Our Biggest Leap Forward

Campaign Co-Chairs Named 2024 Community Builders of the Year

MacKenzie Chavez, Peter Klekamp, and Jeb Head are volunteers and leaders. And their collective efforts have made an impact on ProKids that can’t be overstated.

The title of Community Builder is especially appropriate for them because the three of them together have brought over 200 folks — family members, friends, neighbors, and colleagues — to ProKids as donors, volunteers, and supporters. They’ve never been shy about sharing what our children mean to them. And of late, they’ve been doing just that but on an exponential scale.

Many will have seen photos of the new ProKids space, toured the office, or heard our vision for its future. These three have had a part in making that vision possible. As the chairs of ProKids’ Chance at a Childhood Campaign — the first capital campaign in ProKids’ history — MacKenzie, Peter, and Jeb have supported ProKids in setting and achieving our goals.

The campaign’s three pillars include the generational home we’ve been in since December 2023, the funds to fuel growth and innovation to reach more waiting children, and increases to ProKids’ sustainability funds, ensuring there will always be a voice for children who have been abused and neglected.

Our Community Builder trio has made a significant impact on our progress in these areas as leaders of our campaign, but they also each have long and treasured histories with us:

MacKenzie began on ProKids’ staff as our development director in 2002 before becoming a CASA Volunteer and then joining the board, where she currently serves as its president, in addition to campaign co-chair. She stays involved because our kids need a voice, saying: “Children in foster care often experience trauma, multiple moves per year, and neglect. No child should be left to navigate normal life, let alone these circumstances on their own.”

Peter has been on the board since 2018 and has offered his expertise in real estate development to help with the buildout of ProKids’ new space. Our Center for Child Protection was named for his mother, the late Marianne Klekamp, as support of our children is now a family affair. “Someone has to fight for these neglected kids,” he said.

Last but not least, Jeb, who has served on ProKids’ board continuously since the ‘90s, has been treasurer, president-elect, president, and now, president emeritus, in addition to a mentor. He’s been a key steward of our growth for over three decades — growth he describes as miraculous, nearly impossible to imagine. “I think it is a testament to the deep and abiding passion that everyone in the organization has had — for these many years — to ensure a helping hand to those kids in need,” he said.

As chairs of our campaign, they’ve set their sights on the future of ProKids and all that’s possible. They helped establish the campaign’s ambitious goal to raise $28M. And they’ve led the campaign cabinet by example, spreading the word about our needs and being a part of substantial asks. Thanks to their leadership, we’ve had major success, with about $25M raised by the time they were named our 2024 Community Builders in November.

And we’re already seeing the fruits of their labor.

For one, the new space has served as a place to gather our staff, volunteers, and donors for a year now. It’s also been embraced by ProKids’ strategic and community partners, who’ve used the space to collaborate, connect, and support one another.

We’ve invested in marketing to recruit more CASAs, hired new CASA Managers to support more children, and created a new program at ProKids, called Finding Family, that searches for and reconnects our kids to supportive relatives and family friends.

All of this will serve to increase ProKids’ capacity at this pivotal time in ProKids’ 43-year history. Thanks to MacKenzie, Peter, and Jeb’s leadership and unwavering commitment, we have taken our biggest leap forward – EVER.