It is with heavy, but full hearts, that the Permission to Start Dreaming Foundation prepares to say ‘farewell’ to our Executive Director, Steve Easton. Steve has led with courage, passion, and loyalty from day one, and while we will miss him, we will continue to serve in a way we know will make him proud! Please continue reading for a message from Steve:
“As we move quickly into longer days and toward that beautiful summer ahead, I want to share some news with you and discuss our opportunities moving forward. As each of us must navigate our professional existence with some fluidity in order to reflect the needs of our personal lives, my wife and I have made the decision to move out of state and be closer to family. The Executive Director role with our Foundation is however, without question, one that requires a significant amount of in-person contact within and around our education, outreach, and community building endeavors. As a result, I will no longer be in a position to fulfill my responsibilities as Executive Director in a way that would best provide for the continuity of our continued growth.
I was fortunate to be hired as the first Executive Director in our Foundation’s existence following my time as an event volunteer and subsequent two-year term on the Board of Directors. Over the roughly two and a half years I have served in that position, I am proud of our Foundation’s success in growing our capability and strengthening our capacity. We have proficiently managed those needs in ways that have vastly increased our effective reach while maintaining an unwavering commitment to the quality of our work. That broadening of our shoulders has not been aimed only at the work we are accomplishing today but has also been structured as firm ground for continued growth and expansion. Encouragingly, as we endeavor to meet needs within our communities that do not rest, we are poised to leap further forward right now – even from the advanced pace we continue to hold. Our ability and reach have built tremendous momentum, and I am proud of that too.
As you may know personally or have witnessed during my commitment here, my love and hope and heart for this Foundation are not limited to the role I officially occupy. In fact, some of the most profoundly impactful training and guidance I have ever received in my life came through the connections our Foundation has offered to me personally. The work we do is emblematic of exactly how I believe we should treat one another – of what we can do to provide abundance and growth for one another as we work, and struggle, and live together. This Foundation, our work, has taught me that the process of life should be beautiful – enriching and redeeming within the simple progress of living. I’ve learned that’s achievable only if we know it’s possible, can learn from those around us, care to pay attention to doing it with purpose, and can remember to bring others along with us. Life can teach us that lesson in a million different ways and in a million different places, but this is where I have learned it. For that reason, and truly countless others, I will have a special commitment and love for our Foundation for the rest of my life.
Though my role must change with my physical move away from the region, my heart and my hope for this mission – and for those carrying it out – remain firmly planted right here. As a result, our board has invited me to consider joining the Advisory Board Committee to maintain my presence within our Foundation from that vantage point as we move forward. I am truly gratified by this Foundation’s accomplishments, from those that began before my time to the many that will occur after my role transition takes effect.
I know, as you do, that this endeavor is worth anything and everything we can put behind it. I want to share with you that there is a continuity to what we are doing along with a palpable force behind this effort. That force is obviously fueled by an ever-pressing need, but it is underwritten by the unfailing drive of so many among us who choose, every day, to attend to the issues impacting our service members’ lives in ways those struggles need not. Please take heart in the fact that we are moving ahead with lifesaving, life-altering, hope building success, and our power and strength are only growing.
It is hard to express just how much I value the relationships I have been fortunate to build with those who have chosen to move this fight forward. Thank you Leslie, for who you are and all you have done for all of us – your impact on our individual lives can only be truly measured from above. Thank you to each of my friends and co-workers in this fight, for who you are and how you live – our friendships and connections are dear to me. Thank you to Boulder Crest and to the Avalon Action Alliance for your visionary leadership and unwavering support, both personally and professionally. Finally, I must express my enduring thanks to all of you in this Foundation family of ours who care enough to step forward and help your family members, neighbors, friends, and fellow service members alongside of us. We are in this together – still and always.”
-Steve Easton, Executive Director
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