Ann Marie Habershaw, Reach's First Board Treasurer (Campaign Progress: $15,000 Raised on $200,000 Goal)
Last week, Reach got robbed. Several checks were stolen from the US Mail and processed thanks to the thief’s relationship with an employee at a local check cashing franchise. Ten checks with ten payees processed by the same employee using false names. It sucked.
This crime meant contractors didn’t get paid. Now that it’s over, I can tell you that (because we will ALWAYS keep our word to our kids), it involved my staff distributing $10,000 in cash to tutors across the city, because we couldn't cut the tutors' stipend checks. Several vendors – especially those connected to our recently held biggest event of the year – had checks returned. Again, it sucked.
But, we’ve recovered. We’ve filed police reports, uncovered facts about the crime, made sure we paid all who needed to be paid, and prepared to return to full functionality next week. We did this because we caught the issue, reported the issue, and took appropriate action. We did this because we had the right systems in place. We did this because of Ann Marie.
And, seriously, Ann Marie is the epitome of #AlwaysThere.
You see, we lost Ann Marie this year. From 2013-2017, Ann Marie was Reach’s Board Treasurer. She took us from Excel to excellent. She helped us develop the systems to ensure Reach would be successful. And, without her work, the $3,000 loss we experienced last week could have been worse. We caught it quickly (and, eventually, we’ll get it back).
Ann Marie’s contribution to our board cannot be measured. She was – and is - #AlwaysThere for us. Like she was for so many others, she was there for us through her exceptional intellect and her unconditional support. We’re so glad that she was Reach’s first Board Treasurer. We will forever be grateful for her contributions.
** The banner photo used (and yes, that's the same Doc from the last post) is from one of the days when Reach kids visited Bully Pulpit Interactive (Ann Marie’s last employer) for mock interviews. She choked up talking about our work that day. And, as she always did, she then stepped out of the way and allowed great things to happen. Rarely through her, but always because of her. Thank you, Ann Marie, for being #AlwaysThere, even now. **