Local elementary music students to benefit from generous gift from alum

Sue Campbell Shepard, a distinguished alumna of Greenfield High School, and her late husband Don Helgeson have provided a generous gift to the Greater Greenfield Community Foundation (GGCF) focused on elementary school music. The gift provides a year-on-year amount for the Nodaway Valley Community School District to enhance the elementary music program starting in the 2024-25 school year. In providing this exceptional fund, Ms. Shepard has linked her respect for her alma mater, her love of music, her commitment to community giving, and her knowledge that music enhances students’ love of the arts and learning.

Ms. Shepard, now of Sartell, Minnesota, was born and raised in Adair County in Bridgewater. Ms. Shepard, her parents, Jerry and Shirley Campbell, and her siblings eventually moved to Greenfield where she graduated from Greenfield High School in 1958. Ms. Shepard received her BA from the renowned Indiana University Jacob School of Music and later returned to Indiana for her MA in Philanthropic Studies, the first graduate of the then new philanthropy major at Indiana.

Sue lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for many years and was a soprano member of the Dale Warland professional chorus for 18 years. For 17 years she was on the staff of the University of Minnesota Foundation.

In 2007 Sue married Don Helgeson of Sartell who passed away in 2022. Mr. Helgeson was the founder and CEO of Gold’n Plump Poultry, a St. Cloud, Minnesota, broiler business that evolved from the Helgeson family chicken hatchery. The company became the largest broiler enterprise north of the Mason-Dixon line through Don’s steady stewardship, and he was honored in 2004 with the National Chicken Council Industry Pioneer Award. He was active in a bank started by his father, the Liberty Bank of Sartell, and then from 1976 to 1982 he served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

The GGCF and the Nodaway Valley Community School District are grateful to Ms. Shepard and Mr. Helgeson for their generous investment in our children and in this fine community.