NORMAL -- The Baby Fold Board of Directors elected four new board members to serve a three-year term for the organization beginning July 1.
The new board members are the Rev. John Hamilton, retired IGRC clergy and founder of The Baby Fold Camp; Julie Hesse, school psychologist and member of Bloomington Wesley UMC; Charles Knudson, senior certified real estate appraiser, 1st Farm Credit Services in Normal and member of Bloomington Wesley UMC; and Lori Short, director of KidVenture Ministries at Normal Calvary UMC.
Chad Allen will return to serve his third board term with The Baby Fold and Pete Stroyan was elected to return for his second three-year term.
Serving one ex-officio year appointments to the Board of Directors are Rev. Leah Pogemiller, Vermilion River District Superintendent and Rev. Scott Carnes, representative of the IGRC Health and Welfare Committee and pastor of Hudson UMC.
Drake Zimmerman, Jerey McKinney and Phillip Mitchell were elected to begin one-year Board Committee appointments.
Larry Phillips has been elected as a lifetime Honorary Chair board members. The Honorary Chair position is only awarded to those with extensive service to The Baby Fold. Phillips has served two nine-year terms, 1987-1996 and 2000-2009. In that time, Phillips served as a member on every board committee, served as the treasurer, secretary, vice chair and chair of the personnel committee and chair of the Board of Directors. He was also the Volunteer of the Year in 1991 and was the chair of the Festival of Trees in 2005 and 2006.
Also elected were the Board Officers for FY2015 which includes: Chad Allen, chair; Julie Dobski, vice chair; Cory Tello, secretary; and Rob Parent, treasurer.
The Board of Directors is responsible for oversight of the agency in the areas of development, programming, business planning and governance.
The Baby Fold is a non-profit child and family service organization that serves more than 1,000 children and families every year. The organization offers professional services in the areas of adoption, foster care, specialized education, residential treatment and family services which prevent child abuse, neglect and strengthen relationships.