When he first heard about La Crosse SOUP in 2015, Josh Court ’12 was immediately taken with the community fund-raising event. SOUP brings area people together every few months for a soup supper at which they’ll hear four pitches for community improvement projects and then vote on which one receives the funds raised from donations for the meal.

“I remember going to one of the early ones and thinking, ‘This is amazing.’ It hooked me from the beginning,” Court said. “The whole experience of the community coming together was the biggest draw for me. I loved seeing neighbors and friends gathered, having some laughs while supporting seriously good projects.”

At first, Court was a casual participant, but in time he started pressing Andrew Londre, SOUP’s founder and organizer, to put him to work. For the fall 2016 event, Court helped out with recruiting people and organizations to pitch project ideas.

The next thing Court knew, Londre decided to step down and entrusted Court with the task of keeping SOUP going and making it stronger.

Court has devoted much of his adult life to helping people, at first on a one-to-one basis. After earning his bachelor's degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the La Crescent, Minn., native moved to the Twin Cities to begin his career as a social worker. He earned a master’s degree in social work from Augsburg University before moving to La Crosse, where he began working at Mayo Health System.

At Mayo, he was running residential programs in behavioral health when he realized he enjoyed (and was good at) leadership and management and wanted to get better at it. He looked around at MBA programs and settled on Viterbo's MBA program because of the emphasis on ethics and leadership.

Before completing his Viterbo MBA in 2012, Court might have been inclined to jump into the SOUP leadership role, but after his Viterbo studies, he said, he felt better equipped for the job.

“My experiences at Viterbo helped me know this is something I could do and helped me ask the right questions in putting it together,” Court said.

One of Court’s first steps when he took over the reins at SOUP was seeking advice from Rick Kyte, director of Viterbo’s D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership. Kyte, who had met Court when he was an MBA student, was happy to help and the two met at Houghton’s and sketched out an action plan on a napkin.

“I liked the idea of reestablishing an organization that had potential to do so much good in the community, and I was impressed that Josh was willing to take it on,” said Kyte, who continued to help with SOUP as a mentor to Court and a leader of SOUP’s strategic planning process.

With an emphasis on accountability, transparency, and effectiveness, the new, improved SOUP is now overseen by a board of directors.

“When I took it over, it was important to me that I’m not doing this alone, that I had a really good group to be involved in this,” Court said.

The 12-member board currently includes the following Viterbo alumni:

• Jeremiah Galvan, a senior consultant in talent management at Gundersen Health System who earned a bachelor's degree in nursing in 2012 and master’s degree in servant leadership in 2018
• Maria Norberg, who graduated in 2009 with a degree in individualized studies (minor in legal studies) and now owns Apothik Food Truck and Grounded Specialty Coffee.
• Nicole Van Ert, a 2009 MBA graduate who is director of Viterbo’s Center for Professional Learning.
• Chuck Berendes, an attorney with Pittman & Pittman (formerly with Catholic Charities) who, like Court, earned a Viterbo MBA in 2012.
• Casey Severson, a brand marketing manager at Fastenal Company who earned an MBA in 2021.

In addition, Jill Miller, program coordinator for the Reinhart Institute, serves on the SOUP board.

SOUP has thrived over the past five years, with businesses and organizations stepping up to support the events in addition to the local restaurants that serve up the soup and bread.

Local schools also have been recruited to help, giving many students valuable lessons on community service. At the July SOUP, for example, the grant award was increased thanks to a bake sale during the event conducted by students from State Road Elementary, where Court’s wife, Mindy, is a teacher.

A group of State Road fifth-graders who made a pitch for adding all-abilities equipment to the school playground has the distinction of taking home the biggest SOUP grant so far. That event, which drew about 300 participants, was held at the Rivoli Theatre, which donated a movie screening in addition to hosting.

While each event has only one “winner,” the beauty of SOUP is the causes involved in other project pitches gain awareness, at the very least, and often gain support from people inspired by the SOUP presentations. Pitches also can inspire people to act on ideas of their own for community improvement.

“SOUP is great at creating opportunities for social connection,” Kyte said. “It raises the profile of people and organizations who are not well established but who have great ideas and allows them a chance to share their ideas with a larger audience and get financial support to put their ideas into action. It also is good for raising the spirit of the community as a whole, by bringing people together in what amounts to a celebration of goodness.”

The next SOUP session will run from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, at The Nature Place, 789 Myrick P)ark Drive. More details, including pitches to be heard, will be announced on SOUP’s website and Facebook page.

Since taking over SOUP, Court also is applying his leadership and management skills in the workplace, too. He has been with Gundersen Health System for four years, serving as director of behavioral health services, one of Gundersen’s largest departments with about 300 employees in 26 locations.