Barb and Andy Eaton: On board since the start
In 2008, the Rev Hannah Petrie, former Associate Minister of the Pasadena Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church, joined several other members of the congregation at a large church conference. One of the presentations they saw stuck with them all the way home. It was by a Massachusetts group called Jericho Road, a grassroots organization with a simple idea and a well-honed template for its implementation: match professionally skilled volunteers with local nonprofits who needed (but couldn’t afford) their services.
Back in Pasadena, the group shared the idea with the congregation. They proposed launching a branch of the Concord program. Aided by local community support organization The Flintridge Center, they began by exploring the need for such a service in Pasadena. When nonprofits responded with a loud “yes”, a handful of church leaders, spearheaded by Rev. Petrie and the late John Blue, began raising funds and assembling a Board in 2009. Blue quickly zeroed in on Barb as a Board candidate.
“My first reaction was, why me?” Barb remembers. A recently retired general surgeon, she had practiced at Kaiser Permanente for nearly 28 years, serving as its Chief of Staff for two and sitting on its Bioethics Committee. “I had never been on a Board in my life,” she says. “I had no idea how they worked, or what qualifications I could possibly have.” But Blue had a very simple answer for her. “You’re smart,” he said.
Today, there’s no shortage of candidates eager to serve on the Board of such a distinguished organization. But assembling that first group was a challenge. Finally, a powerhouse six-member Founding Board hit the ground running—meeting once a week and working intently on the myriad of details involved in successfully launching a new nonprofit. That included identifying and hiring an Executive Director. Melanie Goodyear still serves in that role—showing that the Board clearly knew what they were doing!
Meanwhile Barb’s husband, Andy, with lots of proposal writing experience as head of an environmental water quality laboratory, lent his expertise to a highly critical piece of the project: grant writing.
Thanks to that first Board’s skilled and passionate efforts, Jericho Road Pasadena opened its doors in May 2010—barely two years after the presentation that sparked its creation. It would soon move away from the auspices of the Concord organization to become an independent entity.
While Barb termed off the Board in 2016, both Eatons are still on the Jericho Road Pasadena journey. In a recent JRP project, Andy developed a business plan for Rosebud Coffee, a Social Enterprise focused on training youth in transition out of foster care and homelessness. Both he and Barb now sit on the Board of Coffee with a Cause, the nonprofit that grew out of Rosebud.
Barb predicts the next challenge will be the many impacts COVID has had on the community. Will JRP be able to meet the needs of the fast-growing number of nonprofit organizations now needing its support?
Clearly, betting yes would be a smart move.
Many thanks to volunteer Linda Taubenreuther for writing this article!