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06/10/2015 08:30 AMShortly after Jenny Schaffer and her husband, Jim, first married, they decided the best place where they could support an important cause was right at home.
Having completed 10 years with AmeriCares (Jim is a founder of the Connecticut-based, globally known charity; Jenny was its fourth employee), they decided to become resident directors for A Better Chance (ABC). Jim had once served as resident director for a young men’s ABC program in New Canaan. Jenny says she will always be grateful to her husband for introducing her to ABC.
And so, together with their infant daughter, the Schaffers moved into Ridgefield’s ABC house as resident directors. There, they assisted a group of exceptional young ladies of color given the chance to better their educational future.
A few years later, the Schaffer family moved to this area. Not surprisingly, Guilford ABC, founded in 1974, leapt at the chance to add Jenny to its volunteer base. Not long after she began volunteering, Jenny was asked to join its Board of Directors. On June 3, Jenny’s 20 years of service to Guilford ABC was celebrated with a Guilford Community Fund 2015 Volunteer of the Year award.
The award is bittersweet for Jenny, who is stepping down from the Guilford ABC board in order to dedicate quality time to her elderly mom, who will be moving to Guilford to live with the Schaffers. Jenny will also continue her work as a full-time realtor with William Raveis Co.’s Guilford office.
She is, of course, honored to receive the Volunteer of the Year award.
“It was so sweet of them,” she says. “How could anybody get a better send off than that? I never expected it. I feel that I’ve contributed no more than every other person on the board.”
Jenny’s helped many areas of the ABC board including her work with the Student Affairs Committee, Host Family Committee, and Executive Committee.
“I feel so lucky to have been a part of Guilford ABC and to have worked with board,” says Jenny. “To a person, everyone that I’ve spoken to told me no one has ever seen a board so hands-on. I don’t think there’s one person on the board who’s not in with both feet. That’s what has made it a successful program. Everybody’s committed, everybody’s a great volunteer. People put in hours and hours.”
Of course, Jenny’s award is the board’s very fitting way of thanking her for two decades of volunteerism and leadership. In nominating her, the ABC board wrote (in part), “She had lived the program 24/7 and knew firsthand the issues and advantages of young women living together away from home. If there’s such a thing as a natural leader and an ideal volunteer, Jenny is both. In her 20 years as a volunteer, and eventually a board member at Guilford’s ABC program, she has shown her abilities in countless different ways. As a committee member or chair and as a valued member of the executive committee, she is universally looked to as the voice of true reason. Jenny is calm in any situation, respectful of others’ opinions, and leads by example. Our six scholars have always trusted and respected her, and she has often been the board member who was asked to meet with the girls to discuss prickly issues. With them, as with all of us, she is straightforward, honest, devoid of sugar-coating, and therefore trusted—and admired—even when delivering an unpopular decision.”
Jenny says she has the utmost respect for all of the young women she’s been lucky enough to support in her years with ABC and wants to make sure everyone appreciates these exceptional scholars.
“I always felt there was a little bit of a misconception some people have about ABC. They assume it’s for girls who are troubled in some way, but it’s the absolute opposite. These are exceptional girls. They bring so much to the community. They are focused, they are smart and driven, and they are very, very strong leaders,” says Jenny, adding, “This year, we have two graduates, one going off to Bentley [University] and one going on to Syracuse University. Both of them are extremely driven, and they will be, mark my words, very successful people.”
Jenny and Jim raised their daughter, now 25, and their son, now 23, in Guilford. Jenny’s certain her kids benefited from the family’s involvement in ABC programs.
“It helped them to understand the opportunities they had is something to value, and helped them to understand that people come to the town of Guilford for what they automatically had. I think they appreciated the fact that they do live in a nice town, and I always used the girls as models for my children,” says Jenny. “I always said to my children, ‘Take a look at what these girls are doing. These girls, who’ve come from a place where they have no advantages, have a very targeted focus. They’ve had to compete to get a chance to be here. They are going to get up and out of a situation they’re not happy with, and achieve something.’”
With her hands-on experience as an ABC resident director, Jenny has a special place in her heart for the courage shown by ABC students, who arrive in a new community to live and attend high school for four years. Guilford’s ABC program is one of the nation’s earliest ABC public school programs.
“They’re coming from out of town as a minority to an all-white community and trying to negotiate what it’s like to be a minority in all-white community, and also they’re being required to be a part of the community, so they have to integrate. It’s a lot for a 13-year-old,” says Jenny.
Now that she’s wrapping up her involvement with Guilford ABC, Jenny says, “I’m going to miss it terribly. It’s a hard board to leave, and it will be a bittersweet departure. The only good part is that it does free me up to take care of my mom, which is a very important thing that I’ve got to consider.”
Jenny will also continue her 15-year career as a realtor, having just earned her 10-year award from Raveis. She’s proud to be part of a company that incorporates charitable giving into its mission, and notes the office invites the community to support the Sept. 12 Raveis Ride/Walk to help fight cancer (supporting the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation).
“That’s something we’re trying to get everybody to participate in,” says Jenny. “I love working with Raveis. It’s been great, selling real estate on the shoreline and in my hometown of Guilford. Guilford is such a really great community, with so many people willing to step up and help and make it a great community.”
For more information about non-profit Guilford ABC or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit www.guilfordabc.com.