TAUW LEGENDS: gail Lapidus
The TAUW Legends video series preserves the voices and stories of those who shaped our first century of service. As part of our Centennial celebration, Jesse Boudiette, president of Propeller Consulting and Centennial Committee member, sat down with Gail Lapidus, the past president and CEO of Family & Children’s Services.
Join us in continuing Gail’s legacy of compassion and community impact. Your gift today in honor of Gail helps write the next chapter of our story, ensuring that future generations will have access to the same life-changing services that have touched so many lives over the past century.
interview highlights
Jesse Boudiette: How did you get involved with Tulsa Area United Way?
Gail Lapidus: Well, I started working at Family & Children’s Services in 1974, and we were a large United Way agency even then, despite our size being significantly smaller than it is today. And United Way agencies, I don’t know if everybody knows this, but we are very huge supporters of the campaign, and we were when I was in my 20s, a young girl, but it was like they would explain why it’s important, and so I started my first charitable gift as an adult to the Tulsa Area United Way.
Jesse: How does United Way help nonprofit partners?
Gail: Well, up until, I think, the last 10 years, we wouldn’t have been able to stay open without the United Way dollar because we were not a fundraising powerhouse like some might say Family & Children’s maybe is today. We were not a Medicaid reimbursable agency like we are today. Government dollars were relatively small and not really coming into Tulsa very much after the late 60s, I believe. So it was imperative. I mean, United Way is fully responsible for all the care that we’ve been able to give our community, you know, entirely for most of its life.
Jesse: How does United Way help clients served?
Gail: When you work for marginalized populations, low-income, under-resourced populations, as a direct service worker, you learn in a nanosecond that nobody could survive in this town without United Way agencies. So every person we saw needed another kind of service, so that was primarily provided by a United Way agency. So whether it was food, whether it was housing, whether it was after-school programs, I could go on and on, but I learned that the way the city’s safety net was put together was primarily by the Tulsa Area United Way. And when you have a responsibility of helping a client with whatever your mission is, you usually learn the whole story of all their other needs too. So responsible organizations will start making referrals and building up their networks of understanding between all of our partner agencies to make sure as many needs of our individual clients are met by our partner agencies.