To ASF Volunteers, Staff, Supporters, and Friends,
The Adaptive Sports Foundation completed its 35th successful season at Windham Mountain this year. We delivered more than 3,500 snow lessons staffed by over 260 volunteers, and our spring and summer programming included 15 events serving dozens of Warriors and their families. At the same time, it was also a year of administrative transition and introspection, both for the Board and for the senior staff, as we managed our programs while conducting a very thorough search for a new executive director. That search has concluded and I will provide more details about that below.
First, though, I would like to acknowledge the Board’s gratitude to the entire ASF staff for delivering, with our volunteers and athletes, such a successful year despite the administrative uncertainty. Special thanks go to our “staff leadership,” Cherisse Young, Kim Seevers and Pam Greene.
It is with both gratitude and regret, that I would like to share with you that two of our senior staff, Pam Greene and Kim Seevers, have decided to leave the ASF to pursue new opportunities. After more than a decade of dedicated, and much appreciated, service, Pam and Kim’s service and contributions to ASF are known to many, but it is still worth noting some of the highlights of their tenures.
Pam Greene has been part of the ASF leadership team for over 12 years. After 25 years of experience in ski schools throughout the northeast, she joined the ASF in 2006 as Director of Programs. During her tenure Pam oversaw the development of our Warriors in Motion programs from one winter program serving nine warriors to a full fledge nationally recognized program with over 25 programs annually that served hundreds of wounded warriors and their families. She also helped grow our ASF Race Team, which produced two Paralympians, and established the ASF Snowboard Team. Pam brought the highest level of professionalism to the ASF’s programs, volunteer training and organization management. Please join me in thanking Pam for her dedication, commitment and contributions to the success of the ASF and in wishing her well in her future endeavors.
Kim Seevers also has been part of the ASF leadership team for over 12 years. Kim began her career at Grier School, a private boarding school in Pennsylvania and came to the ASF after a tenure as Education Director for the Professional Ski Instructors of America-Eastern Division. She joined the ASF in 2004 as Director of Operations and shifted over time to the role of coordinating all our grant funding. During her tenure Kim designed the ASF’s nationally recognized Warriors in Motion program, guided Staci Mannella in the 2014 Paralympics, and was a key player in securing multiple large grants for various ASF programs, including a multi-million dollar NYS grant to complete the 2005 Building and Endowment campaign. Please join me in thanking Kim for her dedication, commitment and contributions to the success of the ASF and in wishing her well in her future endeavors.
Both Pam and Kim will remain on staff through the end of the 2019 summer season, completing pending projects and programming and supporting the orderly transition of their duties.
As I noted above, the past year has been a time of organizational reflection, particularly on matching our administrative structure to sustaining the ASF mission. The ASF Board (with a search team that included volunteers and parents of athletes) considered an excellent range of candidates from as far away as Colorado and North Carolina, as well as those in our own Windham community. Our search activities and deliberations, as well as the Board’s consideration of the ASF’s priorities for the next decade and beyond, yielded an outcome that none of us foresaw when this process began a year ago.
Rather than a single executive director, the ASF will now have two direct Board reports: one focused on operational excellence and the other financial sustainability. We are pleased to announce that Ray Curtis has agreed to take on the role of Director of Operations and that Cherisse Young has agreed to continue her many years of service to the ASF, now as Director of Development. Petra Davenport will be the Deputy Director of Operations with a focus on community outreach, development of summer programs, and representing the staff on board committees. Both Ray and Petra are long-standing members of the Windham community (which the Board believes will support the success of the ASF’s commitment to our neighbors on the mountain, as well as in the town and county). In addition to their successes as active instructors, coaches and administrators at Windham Mountain Resort, as a team they bring substantial experience in corporate managerial leadership (in the case of Ray) and legal and not-for-profit matters (in the case of Petra).
Click here to learn more about the ASF's new leadership team.
The Board would like to thank all those who provided input and support during the executive search process. We would also like to extend a special thank you to Karen Elder and Norman Kleiman, two ASF parents who participated as part of the search committee.
The Adaptive Sports Foundation has been committed to empowering lives through sports for the past 35 years at Windham Mountain. It holds a very special place in the hearts of so many of us that work, volunteer or participate in our programs. We are fortunate to be a part of such a wonderfully supportive community. The Board asks that we extend that support to our new leadership team as we look to the future of the Adaptive Sports Foundation. Ray and Petra’s official start date is May 1
st
and they will be reaching out to all of you as they begin their new roles at the ASF. Please join me in welcoming them both to the ASF family and wishing Cherisse, Petra and Ray all the best in their new positions.
Sincerely,
Vince Passione
Chairman of the Board
The Adaptive Sports Foundation
cc ASF Board of Trustees
