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There was quite the buzz at Iowa School for the Deaf last week for a ribbon cutting for the official rebranding of local nonprofit Family Inc. as Firefly.

“We definitely want to create a spark and a buzz around our community and help build the brightest future we can imagine for western Iowa,” said Kimberly Kolakowski, Firefly’s executive director.

The rebranding ceremony brought out local dignitaries, including Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh.

“Family Inc., now Firefly, provides great service to those in need,” Walsh told the attendees last Wednesday. “It’s one of our great local non-profits.” Family Inc. started in 1991 providing a home visitation model of parental support, empowering them to be their children’s first influential teachers, Kolakowski said. It eventually adapted to the growing needs of the community and began offering public health services and literacy programs.

“We moved from serving only families to collective impact, to serving entire communities,” Kolakowski said. “We became so much more broad than what the constraints of the name ‘Family’ reflected. So, a few years ago, in collaboration with our board of directors, we decided it was time to adopt a name to better reflect what we do.”

They saw that the light of a firefly seemed to resonate with the agency’s core belief, she said.

“When you think of a firefly, you think of light,” Kolakowski said. “It’s the bug that lights up in the night. We saw that that resonated with our core belief that everyone we serve we believe comes to us with their own inherent inner light. We know and recognize that everyone has their own strength and inner light. We also recognize that through environmental circumstances and life experiences sometimes we go through things that dim that light, even extinguishes it to where we are not shining near as brightly as we can.”

Firefly sees itself as the spark of potential to lift up and empower those it serves and reignite that light to give them the support they need to illuminate a brilliant path forward for a successful future, she said.

“That’s what we’re about and that’s where Firefly comes in,” Kolakowski said. “We excited to adopt this name.” The agency provides services to about 7,000 people each year, she said. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held by a Firefly mobile wellness unit, which can travel across the community, parked on the grounds.

Chris LaFeria, president and CEO of the Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce, mentioned the partnerships this agency has with the local school district, the city, and other non-profit organizations.

“I greatly value partnerships and collaboration,” LaFerla said. “I think that is what makes this community stand out among others.”

Jerry Mathiasen, a longtime figure in the local philanthropy, told The Nonpareil his family’s foundation has supported Firefly, including its mobile health unit and winter clothing drives.

“We believe in the Firefly mission,” Mathiasen said. “Firefly continues to be a key part of our nonprofit sector in the region. Under Kimberly’s leadership and her team of ‘fireflies’, this organization has truly made a positive impact on hundreds of families in our area.”