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Partnership Says Goodbye to Long-Time ED 
The Partnership is sad to report that after a long and successful eight years of leadership, Uri Perrin, our superb Executive Director has decided to leave the Partnership to pursue new career challenges. Uri has been a stalwart colleague whose dedication and talent have taken the Partnership's mission to new heights, beginning with leading us from an all-volunteer organization under the umbrella of the National Trust to our current status as a professionally managed 501c3 nonprofit. During her tenure, Uri oversaw some of our most significant interpretive projects in public / private partnership with the National Park Service, including the restoration of the swimming pool, Stone Cottage seminar room, Eleanor's sleeping porch, as well as the creation of new educational exhibits for Stone Cottage. Uri brought fresh vision to our work, establishing new on-site public programs such as the Val-Kill Picnic & Square Dance; student forums with Bard College, SUNY New Paltz, and the Sorenson Center for International Peace and Justice; and a Women & Climate Change Summit with the EPA. Uri's skills have helped to strengthen and enhance our relationships with elected officials, the National Park Service, and many other organizations. In the last year, she laid the foundation for an ambitious new initiative by spearheading a feasibility study for converting the Val-Kill stables to a world-class education facility and retreat center, a project that will broaden visitation to our site and offer new programs based on Eleanor Roosevelt's contributions and methods for social change. We will miss Uri's creative, entrepreneurial spirit as well as her grace and humor under pressure. We wish her well in her future endeavors, and are grateful for the myriad ways in which her leadership fostered lasting appreciation of Eleanor Roosevelt's ideals in our time and inspiration for the next generation.
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Feasibility Study Underway for Conversion of Val-Kill Stables to World Class Institute
The stables at Val-Kill remain one of the last buildings within the historic view plane to be restored. A visionary new plan would convert the stables to a world class education center, opening to the public a completely underutilized resource on some of Val-Kill's most magical real estate. The converted stables would provide a dedicated on-site space for transformative experiential programming that advances Eleanor Roosevelt's legacy for the next generation, deepening the missions of both the Partnership and National Park Service.
 Preliminary architectural plans and specifications are complete and under review by the National Park Service. The character of the original stables will remain intact, with Eleanor's horse Dot's stable becoming a breakout room for seminars. To learn more about this innovative project, and the programs it would serve
,
please visit our Stables at Val-Kill web page
.
 The vision for the Stables at Val-Kill emerged in memory of one the Partnersh
ip's founders, Bobbie Greene McCarthy. Thanks to Bobbie, Val-Kill became an inaugural project of the Save America's Treasures pr
ogram, a public-private partnership started in 1998 by the White House Millennium Council. It was intended to commemorate the past as a way to imagine a better future by preserving connections among generations. As the Director of SAT, Bobbie was integral to ensuring that places that say so much about our history and who we are as a nation did not fall into disrepair nor were completely lost. The idea was to make sure that young people today can know about the sacrifices and struggles of those who
came before us.
In
that spirit, the Stables at Val-Kill honors the significance of Val-Kill to American and world history and connects new generations to Eleanor Roosevelt's ideals in our time. We thank Tourism Cares and Claudine and Fred Bacher for their initial support of this Memorial Fund.
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Recent Events
Bard College/Department of State Middle-East Student Program Returns
Donor Thank you Event with Jessica Mayberry of Video Volunteers
 A May donor thank you event highlighted the work of filmmaker and democracy-builder Jessica Mayberry and Video Volunteers, which is India's largest rural reporting network, produced by people living below the poverty line. For more on this event and Eleanor Roosevelt's fight for a strong, independent media and civil society, and her travels through Indi
a,
click here.
"Hotbed" Exhibit Tour at NY Historical Society
Patti Kenner
organized
a private tour for Partnership donors of the NY Historical Society's "Hotbed" exhibit, which explored the suffrage movement within the vibrant political and artistic scene of Greenwich Village in the early 20th century. This contemporary portrait of ER by Karen Schwartz led off the exhibit; ER rejected the ceremonial traditional role of First Lady, and was an outspoken supporter of civil rights and women's equality.
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Consider a gift
to
Val-Kill
Your support allows us to continue our work to reanimate Val-Kill as a vehicle through which ER and her causes can be brought to life. We rely on gifts to the Annual Fund to bring important projects forward that tell the story of Eleanor Roosevelt's uncommon courage and relevance for new generations. Please give generously.
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Next Year Marks Our 20th Anniversary
We take great pride in our accomplishments in
public private partnership with the National Park Service
to advance Eleanor Roosevelt's ideals as one of the world's most courageous leaders for social justice so future generations can be inspired through her example.
Without your support and encouragement none of these achievements would be possible! Here are some highlights:
Restoration of Val-Kill's Historic Icons
Visitors enjoy the
re-opening of many of
Val-Kill's most central historic features through your support, places where the Roosevelts gathered with world leaders and family members alike. These include the swimming pool, tennis courts, and new dedicated space within Stone Cottage for forums. In addition, we have sponsored interpretive enhancements such as restoration of Eleanor's sleeping porch, permanent exhibits, a documentary film, and the Visitor's Center.
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Bringing the World to Val-Kill
The vision behind our bricks-and-mortar founding, was to preserve the story of Val-Kill's significance in Eleanor Roosevelt's emergence as one of the world's strongest champions of human rights, and to connect new generations to her ideals in our time. Since then, the Partnership has created innovative programs around Eleanor Roosevelt's contributions to social change for all people. These events have helped attract local, national, and international leaders and young people from around the world to Val-Kill to be inspired by the place ER most loved to be.
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Reanimated Val-Kill with New Events in the tradition of the Roosevelts
In recent years, the Partnership introduced many on-site events to reanimate Val-Kill in the ways the Roosevelts' most loved to entertain there. In Eleanor's time, Val-Kill was full of visitors! Events such as our Val-Kill Picnic & Square Dance offer the community a way to experience Val-Kill as Eleanor would have loved.
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Looking to the Future: A New Visionary Education & Conference Center for Val-Kill
Our next major project is to restore and reconfigure the Val-Kill stables as a conference and seminar center with programming focusing on ER's most important effort, securing human rights for all peoples. Lead support from Tourism Cares and the travel and tourism industry and Claudine & Fred Bacher in honor of Bobbie Greene McCarthy.
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Partnership Welcomes Two Extraordinary Women to our Board
Marilyn Swartz-Lloyd, President of MASCO the area planner and service provider for the 23 institutions that make up the Longwood medical and academic area in Boston, and long-time Partnership supporter and advisor Fiona Lawless, who is Director of Corporate Engagement for the American Kidney Fund.
Marilyn has had a long and successful career in city planning and non-profit management and brings those important skills to our Board. She was CEO of the Economic Development and Industrial Corporation of Boston as well as Senior
Advisor to the President of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a key member of MASCO. She was also Principal in the BRF&G Consulting Group, advising clients in real estate, strategic planning and economic development.. She is a graduate of Smith College with a Master of City Planning from Yale University.
We are excited at the skills and dedication that she brings to The Partnership.
Fiona, as Program Manager for Save America's Treasures (SAT) beginning in 1998, was instrumental in the creation of The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Partnership along with the late Bobbie Green McCarthy who was director of SAT and a member of our Board. Fiona helped run this successful public-private partnership (founded by then First Lady Hillary Clinton) that was dedicated to identifying and rescuing the enduring symbols of American tradition that define us a nation. Fiona's career has been dedicated to the arts and culture. Her previous experience in the preservation of historic and cultural heritage includes work at Tennessee's State Division of Archaeology and the Achill Island Archaeological project in County Mayo, Ireland. She has, since our inception, provided wise counsel and support for The Partnership. Fiona is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and a Certified Historic Preservation Specialist. We are delighted to add her expertise in historic preservation to our Board.
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