Interview with Malia Fox: 2022 Founders Award Recipient

Malia Fox has always had a passion for working with and caring for people – especially those who are often made invisible to the world. As the Director of the Winona Friendship Center for over 28 years before retiring in March of 2022, she was instrumental in ensuring each resident’s quality of life was enhanced. Under her leadership, the Winona Friendship Center resides as Minnesota’s only nationally accredited senior center. Malia went above and beyond to be an advocate and to encourage change. She’s had numerous experience with various community service roles and activities, both locally and nationally. Malia’s experience paired with her kindness, dedication and passion demonstrates her servant leadership within Winona.

Malia Fox is the Founders Award recipient of 2022. This community-nominated award is given to an individual who has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to improving life in the Winona area through the use of time, talent and treasure. As part of this award, she will have the opportunity to grant dollars from the Founders Endowment Fund to a charity of her choice.

Malia Fox sat down for an exclusive interview with Zoe Kwitek of the Winona Community Foundation. The community leader revealed her background, her beloved stories that got her to where she is today, and spoke of her resolve to live advocating for those who need to be seen.

Tell me about your early background. Where did you grow up? 

The easy answer is to say I grew up in Winona, Minnesota. I came here at the age of 9. I went through the Catholic school system in Winona all the way to the College of St. Teresa, which was an all girl’s school in Winona at the time.

I’ve always wanted to be in a career of helping people. When I went to St. Teresa, I graduated with a degree in music therapy. I started my career by being a musical therapist in long-term care. Ever since 1986, my entire career has been centered around older adults.

When did you know Winona was your home? 

I learned I wanted to be in Winona when I left. I moved and traveled for a while before returning. Winona has this unique capacity. You may feel like you want to get away from the small town, but with Winona, you always want to come back. There’s nothing like it.

I remember one distinct time when I was returning to Winona, I thought to myself – this is home, this is familiar and there is no place else that compares. You can go to all the beautiful places in the world and still appreciate the beauty that is Winona. The beauty matched with the good people, it’s everything you need in a place.

You were the Director of the Winona Friendship Center for over 28 years. Where did this passion for improving life in the community begin?

When I was a Girl Scout, around 12 years old, we took on a project. There was an older woman living in Minnesota City. The woman was the cook for the Oaks restaurant and she lived down the street. She had no running water. She had electricity, but was very minimal. The Girl Scouts, including myself, went over there to help weed her house and do outside chores for her.

One day, when she had just returned from the hospital, she was so excited to have the Girl Scouts over and invited the girls in. This is when we got to see her wood stove and how the water was pumped outside – it was really awesome. I remember she had a thick German accent and loved to talk about her family. Her son had been killed in the war.

After the Girl Scout’s project was complete, I still wanted to see her. I started biking out to Minnesota City to hear her stories and spend time with her. This was my first introduction to life with older individuals.

This year, I presented to Winona Senior High. I told them this story. Afterwards, a woman came up to me and introduced herself. She was this woman’s daughter. I was pleased to meet her but not surprised at the occurrence – this is Winona after all!

What inspired you to dedicate your time and energy to Winona?

In doing reflection, I realized that I don’t like people to be invisible. We are all humans on the same planet. No one is better than anyone else.

There are segments of the population that become invisible. Older adults being one of them. Once you get beyond a certain age, it’s very evident and visible to see people treating the older population differently.

I was inspired to bring awareness to growing older. When I started at the Winona Friendship Center, I was 40 years old. At that time, my goal was to make it a place that I would like to go to when I was that age. Over time, I learned so much more about the membership and growing older.

I felt it was extremely important to bring the college level into the organization. Think about it – not only will they be the population working with these seniors, but they are also growing older themselves! It doesn’t have to be scary to get older. I remember one student came up to me and told me, “I can’t wait to be 55, this is so cool!”

What’s one (or many) of the initiatives, programs or projects that you were able to instate in the Winona Friendship Center?

I’ll start with how the senior center started. In the beginning, the structure was largely based off the times of 1965 – Medicare, social security, and the question of what was going to be done with seniors. The idea of doing something for them, at that time, was to put them in a senior center and feed them. The typical day was eating, bingo and cards. This prompted a cultural of making seniors more invisible and less apart of the community. They were a segmented population.

The meal program was through a partnership with another nonprofit at the time. The majority of the day was focused this program – prepping, cooking, eating and cleaning up. I knew the focus needed to change into doing more for them.

We’re living longer now. When the senior center began, the life expectancy was around 65-70. Now, in 2022, life expectancy is closer to 80 years old. This leaves the senior center with a responsibility to many different cohorts of life, from 50 years old to 100 years old.

The very first thing I wanted to change and bring in was computers. People were very resistant to this at first. But I remember pushing this forward because it was important. My thought was, people are people – there are those who want to be educated or don’t want to be, but regardless, they get to make that choice.

When this was first implemented, I had a 103-year-old resident call me up and tell me she wanted to learn how to use the computer. So, we worked together and she learned for herself.

The center did not have exercise when I started. In April of 2003, we made the decision to partner with Winona State University and their exercise science class. This first year, we worked to put together a whole program requesting $35,000 for several pieces of equipment. We went to city council and the request was accepted! Still, to this day, the center partners with the Winona State exercise science classes and the students. We help them get their practicums, internships and experience. It’s a huge part of our membership.

In 2010, we got our first accreditation. We went through the process of becoming the only nationally accredited senior center in the state of Minnesota. The National Council on Aging’s (NCOA) National Institute of Senior Centers (NICS) requires nine standards of excellence to be met to receive the accreditation. We got our second accreditation in 2015 and our third in 2021. To this day, we are still the only accredited senior center in the state of Minnesota.

In 2012, we started to go virtual. Think about that, we were on Zoom in 2012! I was speaking nationally about the programs at the center. We started to get iPads. This was huge. The staff was able to take it to a senior’s home that was isolated, or unable to be in a home, and these seniors were able to do the classes (e.g., tai chi) with everyone else virtually.

Then we began to go international. I was able to visually speak about the center to many different places around the globe. I remember when we went to the Smithsonian Art Institute. We showed the museum pictures of some of the resident’s art. The museum told us, “(the resident) could have pieces at the Smithsonian”. That was pretty cool.

We were well positioned for the pandemic. However, our set-in-place system was to have a student go to a socially isolated adult’s home, bring the technology with them and help them get set up. This was not going to work during the pandemic. The students were able to do as much to help them. To respond to this, we had to begin to quickly start training people. This was very important when they were not able to be with anyone.

You can’t stop living, but we have to be ready to adapt. I remember adults in the center telling me they would never want to learn the technology. I said to them, never say never. When the pandemic hit, the same adults called me up and ask to be taught.

Change is difficult at every level, but you have to persist. People like to say that older people don’t want to change. I think that’s inaccurate. Humans don’t wish to change. But we all have to do it.

Have you been involved in other community service activities or initiatives?

I’ve been on many boards. I was on the Project Fine board and brought Fatima to Winona in this position. I was on the human service advisory board. We did a lot of work with older adults within the county. I have worked with and continue to work with the Winona History Center. I’ve worked with the Winona County Collaborative to help serve the children and families with special needs within the county. Currently, I’m working with a new nonprofit, “Will Work for Recovery.” I’m working to help people with mental illness and addiction recovery get the help they need. I will serve on that board when the branch comes to Winona. This cause is very important to me because that portion of the population wants to be seen. We cannot turn away from them, we need to dive in. I will be right there with them because they are not seen.

I also work as a peer reviewer for senior centers in other states. I work to help them get their accreditation. I want to be a resource to help them and their organization.

What was your response when you found out you’d be the 2022 Founders Award recipient?

When I got the call from Nancy about this award, I was stunned. I didn’t feel like the typical awardee. This has been my job for over 28 years. When Nancy explained why I was receiving the award, I felt honored. I am honored to be among such special people. A lot of the past Founders Award recipients I’ve learned from.

To me, we are meant to be social, together, to have value and lend ourselves to each other. I’m honored to be receiving the 2022 Founders Award.

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It’s an honor for the Winona Community Foundation to award Malia with this award. Malia has created a vision of what Winona could be and has continually motivated others within the community in pursuit of that vision.

Please join us in celebrating Malia Fox at the Founders Event on October 6, 2022. Click below for more information.