Photographs by William Taufic.
Karyn Ward has been executive assistant to the co-CEO of the Ashforth Company for the past eighteen years, but she’s been moonlighting at the Boys and Girls Club of Stamford (BGCS) for just as long. “Hank Ashforth was chairman of the BGCS in 1994 and was planning the Snowball Gala,” recounts Karyn, who was born in Darien and lives in Stamford. “I love doing events and working with kids, so I offered to help.” Since then, the Georgetown grad has gone from novice event planner to expert, chairing the gala (now called “City Chic”) for the past decade.
Christine Larsen, chief development officer of BGCS, elaborates: “Karyn not only manages this large event, she also acquires over fifty silent auction items, handles all the décor herself, collects gift cards from area businesses, sells hundreds of tickets for the raffle, sets up and cleans up after the event. No job is too large or too small for Karyn.”
A working mom, Karyn says, “When I was first doing the event, I got about five hours of sleep a night for four months. It was like having a newborn all over again.” Her hard work, creativity, and organizational skills have paid off. The gala has grown from seventy guests to 250, and funds raised have jumped from $60,000 to $172,000. The best part: A wish-list board gives guests the opportunity to make children’s dreams—art supplies, field trips, camps—come true. “The best part is seeing the looks on the kids’ faces when they find out all the wish-list items that can be funded from donations—it’s wonderful,” says Karyn.
Last spring Karyn made eight trips to the mall to buy and exchange over fifty outfits for a spring fashion show, taking into account favorite colors in addition to correct sizes. “These kids don’t have much,” says Karyn, who wanted to make sure the clothes, which would be donated to the children, were just right. “My husband came to the show,” says Karyn. “He was watching them strut down the runway, with a look of ‘I’m important too,’ and he said, ‘I was blown away. These kids and what you gave them—it’s amazing. I understand why you put so much time into it.’”
Karyn is on BGCS’s board of directors, is secretary of the HR Committee and sits on the Strategic Planning Committee. Her volunteerism is “ingrained,” she says. Her mom sat on the board of the Childcare Learning Center and volunteered at St. Luke’s Parish in Darien. “She’d take her three towheaded
girls down to the South End of Stamford to deliver Thanksgiving baskets to the tenement buildings.” Karyn adds, “You get back a lot more than you give. I watch the kids grow and hear them speak and think, I helped make this kid feel this good about himself.”