During her career at Sanborn Tube Sales of Wisconsin Inc., Catherine Johnson helped her customers find answers to their problems, source a new type of part or deliver products in just the way they were needed.
Now that she has executed her long-standing succession plan and sold her company, Johnson no longer needs to work.
However, Johnson is not the type of person who is content to sit at home all day. So, she is looking for a charity to embrace in the next phase of her life.
“I need to give something back,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do something like that anyway, and now I can fulfill that other part of the dream. But it has to be more than financial. It has to be real.”
Johnson has not yet found an organization to volunteer her time with, but she is most interested in helping at-risk women and children. She and her husband, Steve Johnson, the former president of Miller Brands Milwaukee LLC, will spend most of December in Florida, and she will finalize her plans when they return.
“I want to keep focused on giving back,” she said. “Sometimes you see retirees that have to go back to work because they’re bored. There is quite a bit of work to do out there, but it’s unpaid work that people need volunteers for.”
Aside from helping women and children, the only other thing she is looking for in a volunteer organization is a sense that her work will make an impact.
“(I want) some of that same entrepreneurial spirit,” she said. “You don’t always get feedback when you do nice things, and it would be gratifying to see that you could make a difference. Maybe by helping an organization that has goals and is facing obstacles, I can make a difference.”
