"It feels like family," MPR supporters Miriam Simmons & Jim Schenz
Feb 28, 2025
As we move forward with our comprehensive campaign, we will be sharing stories of donors who are giving generously toward the future of public media. We are delighted to introduce some of our first campaign donors, Miriam Simmons and Jim Schenz.
Miriam and Jim have been listeners for many years, have generously supported MPR’s annual fund, and have made special campaign gifts. They have also included MPR in their estate plans. Because of supporters like Jim and Miriam, future listeners will also be able to experience the benefits of news that informs, includes, and inspires and music that brings joy each day.
Jim’s dad played professional baseball, and his family developed a real sense of community with other baseball players and their families. This kind of connection helped Jim understand the importance of treating people as equals and helping people when you are able. MPR has always been important to Jim and Miriam - it's a part of their daily lives – so they were happy to help by giving what they could from the beginning. They continue to support MPR in part because they appreciate that everybody has equal access to public media at no cost.
Like many of MPR’s longtime supporters, they especially loved The Morning Show. “The boys were wonderful and I'm sure Dale Connolly is somewhere still being wonderful. He's an amazing guy and we all miss Tom Keith,” says Miriam. They were original contributors to The Current when MPR asked members if they would make a commitment to be among the first to invest in this new station’s future. It was important for them to help the organization reach new audiences. They now especially love classical music - they start their mornings with YourClassical - and all the news programs.
Miriam has talked about their commitment to MPR with her friends who do not live here. “You don't realize what you don't have when you don't have anything like this. People in Minnesota should realize how lucky we are that we have this and should support it.” Jim is always amazed when a call comes in from an online listener from somewhere like Saskatoon, Saskatchewan during a fundraising drive. They both appreciate how extensive MPR’s reach is.
Jim and Miriam value the deep relationship that program hosts and MPR staff develop with listeners. “It definitely feels like we personally know them. It feels like family.” They also both appreciate the balanced perspective MPR offers in its news coverage. They like that MPR reporters and hosts don’t share WHAT they think about a particular news story; they just share WHAT happened, the actual data, and let the listeners figure out what to think about the news. They also believe that the people who are doing the work, the producers, editors, reporters, do their work brilliantly.
“We hope that [MPR] goes on forever, however long forever is,” they say. “And we think there are a lot of people like us who support public media in a big way, and who have the same hopes as us.”