Legacy of giving leads Jennifer Kirby to next effort: Plunging into future of pools

There are a few people in Sioux Falls whose fingerprints, over time, begin to leave lasting impressions all across the city.

Jennifer Kirby quickly is becoming one of them.

Anyone who has taken in a free concert at Levitt at the Falls has felt her impact.

Or taken a dog to the downtown Kirby Dog Park.

Those needing a place to stay in Sioux Falls while here for medical needs are able to draw on Kirby Place, the newly opened home for patients and families that she championed.

And next, Kirby’s passion for giving back to her community will turn to aquatics as she spearheads the Sioux Falls Parks Foundation and leads a community engagement effort to determine the future of many Sioux Falls swimming pools.

“I can’t say enough good about her,” said Candy Hanson, who led the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation for years and has worked with Kirby on multiple giving efforts.

“She’s a phenom.”

Sioux Falls girl comes home

Born Jennifer Frerichs, Kirby grew up attending Jefferson Elementary and later Lincoln High School, riding her bike to the pool at Spellerberg Park and competing for a swim team until she reached high school and aged out of it.

Whatever activities she could do, whatever difficult classes she could take, “you name it, I took them,” she said.

College brought her to Augustana University, where she earned a degree in economics with a minor in math and then joined a management development program at Wells Fargo. She earned her MBA at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

She met future husband Joe Kirby in Sioux Falls while in her 20s and didn’t think she’d ever return to the city after graduate school.

They moved to California and raised three girls – Joe’s daughter and two they adopted – who were 10, 11 and 12 when they all became a family. Raising funds for their charter middle school in Palm Desert became her first experience fundraising.

“I really enjoyed working with so many parts of the community, and it hit me that this was the kind of work I really liked to do,” she said.

As their youngest was finishing high school, both felt a pull to return to Sioux Falls. It would be easy to blame the brutal West Coast summers for wanting to split time between two states, but it was bigger than that.

“Leaving Sioux Falls made me appreciate all the good it has,” Kirby said. “The strong sense of community. We help each other out and pull together and get things done. I didn’t experience that same sense when we moved to California.”

When she returned to Sioux Falls in 2011, Hanson was one of the first people she connected with in her hope of becoming more involved in the community.

“I won’t exaggerate – it was exciting when someone walked in with a true philanthropic heart that was looking for ways to make a difference, and Jennifer Kirby is one of those people,” Hanson said.

Kirby’s message was a direct one: She wanted to get involved. She wanted to do more than “passively going to meetings.”

She began by drawing on her tennis background to assist with raising funds for Huether Family Match Pointe.

Then, Hanson pointed her toward what she called “one of the most exciting things I’ve heard about lately,” Kirby said: Levitt at the Falls.

Building community

One of the lesser-known facts about Levitt at the Falls today is that the dance floor was named in Kirby’s honor.

That was kept a low-key distinction at her request but was done in recognition of her leading the campaign to build the concert shell and her eight years of service on the board, including four as president, as well as her active volunteerism at the concerts with her family.

“Jennifer Kirby’s service was a key driving force in bringing the Levitt to Sioux Falls,” executive director Nancy Halverson said in naming the dance floor.

“Her commitment to making the Sioux Falls community a thriving, healthy, vibrant place to live is incredibly inspiring. The Levitt has been truly blessed to benefit from Jennifer’s extraordinary leadership and philanthropy. The naming of the Levitt dance floor is a small tribute to the joy, connection and growth Jennifer has helped to foster in the community through her leadership and commitment to the Levitt.”

While you’re not likely to see her dancing on the floor named in her honor, she still tries to attend at least one concert weekly.

“While I was still on the board I essentially went to every concert,” she said. “I’m amazed how I can walk all around and not know a soul, which is great.”

Loss leads to legacy

In 2016, Kirby lost her mother, Jacquie Frerichs, to cancer at age 70.

While going through treatment, they had stayed at a place called Hope Lodge in Minnesota, which inspired Kirby to try to create something similar in Sioux Falls.

“The first attempt just wasn’t meant to be,” she acknowledged. “The stars didn’t align, and that’s how it goes sometimes. So things just came to a halt, and I just prayed something really good would come out of it. I didn’t know what it was, but it seems like some of the hardest challenges are then followed by some really special developments.”

Fast-forward a few years, and in May of 2022, Avera and the Kirby family cut the ribbon on Kirby Place, an expanded hospitality house for patients and families near the Avera McKennan campus.

Kirby Places more than doubles the lodging currently available at Walsh Family Village, adding 14 patient rooms, a connection to the existing buildings and hotel-like amenities, including recliners, refrigerators, televisions and accessible bathrooms. Guests have access to shared kitchens and laundry.

Joe and Jennifer Kirby gave the lead gift for the Home for Hope campaign and helped lead the effort to secure additional donations for a fundraising total of $3.4 million.

“I held onto the belief that you don’t know what things will lead to, and fortunately it led to working with Avera to build Kirby Place, which has been a very rewarding experience,” she said.

It allow illustrates Kirby’s tenacity, Hanson added.

“Aside from that true spirit of philanthropy, the trait I most associate with her is determination,” Hanson said. “She is extremely resilient in the face of an obstacle, or even minor challenge, to achieve what she believes is right. She is just 100 percent persistent. She did not recognize that goal right away. It was a very ambitious campaign, but she did not give in, and we have a version of that facility (she envisioned) here in Sioux Falls because of her efforts.”

When Kirby saw the project finally through to completion, “it was so emotional,” she said. “My mother was a lifelong musician – she played the piano and the organ – and they surprised me with a sculpture of a piano placed in the courtyard. I look at that, and it’s almost like my mom is standing right there.”

Kirby also co-chaired Avera’s Light the Way campaign, its largest regional philanthropic effort to support a $28 million expansion of Behavioral Health.

“Throughout Avera, we have personally witnessed Jennifer’s desire to help others,” said Dzenan Berberovic, chief philanthropy officer for Avera.

“Jennifer generously shares her time with causes that make life better, especially for the most vulnerable in our community.”

Kirby “serves from the heart,” he said, adding she “often shares what a privilege it is to be part of local causes that enrich life. Through Jennifer’s selfless leadership, she helps thousands of people each day – many whom she may never meet.”

From parks to pools

Joe and Jennifer Kirby have become mainstays of downtown Sioux Falls in the years since they moved there, often seen walking their dog, Holmes, around the city.

On one such walk, they began talking about the need for a downtown dog park.

“In California, we live close to a dog park, and it’s such a meeting place,” Kirby said. “We just thought we needed one.”

She mentioned it to parks and recreation director Don Kearney at an event.

“I said, ‘I know a downtown dog park has been on the radar, and what if we paid for it?’ And his eyes got big, and he said, ‘Let’s talk about that,’ and that’s how things unfolded,” she said. “The city was great to work with, and it was a relatively quick process. It’s a great place to see happiness, just puppies and dog owners and it’s well used.”

It also set the stage for her next philanthropic effort: the greater parks system.

“I think the parks system is one of the Sioux Falls’ greatest assets. I’m such a huge fan. I’ve used them all my life,” she said. “I’d run marathons and knew every square inch of the bike trail.”

She now serves as chair of the Sioux Falls Parks Foundation, which seeks to connect philanthropists with projects that align with the vision of the parks system.

And her next effort will be addressing aquatics. The city is undertaking a large-scale effort to identify needed improvements for several aging pools, as well as considering potential new pools. That also could include another indoor pool or multigenerational recreation center.

“I’m trusting our consultant to go through the process, gather input and put together priorities,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter what I think is a priority; it matters what the community thinks is a priority, and we’ll go from there.”

Kirby’s leadership, however, hardly could be more perfectly placed.

She recently rediscovered swimming herself – and, like everything else in her orbit, “I couldn’t do anything halfway,” she said.

“I had to do it competitively.”

She now swims five times a week, works with a coach in California and has qualified for multiple U.S. Masters Swimming national competitions. She competes this week in the 2022 Summer National Championship in Virginia.

“It’s been such a gift in my life,” she said. “I can’t believe I stumbled on it again.”

By later this year, the aquatics effort likely will have put more specifics to the pool system’s future. As Kirby looks to her own future in the community, other efforts come to mind. Potentially more indoor recreation options to improve winter life. An emphasis on healthy eating and nutrition. It quickly becomes clear this community leader and philanthropist might just be getting started giving back.

“Sioux Falls is on fire in so many ways. It’s amazing,” she said. “And I’m so happy to be trying to make Sioux Falls better.”