Meet Dave from the Board!
If there’s one word we throw around at Pause quite frequently, it’s growth. It has shown up in the amount of families we serve and the growing number of volunteers partnering with Pause. We’ve seen incredible growth of our donors and community partners who support and sustain programming. Even recently, we have started planning around the expansion of Pause programs as we look to launch in different counties. One area of growth we don’t talk about much is the growth of our Pause Board of Directors. Currently we have 7 Board members (and growing!) - all coming from different backgrounds, experiences and expertise. They all hold one thing in common - their love, passion and dedication to the mission of Pause.
We are happy to introduce you to one of our newest members of the Board of Directors, Dave Rudie! Dave and his family have been a part of the Pause family for a couple of years now after seeking support as a special needs family.
Dave vulnerably shared, “With our son Weston's diagnosis, it was hard to find respite and it felt even harder to find a church home that provided us a sense of community. Our original church home had an unceremonious end, as the lead pastor left with not much of an advanced notice; and we were left to find another church home right around the time Weston's behaviors began coming to light. I remember vividly always sitting in service and thinking how soon will it be this time before our Child# flashed on the screen to come get him from Sunday school. It happened so often, that we just stopped going to church and would just watch Joel Osteen. We felt abandoned.
We heard about Pause from another Pause family (shout out to Jeff Lawhorn!) at a Cub Scout meeting one night, and thought “this <Pause> sounds great, we should look into it.” From there, we found a church home at Center Pointe; and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Professionally, Dave is an accountant. “I have almost 15 years experience in accounting, with a niche when it comes to for-profit companies obtaining federal, state, and/or local grant funding. It is important for me to serve on Pause's Board to help provide an accounting expertise that I feel will translate well into maintaining sound accounting policies and procedures which would pass any audit, from any grant agency that will provide funding. But, even more important than that, I want to ensure Pause's sustainability and ensure that more families can find hope with a sense of community. One of my purposes is to make more of an impact on other Pause families.”
All around, Dave is a pretty cool dude (his words, but we agree. 😆) Dave enjoys working on his car, playing golf, watching all sorts of movies (Turner Classic movies with Paul Newman to be exact) and watching a variety of sports!
Dave, we are SO over the moon excited that you joyfully said YES to being on our Board. Thank you for trusting us with your family’s story and committing to continue to grow Pause to make room for more families who need us.
This is CAN DO. This is COMMUNITY. This is YOUR SUPPORT.
