Philanthropy | The Weiller Legacy: Transforming Lives at Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and Desoto Counties

By Hallie Peilet Young | April 2024

---

At Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties, the Weiller family name is everywhere you turn.

There’s a Weiller park, a Weiller playground, and there’s the Babe Weiller hallway that goes all the way through the middle part of the building.

In 2021, Sarasota philanthropist Jean Weiller made a transformational $1 million gift to the Club. She says the connection to BGCSDC started with her mother-in-law, Kathryn “Babe” Weiller in the 1970’s.

“She went around to all her friends, my mother-in-law, and said, ‘You know, you must have books in your house that your kids have grown out of, and we could use them to start a library at the Boys &Girls Club,’” She said. “And that’s how it started.”

It didn’t take much. Jean was hooked.

“I found right away that the people were very happy people,” Weiller said. “We just sort of got into it and got involved in it, and we liked the kids. I had one little girl who thought she was my child. We still have a friendship,” Weiller said, referring to Ghita, who is now a high school senior applying to college. Her two sisters are and were Club members, too.

It’s easy to tell from her kind heart that Weiller comes from humble beginnings. She was raised in an underserved neighborhood, and art became her outlet.

“I was just a kid growing up on the wrong side of the track and enjoyed all the things that I could get from art,” Weiller said. “I didn’t think of myself as an artist.”

She may not have thought so, but she’s never been one to brag. Together with her late husband, Edwin “Ted” Weller, they and a business partner created Weilwood Industries, a textile converting business based in Manhattan from 1960-1990.

“I was the textile designer,” Weiller said.

And she traveled all over the world doing what she loved.

“I never was the kind of person that got out of bed and said, ‘Ugh, I have to go to work,’” she said. “I was always happy to go.”

When asked how many women were in her college class at the time, her answer was short.

“Me,” she said, with a laugh.

She was inspired by her love for art and her own extensive art collection to start volunteering in the Club’s art program.

“That was the part that I concentrated on. We did paintings that weren’t so difficult for the kids to do,” Weiller said. “I remember one year it was Valentine’s Day, so I told every kid they could make a valentine for their mother and their grandmother. So, each one would get two valentines to fill in. So, I got around to this little boy, and he said to me, ‘I need 14.’ I said, ‘Why do you need 14?’ He said, ‘Well, I have a lot of women in my family.’ Luckily we found the 14 cards. And from there on, I knew that he was the kid that was going to need more than anyone else.”

She says she had a big drawer full of candy, and the kids got a piece every time they did something good, which she says was often.

Weiller also has spent time with the kids at the Club’s monthly dinner series, Opening Doors to Great Futures, where the kids get to work with a guest chef.

“I’ve never been around so many kids that are so polite and so appreciative, and they always have a smile on their face,” Weiller said.

Inspired by her own extensive art collection, Weiller would find a project she wanted to do with the kids, plan it out and get supplies.

“I bought it all myself. I didn’t ask for money,” Weiller said. “I would try to figure out something, a purpose that the kids could do. I found it to be quite the pleasure. “

I asked her why she thinks art is so important for these kids.

“Because I think it comes directly from them,” she said.

She says she’s always enjoyed seeing the sense of pride from a child with his or her finished art.

“It made you feel good. They would be so proud of what they did,” Weiller said. She even judged the Club’s art competitions, which she says required a lot of patience.

“They mostly taught me to be a little more understanding because I seem to have a quick temper. Excuse me. I do have a quick temper,” Weiller joked.

She gave immeasurably with her time. And her monetary donations have completely changed the trajectory of the Club.

In 2016, Weiller was honored at the signature gala as a “Champion for Children” of Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties. It’s an award presented to those whose leadership and philanthropy have enhanced and saved the lives of Club members. That same year, Weiller and her family committed to giving the organization a $500,000 match if BGCSDC could raise $1 million in new or increased funds by 2020. They met their goal, and $1 million of that “Matching Challenge” gift was put toward the Club’s endowment fund. $500,000 was used to support operations and new initiatives like the Teen Program and Tom and Debbie Shapiro Career Resource Center.

The giving didn’t end there. Through the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Weiller’s $1 million donation in 2021 is now being put toward building and furnishing a new Art Studio and Technology & Robotics Lab at the Roy McBean Club on the Irving and Marilyn Naiditch Campus, and has already renovated the Lee Wetherington Club’s Art Room as well as the renovation and expansion of the Club’s Administrative Building. 

This transformational gift will lead to increased impact and capacity from BGCSDC with the creation of state-of-the-art learning spaces for Club members and capacity-building space for staff.

This transformational gift will lead to increased impact and capacity from BGCSDC with the creation of state-of-the-art learning spaces for Club members and capacity-building space for staff.

In her time as a donor and volunteer at the Club, Weiller has impacted thousands of young lives.

It’s clear after spending an hour with Jean that she prefers to stay in the background. She’s certainly not motivated by the recognition.

“It’s nice to see your name on the wall,” she said, “but it’s really good to be with an 8-year-old when you’re almost 300 years old.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION on Boys and Girls Clubs of Sarasota and Desoto Counties, visit www.bgcsdc.org or  call 941-366-3911.