Former Baseball Hall of Fame Chairman Ed Stack and his wife Chris are in a league of their own when it comes to helping others. Their deep commitment to community is evident through the many charitable, civic, and educational causes they champion. But the Stacks have really stepped up to the plate for SCO Family of Services.
Over the past two decades, Chris and Ed have been intimately involved in advancing our mission to build stronger foundations for New Yorkers. Ed sits on the SCO Board of Directors, serving as Chair from 2007 to 2011. He currently serves as the Board’s Assistant Treasurer, Chair of the Executive Compensation Committee, and sits on several subcommittees. Chris was a long-time volunteer at the Tyree Learning Center, where she lovingly worked with children with developmental disabilities who reside at SCO’s Robert J. McMahon Children’s Center.
In addition to their personal generosity to SCO, the Stacks have helped recruit a strong lineup of supporters. As the retired President and Director of The Clark Estates, Ed was instrumental in securing SCO’s first grant from The Clark Foundation over 30 years ago. Since then, the Foundation continues to fund SCO’s continuum of youth development, academic support, and family counseling programs that provide life-changing opportunities for families in some of New York City’s most at-risk neighborhoods.
The call came on a Tuesday.
Brigid, a special education teacher who’d taken in foster children, told SCO she was ready to adopt. After being a temporary mom, helping to strengthen and reunite families, she wanted to build a “forever family” of her own. And then, one day, her phone rang.
“They said, ‘We have a baby who is two months old, and he has nobody,’” she recalls. “And I thought, ‘I’ll be his somebody.’”
Three days later little Noah was in her arms. The first day was intense, but Brigid recalls, “I woke up the next day and looked at him in his crib and thought, ‘This is my kid, and this is meant to be.’”
The legal adoption process would take six years, and SCO was there every step of the way.
“SCO’s adoption unit was really on it, so organized,” Brigid recalls with gratitude. “They were able to explain everything going on in court. It took a long time, and they were like, ‘Let’s stick with it.’”
“Throughout the process SCO was really supportive of his birth mom too. They recognized that she really loved this baby, but that life circumstances meant he wouldn’t be safe there.” So SCO worked hard to support both Noah’s adoptive mother and his birth mother, and to sustain and nourish both relationships.
And then, the big day came. “His adoption court appearance took five minutes, but when they said he was legally my son, it took my breath away.”
Now seven, Noah’s doing great – playing chess, learning French and mastering soccer.
“He’s my world,” Brigid says. “I love being a mom. It’s my favorite thing in the world.”
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100%
of participants in our award-winning Fathers' Program met their goals by improving their relationship with their children, financial commitment to their children, and/or connecting to essential services
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2,500
people with special needs develop skills to reach their full potential