Mission of the Fisher Cats Foundation
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats established the Fisher Cats Foundation to be a catalyst for the betterment of communities statewide by supporting youth programs that encourage education and promote healthy living. Through the generous support of players, employees, sponsors, and fans, the Fisher Cats Foundation continuously works to make a positive impact throughout New Hampshire and north central Massachusetts.

As the primary funding source for the team's philanthropy, the Fisher Cats Foundation supports a wide variety of non-profit organizations and coordinates several fundraising programs and events. Efforts are focused on two cornerstone initiatives, hosting the Granite State Baseball Dinner benefiting the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (CHaD), and providing scholarships to college-bound New Hampshire and Massachusetts students in partnership with the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Since its inception in 2006, the Foundation and the Fisher Cats have provided more than $2.47 million in monetary and in-kind donations to over 3,500 non-profit organizations. 

Board Members:
 
Art Solomon, Chairman
Arthur Solomon, a Managing Partner of the Fisher Cats, is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of the DSF Group, the company that owns both the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, a Double-A Toronto Blue Jays affiliate, and the Bowling Green Hot Rods, a Single-A Tampa Bay Rays affiliate. Solomon is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors, developers and operators in the U.S. real estate market.

Art was born and raised in New England. Art's own baseball career peaked at age 12 as a Little League shortstop.

Only second to his love of family and baseball is his commitment to strong and vibrant local communities. Earlier in his career, he worked for the anti-poverty programs in New Haven, Connecticut and in Washington, D.C. While he was a professor of economics and urban planning at M.I.T. he also served as the Executive Director of the Harvard-M.I.T. Joint Center for Urban Studies -- a leading think tank on the development of our cities and regions.

Art holds a B.A. from Brown University, an M.A. from Trinity College and a Ph. D. from Harvard University.

Cheryl Abbott, Executive Director
Cheryl has 20 years of experience in community relations, public relations, event management, nonprofit management, and marketing/communications in New Hampshire. She brings talent, enthusiasm and expertise to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Foundation. She plays an integral role of continuing to strengthen the Foundations brand awareness throughout the state of new Hampshire and manages the Foundations public presence, community involvement and public relations. In addition, she is also responsible for orchestrating special fundraising events and overseeing fundraising activities and the disbursement of funds to local community organizations.

Cheryl is currently Vice President at Eisenberg, Vital & Ryze Advertising. Prior to joining EVR, she spent 8 seasons with the American Hockey Leagues, Manchester Monarchs. She has also earned several prestigious awards, including being named among New Hampshire Business Review's "Outstanding Women in Business" and was recognized as one of the Union Leaders "40 Under Forty" emerging leaders.

Jamie Burnett
Jamie is the Principal and Co-Owner of Profile Strategy Group, an independent consulting firm specializing in public affairs, political strategy and business development. He spent 13 years covering government, politics and public affairs in New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. He has been recognized with several awards including "Top 100" political activists by National Journal, "The New Hampshire 50" by NH Journal and "Top 50 Influential Republicans in New Hampshire" by Campaigns & Elections' Politics Magazine. Burnett resides in Concord.

Lewis Feldstein
Lewis M. Feldstein in President of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (NHCF), www.nhcf.org. NHCF is New Hampshire's statewide community foundation, a powerful force for change and the principal source of venture capital for the state's nonprofit community. NHCF finished 2002 with $214 million in assets and received $25.4 million in gifts.

Lewis worked with the civil rights movement in Mississippi and served for seven years in senior staff positions to New York City Major John V. Lindsay. Prior to coming to NHCF, Lewis served as Provost of the Antioch/New England Graduate School. He is a graduate of Brown University and holds a Master's in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University. Among his singular achievements were seven-year tenure as the emcee of the International Zucchini Festival, and a stint as wine steward and personal assistant to John Wayne on his yacht in the Mediterranean.

Lewis serves on the Board of Directors of the Independent Sector and the National Center for Family Philanthropy. He Co-Chaired the Harvard University three-year Executive Seminar Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America. He has received six Honorary Doctorates. Feldstein was selected as one of the 100 people Who Shaped New Hampshire by the Concord Monitor, and one of the ten most influential people in New Hampshire by Business NH Magazine in 2001. He lives in Hancock, New Hampshire.

Al Getler
Al Getler is the Publisher of the Eagle-Tribune, the Andover Townsman, the Derry News, the Haverhill Gazette, the Andovers Magazine, Cape Ann Magazine and MVP (Merrimack Valley Business) Magazine; all a part of the North of Boston Media Group.

Al is the Founder and past President of the Newark Midland Theatre Association, where he oversaw the rebirth of a circa-1928 theater, including an $8.5 million renovation and completion of a $3.5 million endowment for the project. He is currently a member of the Rotary Club of Andover, MA, and is serving as President for 2011-2012. Getler has been a Rotarian since 1997 and has also received the Rotary International BRAVO Award for his humanitarian efforts. In addition, he also serves as a member of the Lazarus House Advisory Board and is also a member of the board of the Massachusetts Publishers Association, a group dedicated to defending newspapers' First Amendment rights. In addition, Al is also a board member of the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, KY.

Sylvia McBeth
Sylvia M. McBeth's professional career includes twenty years in the healthcare field. Her most recently held position was as Vice President of Marketing, Planning and Community Relations at the Cheshire Medical Center in Keene. In 1994 she resigned her position to be home with her children.

Sylvia's current civic and professional commitments are: Trustee, Savings Bank of Walpole; Chair, New Hampshire Public Radio; Trustee, Home Healthcare, Hospice & Community Services in Keene; Trustee, Ladies Charitable Society. She is also on the Advisory Boards of: The Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College, the Cheshire Medical Center, and Cedarcrest Center for Children with Disabilities.

Sylvia is a member of the Leadership New Hampshire Class of 2003. Her former civic leadership positions include: Trustee and past Chair of the Monadnock United Way, Trustee and former Chair of Cedarcrest Center for Children with Disabilities, and former Director of J.A. Wright & Co. in Keene.

Tom Monahan
Tom Monahan has been a fixture of Nashua business and development for more than 35 years.

One of Tom's primary concerns has always been giving back to the community. This is clearly evidenced by the fact that he was the primary impetus behind the development of the Conway Arena. By using his knowledge of commercial development, he understood that the customary model used by other ice rinks did not work and were unsuccessful because of the large amount of debt service. By forging an alliance of like-minded businessmen and community residents, Tom was able to encourage the contribution of the funds necessary to establish a highly successful city/commercial partnership that contributes all profits to the youth of Nashua.

Tom's primary business interest is Real Estate development but recently he has branched out into the new territory of A.M. radio broadcasting. In October 2004, Tom purchased WSNH in Nashua and shortly thereafter acquired WSMN in Nashua and WKBR in Manchester. The format for WSNH (now WGAM) and WKBR is sports talk and programming while WSMN does local news and talk.

Among Tom's other interests are being a Trustee of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua Charitable Foundation, Vice Chairman of the Nashua Housing Authority, Founding Member and former Chairman of the Conway Arena, and numerous other boards in the past. Married to the former Jill Raymond, they have raised 3 children in their north Nashua home near Greeley Park.

Thomas Raffio
Tom is the President & CEO of Northeast Delta Dental, an organization that administers dental benefits to over 740,000 people in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Under his leadership, Delta Dental has earned the distinction of both "Best Companies to Work For in New Hampshire" by Business New Hampshire Magazine and "25 Best Small Companies to Work for in America" for the past five years consecutively.

Since moving to new Hampshire in 1995, Tom has served on numerous boards including Leadership New Hampshire, Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, American Red Cross, Opera New Hampshire, and New Hampshire Foundation for Teaching and Learning. He currently serves as District 2 Representative and holds positions with the New Hampshire Board of Education, Granite State Quality Council, New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts, Early Learning New Hampshire, and New Hampshire Humanities Council. Tom is a resident of Bow.

Stella Scamman
A graduate of the University of new Hampshire, Stella Scamman is a lifelong New Hampshire resident with a background in education as a history teacher. She was a member of the Board of Trustees for the University System of New Hampshire for 12 years. She also serves on the board for the New Hampshire Community Technical College at Stratham and volunteers with the Newmarket School to Career Program.

In business, she founded, owned and operated the Creative Cricket for 25 years and is affiliated with the family business, Scamman Home and Garden Showplace, also known as Stratham Agway.

She is on the Board of Directors for the New Hampshire Association for the Blind, the Seacoast Child Advocacy Center, the Housing Partnership of Portsmouth and the Stratham Economic Development Committee.

Stella also pulled together a group of women and revived a Republican Women's Club into a Seacoast organization, the Seacoast Federation of Republican Women. Its purpose is to encourage women in the Seacoast area to be involved in politics and to make a difference. The club now has 147 members with Scamman as president.

Stella has lived in Stratham for 39 years with her husband Doug and has four grown children. She has a degree in political science from UNH and in 1997 graduated from Leadership New Hampshire.

Stephen Singer
Manchester native, Stephen Singer, a resident of Dunbarton, is a graduate of Yeshiva University in New York. Along with his siblings, Stephen has positioned the merchants Automotive Group as a successful corporate entity and a committed community partner.

By example, he has served as a catalyst to broaden volunteer support for many community organizations such as Meals on Wheels, Fight to Educate, Kids Cafe, the Up Reach Therapeutic Riding Program, HEAR in NH, Easter Seals, the Salvation Army, and ICECREAM, the Inner City Escape Can Really Enhance a Mind program.

Stephen has built on his family's legacy with his ability to ignite a spirit of social responsibility, caring and generosity. Through his efforts, he has made a difference for many people and organizations in New Hampshire and beyond.

John P. Stabile II
John is the Founder & Chairman of the Board of the Stabile Companies, and has developed his work into esteemed commercial and industrial contracting firms throughout the past 35 years. Since 1981, John has been active in the state and national political realms. He served three terms in the New Hampshire State Senate and two terms as Senate Majority Leader, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Chairman of the Senate Capital Budget Committee. John is currently a member of the Board of Trustees at both Rivier College and Woodland Cemetery Commission. John lives in Nashua.