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Letter: STARS board welcomes input, invites former volunteers to rejoin the nonprofit

In the past week, the Pilot published an article and several letters to the editor raising concerns about STARS. We acknowledge those who have raised their voices to express their opinions. The STARS board recognizes their desire to help STARS continue to be an effective organization serving the adaptive-needs community. 

In serving our participants, we as a community can surely agree upon without hesitation or debate that our mission is to serve and create life-changing opportunities for individuals with disabilities. STARS has and will continue to serve both children and adults with physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities.

Our mission is broad in scope and reach, thereby creating a unique and special asset not only in our community but nationally as well. This is a mission worth pursuing and one for which our entire community should be proud. STARS has grown from a few participants with a $15,000 budget to over 400 participants with a $1 million budget. 



As a board and organization, we must continue to grow and push ourselves to be better. We have made mistakes, and our success will come, in part, from learning from those while always moving forward. We are committed to building upon the open dialogue that the board had with several of the past volunteers in early January. We will continue to welcome and value constructive input from volunteers, donors, participants and others committed to our mission. We said then, and reiterate now, that we invite our former volunteers to rejoin STARS by meeting with our STARS program director, who is responsible for all volunteers and assignments.

The STARS Ranch is open, and we successfully completed our first camp serving visually impaired veterans. Having our participants stay in one place, share their experiences and be accommodated in a facility that is designed for them, enables STARS to create even more meaningful, life-changing opportunities. The Ranch is booked through the winter season.  We commenced a public, national search for a new executive director and are pleased with the quality and volume of the resumes we have received.



The board is focused on fulfilling the STARS mission and encourages the open and constructive input of those with concerns and suggestions. Please reach out to our Interim Executive Director Jeff Messinger at Jeff@Steamboatstars.com or any other board members.

Respectfully, 

Gail Jensen
Brad Iverson
T.K. Wright
Katie Brown
Skip Curry
Steve Tober
Jeff Messinger

STARS board of directors


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