Jess Miller!

“Jess Miller is an award-winning local standup comic. Former owner of the OMG Comedy Club, she continues to organize and headline comedy shows, but does so largely in the name of local philanthropy. To date, Jess Miller has raised well over $300,000 for a variety of charitable causes through her “FunnyRaising” comedy shows. Jess is also a disabled Army veteran and a proud and active member of the LGBTQ community. She and her wife Stephanie Greenberg-Miller, a public school teacher in Springfield, are familiar faces in the region — and Jess is able to leverage this respected reputation to help influence others and solicit participation for a good cause. To date, Jess’ “FunnyRaising” series of charitable comedy shows has raised nearly $300,000 for local initiatives. But the money alone isn’t the depth of her work; the real impact is in the value of community service she imparts upon all her fans, fellow veterans, friends, and neighbors. Jess’ lifelong passions have been children, families and veterans. She conducts giving drives for the veteran program Project Hope, creates and disseminates “appreciation baskets” and flowers for staff of the state’s Dept. of Children & Families, and helps nonprofits like behavioral health agency Clinical & Support Options (CSO) come up with systems to better improve in-kind and cash donation drives and giveaways. Her annual “Toy Drive” provides thousands of toys each year for foster families and families receiving behavioral health care. Jess’ “Kind Squad” (www.facebook. com/kindsquad2020) is an organized group of Facebook followers that pull together to meet specific needs of local families and organizations. Many of the in-kind donations of the Kind Squad go directly to foster families and to the area’s largest homeless shelter, Friends of the Homeless.”