Chuck Chapman - Funding the Future With the Davis Memorial Foundation - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Chuck Chapman of the Davis Memorial Foundation.You can read the interview below or  listen to the podcast.

Speaker 1:
Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews, and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Hello and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips from Roofers Coffee Shop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth and I am road tripping down south today to Arizona to visit with one of my dear long term roofing friends, Chuck Chapman. Chuck, thanks for being on the show.

Chuck Chapman:
Thanks Heidi. I appreciate it.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I'm excited. So we're going to be talking about one of our favorite topics and that's the Davis Memorial Foundation. I am so proud and honored to be a trustee, and you are the chair. You're the top dog trustee of the Davis Memorial Foundation. And so I thought, let's spend some time on this road trip talking about this great organization.

Chuck Chapman:
I don't know if I'm actually the top dog, but I know I have one of the dogs, let's just put it that way. Proud to be one of the six dogs since, let's just put it that way.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Great. Speaking of which, great trustees from Greg Blume to Dennis, to Bill Bailey. And of course, Joel, did I miss anybody? You and I?

Chuck Chapman:
Yeah, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Blume, [inaudible 00:01:21], myself, Joel and you.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. A great group. We get together all the time to work on this twice a year, at least in person, to talk through how we continue to grow the foundation. But before we really dive into all of that, Chuck, can you do me a favor and just introduce yourself, tell everybody a little bit about yourself, because I know probably most people know you, but maybe there's a few who don't.

Chuck Chapman:
Well, as we alluded to, my name is Chuck Chapman. I work for Tecta America, and I work for Tecta America here in Arizona, been in the roofing industry now for 40 years. First time starting on the roof, way back in 1982, can hardly believe it's been 40 years, but I love this industry and am really passionate about it. And I love to be able to give back to an industry that has given so much to me and my family and doing things and working with the Davis Foundation is probably one of the best ways that I can think of, to give back to the industry that has done so much for me.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. We love the Davis Memorial Foundation. Yell us a little bit about it, Chuck. How did it get started? Just give the history.

Chuck Chapman:
Well, it started originally back in roughly 1996, the Western States Roofing Contractors Association decided that it wanted to do more to give back to the industry, so it came up with the idea of a scholarship foundation. It was actually finally incorporated in 1997, so this is actually our 25th year, legally in existence. And it was named after Larry and Mary Davis. Larry was a former board member of Western States. Unfortunately they perished in a plane crash on the way home from a Western States meeting, and so the Davis Foundation is in their name, in memory for their service. And we really appreciate and are lucky to be able to have the foundation named after Larry and Mary Davis.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. Again, such tragedy, but from that, the industry brings this beautiful remembrance, so they're never forgotten, which I love that part of it. And the Western States still is very active in helping with the foundation and kind of helping to lead us all, right?

Chuck Chapman:
Yeah. Even though Western States and Davis are two different names and they're two different entities because they have to be, one is a 501C6 and the other one is a 501C3, thank you, federal government. But they really are one because Davis operates under the auspices of Western States. And most of the people, if not all of the people involved with Davis are former active board members or very intricately involved in it's associated advisory and what have you, so they really are one entity. But, one works definitely hand in hand with the other.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Exactly. And I want to give a shout out to Joel and Chris and Alec and Samantha and Sophia. They do so much. Obviously we're going to say it's all within the bounds of two separate organizations, but they're as passionate as the trustees are about this and about giving out scholarships and really making all that happen. Thank you all for all you do, if they're listening.

Chuck Chapman:
Our staff is amazing. We couldn't do it without them. We do have some really fabulous volunteers over and above just the trustees. But the staff is really the core and they make everything happen, not only for Davis, but also on the Western State side.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, such a great association. We love our Western States. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about the scholarships. How many scholarships has the Davis Memorial Foundation given out over the years?

Chuck Chapman:
Well, we are very proud to say that with our recent award of 10 additional scholarships in 2022 for another grand total of $50,000, we are now up to 160 scholarships awarded for over $700,000 over the last 25 years. That's pretty darn amazing. And it just tickles my fancy every time I think about it, knowing where we started and how little we had, but we were still able to do something compared to what we're able to do now on an annual basis, so it's a really, really super cool deal.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. And Chuck, I know I came on to the trustees, I'm going to say probably about four or five years ago now. And [inaudible 00:06:20] you've just been such a great leader for all of us. And we've seen it grow. In the 20th year, we were able to give out 20 scholarships and every year it's, we're giving 10 out, that's a lot. And there's a lot of kids that it does it some great things for.

Chuck Chapman:
Absolutely. We've been able to grow it pretty much, not every year, but like you mentioned, we gave $100,000 in our 20 year anniversary and we'd like to be able to do that on the annual basis.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. Wouldn't that be great?

Chuck Chapman:
And all it really takes is more people donating. The more money we get in, the more money we can give out.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, that's it 100%. I think it'd be fun. Let's talk a little bit. Before we start talking about the recipients, the students, I do want to say that this is quite the honor that the trustees have every year. All the applications come in and then we have a very meticulous process where we go through and we are able to be part of that selection process. That, I'm always humbled. It is the quality of students. The quality of the applications, its just off the charts.

Chuck Chapman:
Yeah. It truly is amazing. And I'll tell you, I've been able to comb myself after watching all of the bad things that we all see on the news on a nightly basis. And we see all of the conflict and bad things that are going on in our world and in our country. But when we have that opportunity to review those scholarship applications, and it really varies on from year to year as you know, how many of those? But reading and learning about the young people that are applying for the scholarships and seeing their vision, seeing the things that they have done and the things that they're going to do, it really helps because it says, "Okay, well, you know what? We're not in as bad as shape as I thought we were."

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. Oh yeah. No, great hope for the future. You see it all the time. I have hope for the future all the time anyway, I love these young kids. I love Gen Z's, but we see it just amplified as we're going, really able to relate to that selection process. But then, when we have the recipients, I thought it would be fun. Let's share a couple of our favorite stories. What are some of your favorite, looking back over the years, some of the things that have happened. It really shows how much the scholarship fund helps students get through college.

Chuck Chapman:
Well, without giving specific names, I'm going to keep some privacy for the folks. I can remember at least two or three of the young recipients that were in their final year of their education and they were out of money. They'd pretty much tapped out their ability to get student loans. They didn't have any more money coming in, and they were lucky enough to have received the scholarship in their last year of education. And that helped them, push them over the top, and helped them complete that education. I know one of them specifically graduated, went on to work for Boeing, and then his family owns a roofing contracting company. And he has since left Boeing and come back into the roofing contracting business that his family runs.

Chuck Chapman:
That's a pretty cool deal to see that complete turnaround. But without the scholarship, he wouldn't have been able to graduate. There's a couple of other individuals that I can remember specifically that were in the same boat. And it really is nice to know that we were able to help push them over the top and help them complete their education and go on to achieve their future goals.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. One of my favorite memories is it was a young lady who I think was from Oregon and she was there and she was with her grandpa. So her grandpa came, because for everyone out there listening, the recipients get to come to, which we're going to talk about in a minute, the auction, which always happens at the Western States show, the Western Roofing Expo. And she was there and she was going into welding, which I just thought it was amazing. She got a scholarship for welding. She was going to go to a community college and come out as a welder. And she had her grandpa there with her and he was so proud, talking to him and he was so proud and there was no money. And so this was going to allow her actually to go to that trade school, to be able to get her welding certification.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And to me, that was just awesome. I have to say, it's been fun because we have young people applying who we've actually, this is going to show our age, Chuck. But since you already said how long you've been in roofing, we're safe. But who I remember as babies or even being born. And that's the cool thing is the scholarship, you have to have some relation to the roofing industry. And so I've seen young men and women come up who have been recipients, who I can remember them being born and friends with their parents. I think it's just such a testament to the tradition of family within roofing.

Chuck Chapman:
Yeah. And to further that, as an example, if you remember a couple years ago, the Davis's granddaughter was one of the recipients of a scholarship a couple years ago, so that was a pretty cool and really heartwarming event. And speaking of kids growing up in the industry, your own daughter was one of those people.

Heidi Ellsworth:
She was, and it made a huge difference. She was same way, in the middle of COVID trying to finish college, funds were tight and it meant the world. And now she works in roofing, she's our podcast producer.

Chuck Chapman:
Yeah. I think you also touched on when you were talking about the welding certification, I think it's important, and we want to make sure that everybody out there understands that this scholarship is not just for college. We are looking for vo-tech, technical schools. Absolutely, please apply because you are definitely eligible. And we would like to be able to award to anybody and everybody, regardless of where the education's coming from, whether it's a tech school or whether it's college, vo-tech, any and all-

Heidi Ellsworth:
Community college, we have a lot of kids going to community college.

Chuck Chapman:
Absolutely.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, I think that's so important. And especially since the scholarship is not... We've had a lot of young people who have done amazing things and not come back to the roofing industry, have gone on to be doctors or engineers or construction managers, all that kind of stuff. But, we also want them to be aware that, we hope that a bunch of them do come back to roofing because they're so incredibly talented. And I was pretty happy even though Megan's really a musician, she's still, because of her degree in that, she's able to work in the roofing industry and it meant the world. And I know from other parents who I've talked to, it's the same thing. It just makes such a huge difference. I think now that we've kind of got everybody softened up, Chuck, we need to get them to get involved because this is such great thing. Why don't you share with everybody how we go about raising funds for these scholarships?

Chuck Chapman:
Well, we basically have three main fundraising events. All three of them take part at the actual Western States Roofing Expo. And this year it's going to be on Saturday, September the 24th in Las Vegas, we have a shooting clays tournament. We have a golf tournament. And then the big gala on Sunday night, our live silent auction, welcoming reception, which will be at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. As part of that auction, we do have a silent online portion of that. Some of you may have participated in that in the past, but it is a BidPal website. And I will give you that information right now, because that will be going live later this summer. And even if you don't come to Las Vegas and you're unable to participate in the golf, the clays or the auction, you can still bid on auction items.

Chuck Chapman:
There are a few that are live, but the vast majority of them are online and it is a BidPal website. And that website is the word one.bidpal.net/davis2022/welcome. Okay. I'll give it to you one more time. The word one.bidpal.net/davis2022/welcome. Now that site will be live this summer and you can start bidding on the auction items before the event actually happens. There's also the ability to donate what we call a name your scholarship. You can actually donate $5,000 and name your own scholarship, and we've had a number of people do that in the past. And it's an absolutely wonderful way to allow us to be able to award more than the 10 scholarships.

Chuck Chapman:
That is an item that you can bid for on that BidPal site once it goes up and live later on this summer, but that's a really, really wonderful way to be able to help raise. Now, if you want to participate in the clays or in the golf tournament or register to come and attend the auction in Las Vegas, you can go to the Western Roofing Expo website. And that is pretty simple, westernroofingexpo.com and you can register online for the convention, for the auction, for the golf and the clays, and then we'll see you in Las Vegas in person.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, it's going to be fun. It's a new time. Western Roofing Expo used to be now in June, but it is now in September. And I think that's going to be so great because so many people had to miss it due to graduations and end of school year. And so these new dates in September, I think are going to be perfect for everybody to be involved and who doesn't like to go to Las Vegas.

Chuck Chapman:
Well, and it certainly is going to be a whole lot cooler. I think we're looking at about 113 or 114 down here this weekend and Las Vegas is typically right behind us, so we'd be out there on the golf course and it's about 110 degrees and it'll still be a little warm in September, but it'd be a whole lot cooler than it is now. You're absolutely right, Heidi, it'll be a whole lot more enjoyable in September.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. It's going to be great. And I have to say this is just on so many levels, it is so great to be able to participate in a fun way. Not only is it raising funds, which are the main funds for the scholarship, these events during the Western Roofing Expo, but it also is a community and it is all friends getting back together and playing golf, shooting clays, going to the auction, which I love the auction. I just love that gala, everyone comes together, it's like homecoming.

Chuck Chapman:
Yeah. It's a really fun event. We have some fun. I'm one of the emcees along with another fellow trustee, Mr. Bill Bailey. And we usually have some fun. This year, we're going to be doing a Western theme, in conjunction with some other folks that are having some welcoming receptions and they've decided to make it kind of a Western theme. If you've got a fedora, or if you've got a Western hat of some sort that you want to wear, we'd love to have you get dressed up. I know we've got a certain amount of people that love their big, huge belt buckles that they like to wear out in public-

Heidi Ellsworth:
[inaudible 00:18:34].

Chuck Chapman:
Yes. [inaudible 00:18:37] or Wrangler of the year for the last couple of years. But it will be a whole lot of fun and if you want to show up, we'll be definitely looking forward to seeing you there. We are also doing something that we started last year. We're actually doing a raffle at the auction as well as actually doing 15 live items that we're going to be auctioning off. If you're a little bit shy and don't want to bid in public and let people either humiliate you or see how much money you're spending on things, you can just buy a raffle ticket. We're going to have a lot of wonderful items, that'll just be raffled off. And that's also another fundraising aspect that helps us give away more scholarships.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. My husband, Tim, loves the raffle tickets. We had just this whole line of him last year. But I think also for anyone out there listening, just kind of take it a little side thing, but from a marketing standpoint for your company, this is a great way to really show philanthropy, to be involved, cost marketing, all those good terms, turning it a little bit tactical here. But to donate, we have some amazing live auction items and it really shows the commitment of the community and the companies behind it. Beacon does this amazing New York trip every year through Greg Blume. Johns Manville usually does a hunting or golfing trip. And what are some of the other top items that are out there, Chuck?

Chuck Chapman:
It fluctuates every year, but we will typically have at least two or three wonderful trips, like you said to New York or whether it's hunting or fishing. There's some golf outing trips, three or four day golf outings to some spectacular, unique golf courses that most people don't normally get to play. We have some fabulous jewelry that is typically part of that. We have some big ticket items in terms of manufactured equipment, welding equipment for a single ply, TPO and PVC. There's a pretty wide array of items that are available, especially on the live side. And it's always interesting to see what we get. One year we had an ATV, so we just had some pretty spectacular items and you never know what we're going to get.

Heidi Ellsworth:
You never know. And the silent auction is great because as Chuck said, it's not just people who are there, it's anybody can bid on it. And so I can tell you, Roofer's Coffee Shop is donating a podcast, so we're going to have a podcast and some art club memberships out there, but there's a lot of great items that come in, in that silent, sporting tickets, all kinds of stuff. It's pretty cool.

Chuck Chapman:
Yeti coolers, we've got sporting event tickets, again, more jewelry, golfing equipment. I think I've seen some shooting equipment from time to time that's been donated, some more roofing products that people can bid on. It's a pretty wide array of things and I would encourage everybody to go to that BidPal site and take a look.

Heidi Ellsworth:
You put it together. Get involved, whether you're donating, whether you are participating, you don't have to be there. We hope everybody does attend the Western Roofing Expo because it's great and it's fun. And you've got to give a plug for that. It's one of the best regional trade shows out there. They're just amazing in what they do. You can find all this information also on Roofer's Coffee Shop, in the Western States directory, in the Davis directory. And that will also get you to the BidPal, get you to the sites, will get you everywhere. There's a lot of different ways to get there, to get this information. Of course, you can always ask us at the Coffee Shop, we'll get you right there to either donate or bid.

Chuck Chapman:
Absolutely.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Well, I'm really looking forward to this, Chuck, I'm really excited. Anything else you can think of, anything else you want to share with everyone?

Chuck Chapman:
Save your money, come to Vegas and give it all to us.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes. And I do want to say, for anybody who's listening out there who maybe is involved with other associations across the country, there are scholarships across the US and Canada, the world. There are these scholarships that are out there. If for some reason you can't get to Western States or you can't do that, I really want to encourage everyone to look into your own local associations. Nationally, we have the Roofing Alliance with their scholarships. There is so much philanthropy and give back in the roofing industry. It's pretty amazing. But Chuck, I have to say, I'm a little prejudiced and I think the Davis Memorial Foundation, that's where you should come first.

Chuck Chapman:
Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more Heidi. The entire industry as a whole, whether it's locally, regionally, or nationally, is important to all of us, because we are all intertwined at one level or another. And I think it's important to spread that support as widely as you possibly can. Yes, look into your locals, support your locals and definitely support us at Western and Davis. And of course, don't forget about the Alliance because they're incredibly important as well.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes. All of it. It's such a great industry. We're so lucky, so happy to be part of this. Chuck, I want to say, thank you. Thank you for sharing this. I'm really excited to see you of course, in Vegas. And just, everybody be ready because you're probably going to be hearing from us. We're going to be putting together the big show. Thank you so much for being here today, Chuck.

Chuck Chapman:
Thanks for having me, Heidi.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Thank you. And thank you all for listening. Thank you for being a part of this, learning more about what's going on in the industry. You can hear all of our podcasts on several different topics by going to rooferscoffeeshop.com and viewing under the read list and watch initiative, all of our podcasts for Roofing Road Trips. Or of course, you can find them on your favorite podcast channel, so be sure to subscribe and hit those notifications so you don't miss a single episode. Chuck, one last time. Thank you so much and thanks for being here.

Chuck Chapman:
Thank you.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Thank you. And we'll see you all next time on Roofing Road Trips.

Speaker 1:
Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the rooferscoffeeshop.com.