our dear friends Kim and Scott Welch on this special honor of recognition from WNIT and our platinum level sponsors.

Bartels Family Foundation, Walter Foundation and our gold level sponsors and our silver level sponsors.

Thank you.

He coached girls.

So he was he was really patient, him and I like I said, our personalities are very similar, so we would butt heads often.

But he was kind of your your just good old school coach where he believed in fundamentals and we started from scratch and we made sure that we got the basic fundamentals down before we would move on to the next thing.

So I think he did a really good job of explaining remaining patient with the girls, but also sharing the overall goal and helping us achieve our goals.

So he was just like, he is here.

He's his his coaching and his his leadership style has always been very similar.

He inspires people to want to be the best people that he can be.

Did he treat you any different than any of the other players on the team?

no, probably.

Probably.

He was probably harder on me than anybody.

Yeah, my expectations are like here.

And then, you know, he actually had a nurturing side to him with some of my teammates, which I didn't think even existed.

But so he was always he was always a lot harder on us.

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Thank you.