PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2022

T U R N E R C E N T E R H O N O R E E

SMALL BUSINESS ADVOCATE OF THE YEAR

Brenda Grove helps the agencies that help others

BY LINDA SMITH BROWN PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON A non-profit organization can begin with the best of intentions, a brilliant idea for helping people and the momentum of the Energizer bunny, but without structure, know-how and money, the endeavor will most likely fail. That’s where Brenda Grove comes in. She has made it literally her business to help non-profits, and as a result is the recipient of the Turner Center’s Small Business Advocate award for her business, Enabling Non-Profits, Inc. A native of Peoria, Grove grew up with a single mother in a family of nine children. “The first organization that comes to mind is Salvation Army. They always showed up,” she said. Grove recalls Salvation Army taking her entire family camping in the summer. “We got to experience sleeping in a cabin, fireside stories, being out in the green terrain with trees and meeting other people. We wouldn’t have experienced any of that, otherwise,” she said. Another nonprofit, Peoria’s Carver Center, “was where we went to have fun.” Grove got a summer job with United Way making mailing labels. “I was working around professional people for the first

50 SEPTEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE