At SeriousFun headquarters in Westport, CT, Steve Nagler (Director of Program Innovation and Evaluation) and Kelly Elliott (Interim Director, Camp Support Services) are hard at work making sure that thousands of children suffering from illnesses in 50 countries have the summer of their lives.
That was the vision of actor Paul Newman, who in 1988 created this incredible program that in the years since has served 440,000+ children in more than 50 countries. SeriousFun has 30 initiatives worldwide, including 14 full member camps, 13 Global Partnership Programs, and 3 new camps in development.
Equally impressive are the backgrounds of Steve and Kelly.
Before joining SeriousFun in 2002, Steve was an Assistant Professor and the founding Clinical Director of the Yale University Child Study Center Family Support Service for almost 20 years.
The Family Support Service provided home based child mental health and child welfare service to abused, neglected, drug affected, HIV affected, and at risk children. From 1995-1999 he was the Country Director of the United States Peace Corps in Samoa. From 1998 through 2002 he was the Director of the Peace Corps Pacific Initiative.
Kelly has been with the organization for the last 8 years. Prior to joining SeriousFun, she spent time at Children’s Aid Foundation in Toronto where she helped establish a corporate development and communications program. Prior to joining SeriousFun, Kelly was responsible for in-country communications for Right to Play in Ghana (West Africa), helping to promote sport and play as a vehicle for health education.
In this podcast interview you’ll learn:
- All about the SeriousFun Children’s Network and what it does
- How these camps and programs different than other types of camps that you hear about
- How the camps are able to effectively manage and care for the variety of illnesses they serve
- The mission of creating a sense of possibility—and why that’s so important for a child
- How camp heals
- How we can all get involved with SeriousFun
- And more!
Download the podcast now!
Stay tuned for more interviews at SeriousFun hq:
- With Alyson Fox, Director, Global Partnership Program of the SeriousFun Children’s Network.
- And Clea Newman, Paul’s daughter who took over joined SeriousFun Children’s Network as Senior Director of External Affairs in January 2013. Additionally, Clea is building a Legacy Giving Program and an International Board of Governors chaired by her mother, Joanne Woodward.
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