In any organization (fraternal, commercial, nonprofit etc.) there is always a starting point and frequently a single person who deserves credit for "the idea". With Hope For Horses that person was a veterinarian from Monroe Washington named Dana Bridges. From this beginning Dana reached out to other people to help her make her idea for a horse rescue real. My nomenclature says that the person with the idea is "The Founder" and those that were brought in at the very beginning and actually labored to make the organization happen are founding members of the organization or "Co-founders". This seems trivial but it's important in recognizing those who were there at the beginning working to make a non-existent thing real.
Jenny Edwards was one of the first people that Dana brought the idea to and who she asked for help. Jenny had experience in creating and operating a non-profit organization. She was also a member of a number of local (Social Venture Partners) and national (Council on Foundations) non-profit support organizations that provided assistance for this kind of startup.
It was on Jenny and John Edwards' back porch in the spring of 2001 that Dana (at that time their horse vet and their friend) defined her vision for Hope For Horses. Jenny helped her with the nuts and bolts of creating the new organization and would have been an active member the board of directors when the group was incorporated. The actual organization and incorporation of the group occurred over the fall of 2001 and early 2002. Jenny attended these meetings and it was assumed she would be on the founding board of directors (attachment).
Fate intervened and in June of 2001 Jenny was diagnosed with Stage 2B Ductal Carcinoma. It was a combination platter with many of the worst options that Breast Cancer can provide (ER/PR positive, HER2 gene, Invasive not DCIS) . Amazingly there was no lymph node involvement but finding that out caused her left arm to be permanently affected. It took 8 months of surgery, chemo and radiation and 5 years of Femara to get statistics on her side. Jenny continued her involvement in the formation of Hope For Horses through surgery and chemotherapy but the radiation treatments in February of 2002 caused her to withdraw from HFH.
I wrote this section about my wife. She rarely talks about her cancer except to someone else in a similar situation. This is not a ploy for sympathy but a statement of pride - my pride in her for surviving this trial and coming out the other side a better, stronger and more determined person.
By the summer of 2003, her hair still short, Jenny had begun to feel human. Dana called her again to ask for help, things were not going well at Hope For Horses. Two boards of directors had resigned in a disagreement with Dana over the direction and operation of HFH. This should not inherently be viewed pejoratively toward Dana. Non-profits regularly go through startup twists and turns trying to find their way and decide what they should actually do. HFH was certainly doing that.
Jenny jumped in with both feet. 2 years of looking inward and fighting cancer poured out as she worked to rebuild HFH. Within 6 months Dana finally decided that her original vision was not going to be sustained at HFH and she left the group for good. Jenny became Executive director and started turning HFH into the professional Horse Rescue that it is today.
Now there is some disagreement about what constitutes a Founder of HFH. Jenny considers herself a co-founder of HFH because of her efforts at starting up the group in 2001. A more precise way to put it is that she is "one of the founders" of the group. This does not detract or diminish the importance of Dana Bridges to the creation of HFH and her role as "The Founder".
I look at it differently. Jenny came back to HFH in 2003 to find a dysfunctional organization. She was personally responsible for reconstituting the group, starting with a transitional board of directors that has led to the extraordinary cast of characters that serve and guide HFH today. She redirected HFH to focus on neglected, abandoned and abused horses that had been seized by animal control agencies. She became the first representative of a rescue group to join the Washington Animal Control Association board of directors and gained the AC certification granted by the Washington State Criminal Justice Commission after attending the their law enforcement academy. This made HFH a much more knowledgeable partner in focusing animal control agencies on the needs of horses. She also developed a course on equine cruelty investigation and has taught over 80 ACO's from across the region.
Hope For Horses as it now exists is radically different from when it was first conceived. It represents the culmination of 6 years of Jenny's guidance. She is now the only person who has been with HFH from the beginning. From a number of perspectives it's appropriate to call Jenny Edwards one of the founders of Hope For Horses.
