Our Board
Founder and President Sam Carpenter
“All these children bring tears to my eyes. I don’t know what to do about it except to sit here at this laptop in the middle of this Kashmir night to plea with the world to pay attention … Dear reader, pay attention to what is coming to you in the media about northern Pakistan and Kashmir and get clear that this is not just another news story.”
Sam has visited Pakistan and Azad Kashmir six times, paying for the trips out of his own pocket and through gracious donations.
He brings years of telecommunications and business experience to Kashmir Family Aid. Sam is author of the new book, “Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Working Less and Making More.”
First published in April 2008, the book has been touted as “the best management book of the year,” and is already in its second printing. Please see www.workthesystem.com to view Sam’s recent interview on superstation KTLA Morning News in Los Angeles.
Sam is also president and CEO of Centratel, the No. 1 telephone answering service in the nation, located in Bend, Ore. Within the last several months, Sam has been interviewed on more than 100 large-market radio and TV stations, including CW2 Morning News in Denver, NPR, Startup Nation radio, The Wall Street Journal radio, ESPN radio in Los Angeles and Small Business Television.
Vice President Sam Kirkaldie
“I am most interested in Kashmir Family Aid’s focus on children and schools. So many were destroyed in the quake. And also for the opportunity to instill in them the feelings of goodwill toward Americans through our effort to help them rebuild.”
Sam brings more than 30 years of media and telecommunications experience to Kashmir Family Aid.
He has special interest in community affairs, writing, systems organization and public relations. Sam has served as a board member and president of various media and broadcasting trade organizations and built a major Central Oregon radio station from the ground up.
He also has a deep knowledge of nonprofits. Sam has been with Kashmir Family Aid since the beginning and was chairman of the J Bar J Youth Services, an Oregon nonprofit that helps at-risk youth.
In addition, Sam is Centratel’s vice president, customer services manager and a stockholder since 2001.
A native of Montana and an Oregonian since 1972, Sam has many outside interests including travelling, fishing, camping, hiking, golf, skiing, racquetball and running (in his younger Montana years, Sam was also a rodeo bull rider). He and his wife, Bev, live in Bend and have three boys.
Secretary Linda Carpenter
“KFA attempts to fill a need that is greatly overlooked and has the potential to do so much good. (My husband), Sam, is passionate about the cause, and I accompanied him to Pakistan and AJK in 2006, where I saw firsthand the need and the potential.”
Linda visited Pakistan and Azad Kashmir in 2006 with her husband, Sam Carpenter.
She came to Bend in 2005 after living in Seattle for many years, where she owned several businesses. Linda is currently chief financial officer of Centratel, the No. 1 telephone answering service in the nation, located in Bend. She is also involved in her husband’s publishing company, North Sister Publishing.
In addition, Linda is launching an Internet business called Angel Puppies, which brings children together with their extended family members at a Web site where they can play games and share activities – regardless of the distance between them.
Board Member Dennis Hanson
“In a small, but growing way, Kashmir Family Aid can address a number of desperate Third World problems – poverty, women’s rights, children’s education – without any view toward partisan politics or religion, or even unwelcome attention to the broader struggle of worldwide terrorism.”
Dennis brings more than 20 years of financial planning to Kashmir Family Aid.
He is president of Northwind Financial Concepts in Bend and also has a background in journalism and the outdoors that continues to take him extensively around the world.
Dennis is the former CEO of Yosemite Institute, the world’s largest outdoor education organization. He is also a former senior editor of “Audubon Magazine” in New York, the former public affairs director of the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C., and a former legislative aide to the U.S. House of Representatives.
In addition, Dennis also served as an airborne U.S. Army officer in Korea, Laos, and Vietnam. He has a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon and is a widely-published writer and photographer, including for ”Outside Magazine,” “Smithsonian Magazine” and “National Geographic.”
When Dennis is not working, he loves to trek through the Alps, Andes, Himalayas and the Antarctic.
Board Member Susie Lucas
Susie brings a strong educational background to Kashmir Family Aid.
She is a teacher at Highland Magnet School in Central Oregon’s Bend-La Pine Schools district. There she held a fundraiser in 2006, when her class gathered about $3,000 for the children of Pakistan.
Susie is currently working with us to set up an e-mail exchange program between her children and Pakistani students, many who have no means of learning how to use a computer because their building was partially destroyed by the 2005 earthquake. As an educator, Susie understands how important this type of knowledge is in the 21st century. Even in Pakistan, knowing how to use a computer is an essential skill now for anyone who wants to leave the impoverished rural areas and get a living-wage job.
Right now, female literacy in Kashmir villages is just 3 percent. More than 70 percent of females in Pakistan can’t read, let along use a computer. If these students can get computers, they will be able to e-mail children like those Susie teaches in Bend, Ore.
We are looking for corporate sponsors and individuals to sustain several projects in Azad Jammu Kashmir and in Pakistan, ranging from building a school in the tiny, high elevation and very remote village of Serli Sacha, to assisting The Sewara Foundation that has schools in Muzaffarabad and elsewhere in Azad Kashmir and the Gilgit-Baltistan region ("Northern Areas") of Pakistan. We are also coordinating aid through IBTIDA foundation. For more information, contact me :
Sam Carpenter
541-385-1234
samc@kashmirfamily.org
