May 31, 2019

Dear Friends,

I am retiring! Today is my last day at Kidsave. This has been a tough decision to make, and I am making it with the interest of supporting Kidsave’s transition into the future. I leave Kidsave in the very capable hands of my long-time partner and dear friend, Randi Thompson. She is a tireless champion for children, and has served as the “other half of my brain” for many years. I am so grateful to Randi for all she has given to me and to Kidsave. Together with others at Kidsave, she will hold the course and keep creating change that can someday lead to all children everywhere growing up in families.

To the Kidsave staff — past and present — you are amazing! You have such fire, commitment to the kids, and energy. I am so proud to have worked with you. Thank you for keeping our dream alive!

Our DC office will stay the course. Bonnie Williams, our Manager of Development in the DC office, will step in as Interim Director of Kidsave DC. Bonnie is supported in DC by Lauren Davis, our Director of Marketing and Communications, Katya Widell (our first Kidsave-Kid staff member) and Sarah Bertholf, our Manager of Administration. We have always been a bi coastal organization with a strong Los Angeles office, as well as a group of committed staff and partners all across the country and around the world. A special shout out to our dedicated Los Angeles Team — they each do the work of at least two people — and to Kidsave’s remote staff — Tatiana Stafford who oversees our work in Eastern Europe, Tabitha Charlton in Texas, and to Julie Katzer, our talented webmaster in Spokane, with whom I have worked daily for years and never met face-to-face.

To our international partners in Russia, Sierra Leone, Colombia and Ukraine, thank you for your commitment to children. We are so grateful to work with you.

Lauren Reicher Gordon will continue to lead Summer Miracles, and our DC Metro Summer Miracles community is blessed to have an amazing group of advocates, led by volunteers Amanda Mason and Beth Dresing. We have a great group of people supporting Summer Miracles in DC and across the country. If you ever want to meet people who are just the salt of
the earth, attend a Kidsave event.

I am so proud of all the work we do in Los Angeles moving older foster youth into families – we started that in Fairfax County, Virginia and it now exists through others in Washington, DC, Los Angeles County, Colorado, North Carolina, and will be starting soon in Texas. Kidsave was among the first to focus on family care for older children in Russia, Kazakhstan and Colombia,
and we are now working to launch a program in Ukraine. Our work reuniting Ebola orphans with families in Sierra Leone underscores the importance of every child in Africa growing up in a family, and the tragedy that the issue of children growing up in families is still not a global priority. Our challenge is growing these programs. I hope you will commit to supporting Randi and our new Chief Development Officer Stan Baratta, as we raise funds to keep all Kidsave’s programs strong worldwide.

I have loved every moment of this job. It has been a lot of work and a labor of love.
I have always felt really blessed to have been able to work my passion.

I am so grateful for the Kidsave volunteer leaders who have helped guide us over so many years, the advocacy community with whom I have worked to push forward change on Capitol Hill, and our donors who have literally kept us alive, enabling us to help kids and build programs all these years. Thank you so much for your generosity, big hearts and trust in us. So many dear friends have been Kidsave Trustees, volunteers, donors, and host and adoptive families. You all are the salt of the earth; I treasure our friendships and look forward to them continuing.

After today, I can be reached on my personal email tbaugh11@outlook.com and by cell at 202-352-5437. I value so much the friendships I have created with all of you over the years — and I hope that this transition will change none of that. I sincerely thank you for supporting me, Randi and the children we have served over the years. I look forward to watching Kidsave thrive in the future. We could not have done it without you.

Signing off for now with much love,

Terry Baugh

President and Co-Founder