{"id":423570,"date":"2026-01-21T12:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423570\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:23:09","slug":"sioux-falls-couple-focuses-giving-on-encouraging-financial-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423570\/","title":{"rendered":"Sioux Falls couple focuses giving on encouraging financial literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 20, 2026<\/p>\n

This piece is sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation.<\/p>\n

If you ask Dusty Miller a question, he\u2019ll answer with a story about his mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am my mother\u2019s son,\u201d he says nine times out of 10 when asked where he learned something, what inspires him and who he admires.<\/p>\n

It all started on the North End of Sioux Falls, where his parents raised five sons at 10th and Menlo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were going to the Black Hills, you drove right in front of our house,\u201d Dusty said. They had moved there from Watertown in 1952, and his parents, Roy and Waneta, wanted to open a business. They started Midwest Jack Service, which his brother Greg took over when their father died when Dusty was 8.<\/p>\n

This is another point where he tells a story. His brother would take the jacks apart \u2013 down to the ball bearings \u2013 and, after school, Dusty cleaned each piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would spend my time with wire brushes on these old hydraulics and get rid of every bit of dirt and grime and gravel and get them all clean. They would dry overnight, and my brother would put them back together the next day,\u201d Dusty said, noting that the jacks would be tested and painted and good as new. \u201cI got paid 15 cents a jack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dusty learned a few things about himself in those evenings cleaning parts. The first is that he was good with his hands, good with the details. The second was that he was thoughtful about money \u2013 knowing what a job is worth and what to do with the money you make.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Waneta made him save money for college, and when that was saved, he could begin saving for a car, but not just any car. He had to buy something decent, not an old junker that would nickel and dime him to death.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to understand, Waneta was born in 1917, and she was the oldest with siblings she took care of,\u201d Dusty said. As a teenager, she saw the stock market crash and the Great Depression hit. When she was older, there was World War II, where Roy served from 1941 to 1945. Waneta was 40 years old when Dusty was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I have all that wisdom of what she lived through, and that\u2019s coloring my life,\u201d Dusty said.<\/p>\n

Dusty went to college at the University of South Dakota, where he hoped to become a doctor. One semester of organic chemistry sent him across campus to the business school instead. In summers, he worked in landscaping.<\/p>\n

Out of money for his last semester at USD and pretty close to dead broke \u2013 as he says \u2013 he applied to C&R Supply, where the only thing they cared about on his application was that it was legible. He got a job as a delivery driver, delivering lawn and garden supplies, thanks to his handwriting and a recommendation from the landscaper he had worked for in college.<\/p>\n

Long story short, Dusty bought the business in 1998 and sold it in 2012 to three of his employees. He glosses over building a successful business and passing it on to the next generation. Instead, the next story he tells is about Adopt-A-Highway.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the early \u201990s, Kathy and I volunteered to help clean a stretch of the highway our car club adopted,\u201d Dusty said. \u201cIt is an unelected position, so apparently it\u2019s ours for life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than have the county come pick up the garbage, Dusty would haul it to C&R Supply dumpsters to dispose of it. \u201cWhen I sold C&R, there was a mutual agreement I could continue to use the dumpsters,\u201d he said, laughing about his lifetime access to them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s how everything goes with Dusty. He stops mid-story to ask if he\u2019s boring you. What he doesn\u2019t realize is he\u2019s a great storyteller. And as John Updike would say, you can slide right down his voice into his living room.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kathy sits on the couch beside him. It\u2019s a house she designed. Picture windows bring the outdoors in, and everything feels warm and spacious. Birdfeeders crowd near a dining room window, perfect for watching with morning coffee.<\/p>\n

Dusty met Kathy at the Time Out Lounge, a former sports bar near the Arena, one summer, and they were engaged by Christmas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty sure she was the one, and I had to nail that deal down,\u201d Dusty said with a laugh. That was 37 years ago.<\/p>\n

Kathy grew up on a farm and studied at Nettleton College. She was a bookkeeper and office manager for Christopherson, Bailin & Anderson, working as a legal assistant for senior partner Marv Bailin.<\/p>\n

Bailin, of course, was one of the founders of the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation.<\/p>\n

Kathy retired in 2017, but she still stops by every month to say hello, and it was Kathy who introduced Dusty to the Foundation, where they have a donor-advised endowment, which helps them simplify their giving.<\/p>\n

When asked where they learned to be philanthropic, they pause and look at each other. Kathy is thoughtful, and Dusty pops in with a story. This time, it\u2019s about the Boy Scouts, the church and, of course, Waneta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am my mother\u2019s child,\u201d Dusty says again. \u201cShe had a full house, and the whole time we boys were coming up, we were all told that no matter how much money she had, don\u2019t wait around for her to die to get rich. Go make your own way because the money she had was going to the church, the library and Sioux Falls College.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Waneta\u2019s death, a scholarship she established was transferred to the Community Foundation for management.<\/p>\n

Kathy thinks for a minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked for Marv for years, and he was always doing something for someone. People used to tell me how tough he was to work for, but I never saw that side,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople out there need help, and we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mary Kolsrud, chief philanthropy officer with the Community Foundation, said Kathy and Dusty are visionary \u2013 building an endowment during their lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey care so much about this community, and they understand the power of an endowment to make more possible,\u201d Kolsrud said. \u201cThey show that not only with the programs they choose to support, but through the thoughtful way they are building this endowment. It\u2019s inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dusty and Kathy are both passionate about money matters. They\u2019ve helped fund the Making Cents program through EmBe to teach financial literacy to young women. They give to Junior Achievement. Most recently, they gave to the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Sioux Empire to fund a financial literacy program at the George McGovern Middle School location.<\/p>\n

They firmly believe young people need a better understanding of how to invest, what compounding interest is and how to make responsible financial decisions.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t that Dusty thinks the next generations are any less capable \u2013 it\u2019s that they just don\u2019t always have the tools they need. It\u2019s why they both support programs that teach those skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf one kid out of each class, or two kids, avoids this crazy trap of being in debt their whole life, then it\u2019s worth it,\u201d Dusty said.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve spent time at a simulation with students in Junior Achievement, watching them learn to budget with different family scenarios and different household income amounts \u2013 what happens when you need child care? What happens to your clothing budget at different income levels? Where can you save money?<\/p>\n

They\u2019re real-world scenarios that the Millers think can help young people visualize situations that might happen \u2013 and show them the consequences of their financial decisions.<\/p>\n

Dusty has another story. His job growing up was to put the dishes in the dishwasher. He earned a nickel a day, and his parents kept track of payments to the kids in a ledger they called \u201cThe Book.\u201d During daily errands with his dad, they would stop at Ken\u2019s DX gas station, and his dad would slip him a nickel for candy or a pop.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was in pig heaven, getting a candy bar a day, plus I was making a nickel a day loading the dishwasher,\u201d Dusty said. One day, he asked to see his grand total in the book.<\/p>\n

Turns out, that nickel he made every noon in the kitchen was the same one his dad gave him to spend every afternoon in the gas station \u2013 and he had no balance in \u201cThe Book.\u201d<\/p>\n

He laughs. It was a good money lesson for a young Dusty. \u201cI wanted my nickel back!\u201d<\/p>\n

He stopped accepting the nickel from his dad every day so he could grow his balance in the family ledger like his older brothers.<\/p>\n

Kathy smiles.<\/p>\n

The house is quiet, and they talk about their giving. The Community Foundation makes it easy for them to send donations to various causes, they said. Some of it\u2019s ingrained \u2013 Kathy watched her boss model it for decades. Some of it\u2019s exposure \u2013 they learn about local needs and how they can help through the Community Foundation.<\/p>\n

But really, what drives them is hope. They might not use that phrase, but it\u2019s behind everything they say and much of what they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive years from now, 10 years from now, some kid is going to make a good choice \u2013 or not make a bad choice,\u201d Dusty said. \u201cAnd it could be because of something they learned in one of these programs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 20, 2026 This piece is sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation. If you ask Dusty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132,177251],"class_list":{"0":"post-423570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance","14":"tag-sioux-falls-area-community-foundation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}