The 2025-2026 CenterPoint Scholars focused on Communication and Connection. They contracted with Kate Elliott, associate lecturer of journalism at Ball State, to conduct a series of $20 interviews called “Twenty Forward.” Each month, Kate puts $20 in the hands of two Muncie residents and then writes about who or what they support with their modest but meaningful investment in our city. Read the project introduction to learn more.
From Longfellow to leadership: Yvonne Thompson’s commitment to Muncie children
By Kate H. Elliott
Yvonne Thompson loved first grade. She’d wake to homemade biscuits and margarine before walking past her daddy’s service station to Longfellow Elementary. Mrs. Mary Dollison was there to greet Yvonne with a smile. “Mrs. Dollison cared for us deeply and made learning come to life,” Yvonne said. “She knew education was the key to our success, and she believed we were capable of greatness.”
Yvonne and others saw themselves in Dollison, who looked like them, went to church with some of them, and lived in their neighborhood. “Representation matters,” Yvonne said. “As a Black child in 1964, it was empowering to have a Black teacher.”
At the time, Longfellow and Garfield elementaries were the only two of Muncie’s 15 elementary schools that employed Black teachers, and Longfellow made history by hiring the city’s first Black teacher in 1952 and first Black administrator in 1956. Yvonne was proud to attend a school with those “milestones of progress,” she said.
Years later, when Yvonne returned to Muncie in 2005, she reconnected with Dollison, who had gone on to establish (alongside Rashana Shabazz) Motivate our Minds — a nonprofit that offers year-round academic achievement and enrichment programs for children and families. Her former teacher, now a driving force in the community, encouraged Yvonne to become executive director of MOMs.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to come full circle,” Yvonne said. “Ms. Mary had inspired me to dedicate myself to others, to invest in people the way she invested in me. Leading the organization she founded was a great opportunity to directly give back to the community that raised me.”
Yvonne led MOMs for two years through a time of tremendous growth, as the nonprofit expanded and diversified its after-school enrichment programs, summer camps and individualized instruction and support. “We made education so fun, those kids didn’t realize they were learning,” she said of MOMs, which supports the longest running Scouting America program in Delaware County. “We certainly covered the basics, like math and reading, but we also offered violin and choir, and we helped prepare kids to navigate the hits of life.”
Yvonne went on to serve the city as executive director of the Muncie Human Rights Commission for more than 17 years, but she remained involved with MOMs as a volunteer and now as president of its board of directors. The organization’s commitment to children is why Yvonne is giving her $20 to Motivate our Minds.
“Kids are our future,” she said. “I want my $20 investment to help sponsor a child because MOMs helps children become better citizens, not just in Muncie, but better citizens of the planet. Investing in our children strengthens our future.”
Yvonne, who retired from the city in 2025, said she hopes to inspire MOMs kids the way Dollison inspired her. “I want them to see me, a kid from Whitely, who has found success and made a difference in the world,” she said. “But I also want to connect with them and make them laugh, like the other day, when I told them I was 67. They had such a good time with that 6-7 thing. They went crazy.”
The mother of three is also board chair for Inspire Academy, a tuition-free public charter school serving pre-K–8 students in Muncie. Seeing graduates of the school and MOMs achieve success is what motivates Yvonne to keep serving.
“We are creating a culture — a community, really — of people who feel seen and valued and supported, and then they go on to see, value and support others in their personal and professional lives,” she said. “That is powerful. Life is hard, and there will be hits, but we help them have courage and gain inner strength to know who they are, to know what matters, and to know what to stand for. Seeing these kids grow up into their best selves is a great honor and reward.”
Learn more about Motivate our Minds at motivateourminds.org.
Thank you to Muncie Action Plan and CenterPoint Scholars for supporting these small but meaningful investments in community.
