Northwestern Mutual’s mission is quite a lofty goal: To make the communities they serve the most financially secure in the world. “Given our success here in St. Louis, we’re trying to serve the community from both a client perspective and a charitable perspective,” says Gerard Hempstead, managing partner at the company’s St. Louis network office. His office has a goal of giving at least $500,000 in monetary donations and 5,000 hours of community service before 2015. “It’s actually stated in our vision and we track it,” he says.

SLU RESEARCHERS SCREEN NEWBORNS FOR RARE GENETIC DISEASES

The devastating scene of an unwanted cat or dog being left in a box, on a curb or in the rain is not simply an emotive scene from the movies—it is the world many animals live in. With the earnest goal to help animals, the Animal Protective Association of Missouri (APA) is there to take in lost, stray or unwanted pets and work to find them loving forever homes.

A region-wide cakewalk, a Valentine’s Day ‘Burnin’ Love’ festival at Forest Park, and a giant heart sculpture in the Grand Basin are some of the highlights on tap for ST. LOUIS’ 250TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION in 2014. This week, before a gathering of the city’s civic and community leaders, the new nonprofit, stl250, announced some of the key events to commemorate the city’s founding by Pierre Laclede in 1764. The 2014 celebration will be co-hosted by Mayor FRANCIS SLAY and St. Louis County Executive CHARLIE DOOLEY. Stl250 co-chairs are Ameren’s TOM VOSS, and his wife, CAROL; with ERIN BUDDE as the organization’s executive director. Stay tuned, LN will have more details about the semiquincentennial milestone in the coming weeks!

If anybody was destined to have a career in sports, it was Jay Delsing. But Jay decided not hit curve balls or blast penalty kids: He wanted to hit wedges.

June

MISSION: Fathers’ Support Center works to improve the lives of children by bettering the father-child relationship. Fathers enroll for at least one year of program involvement, which starts with an intense six-week course meant to grow family, communication, relationship and employment skills.

BRIAN HALL, chief marketing officer for the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, has been named chairman of Christmas in St. Louis Foundation, which produces Macy’s Festival of Lights and the Ameren Missouri Thanksgiving Day Parade.

For many people, the end of May means one thing and one thing only: If you have a child or grandchild, or a friend moving on to a new phase in their academic career, the month of May means far more than flowers or Mother’s Day or spring-cleaning; It means graduation.

Friends and family say that Megan McCarthy Strout and Ryan Emerson Maher were meant to be together—even if their paths often seemed to lead them apart.

EarthDance has breathed new life into Missouri’s oldest organic farm. The nonprofit is sustainably growing food, farmers and community one person at a time, through hands-on education and experience at the former Mueller Farm.

When it comes to summer fun, St. Louis makes it easy to be a kid—or stay young at heart. Follow this family-friendly guide to the city’s best summer attractions for kids—and their parents.

It’s difficult to explain why, but national studies have shown that emotional and social health translate into improved physical health. And that’s exactly what St. Louis NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Community) sets out to achieve with its many programs and services, says program manager Karen Berry-Elbert.

The Metropolitan Match Play Championship trophy has many familiar names etched on it, including such amateur standouts as Don Bliss, Jim Holtgrieve, Skip Berkmeyer and Justin Bryant.

Extremely rare pieces from one of the largest private collections of Alexander McQueen’s work are among those to be showcased in an upcoming exhibition at the World Chess Hall of Fame. 

Often thought of as a game for the privileged, PGA REACH flips that generalization of golf on its head. PGA REACH serves underprivileged youth by working to increase their academic—and ‘Beyond 18’ life—success.

After the initial veil of financial hysteria lifted, the economic chaos of 2008 made a little more sense. Area professionals, as well as recent study results, weigh in on what we should do from here.

Creating good by giving back is a gift to yourself, local financial advisers say. But before making a major donation to support your favorite cause, heed the following pieces of advice to avoid scams, maximize that gift and leave a lasting legacy of philanthropy. 

Stories: Winning Juliet focuses on the new girl at a high school who runs into unexpected animosity and resentment by some established ‘popular’ students when she decides to audition for the female title role in the school’s production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo & Juliet.

Imagine this life if you will: You are a senior in high school. You can throw a fastball 90-plus miles per hour. You are a starter on a very good basketball team. And you also happen to be one of the better quarterbacks in the Midwest.

Food in America is more than a necessary aspect of survival: It’s a part of our language, culture and social experience. We gather around meals. Our idioms and phrases make food references. We represent and define areas and events by the meals or snacks that coincide. While this may be many people’s America, dinner isn’t on the table for every family. Despite misconceptions about hunger, a lack of food is a sincere problem for Americans every day, including the approximately 57,100 individuals who depend weekly on the St. Louis Area Foodbank.