The March winds swept us up to the headquarters of SeriousFun in Westport, CT, where we met with Alyson Fox, director of the Global Partnership Program of the SeriousFun Children’s Network.
Founded in 1988 by actor Paul Newman, this incredible program serves more than 440,000 children who are suffering from illnesses in more than 50 countries. It has 30 initiatives worldwide, including 14 full-member camps, 13 Global Partnership Programs, and three new camps in development.
Fox (aka: Aly) has been with the organization since 2005, first as part of the New Camp Development team, supporting camp founders from their first inspiration of building a camp all the way to opening their doors for their first campers. In 2008, she transitioned to the new Global Partnership Program (GPP), building it from a pilot of three camp partnerships to a network of 13 camps and growing. She became director of GPP in November 2012.
Fox began her career working at Brown University in the Health Services Department, collaborating with the medical staff and campus life teams to teach, train, and counsel Brown students about a wide variety of health issues.
In this podcast interview you’ll learn:
- All about the SeriousFun Global Partnership Program
- Why the organization doesn’t build permanent camps around the world
- The global partners Fox works with—and how these relationships developed
- How they find the kids to participate in camp—and how they ensure that they are cared for medically
- How the experience at a GPP camp differs from the US-based SeriousFun camps
- And what she hopes campers learn each year
Click here to listen to the podcast on the Truly Amazing Women Radio Show on the Inkandescent Radio Network.
Also give a listen to our interview with SeriousFun directors Steve Nagler (director of Program Innovation and Evaluation) and Kelly Elliott (interim director, Camp Support Services) in our Inkandescent Entrepreneur Show.
And be sure to check out the May 2014 issue of BeInkandescent magazine, which will feature interviews with other SeriousFun leaders—including Clea Newman, daughter of founder/actor Paul Newman, who will be our May Entrepreneur of the Month.
