Carol Lavell’s Father Donates $1 Million to The Dressage Foundation
15 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Carol Lavell’s Father Donates $1 Million to The Dressage Foundation
LINCOLN, Nebraska, June 18–Gordon Cadwgan, the father of U.S. Olympian Carol Lavell, has donated $1 million (€808,000) to The Dressage Foundation to advance dressage.
“It’s a very large and generous contribution,” said John Boomer, retiring President and Chief Executive Officer of The Dressage Foundation, announcing the gift by Gordon Cadwgan, who instructed it is “to be used where needed most, and as the Foundation best sees fit to carry out its Mission.”
The Dressage Foundation plans to use the donation to embellish, enhance and enlarge a number of its present funds. Carol Lavell, her family, friends and donors have established “The $25,000 Carol Lavell Advanced Dressage Prize” awarded annually to provide financial assistance for coaching and training to a talented, committed, qualified rider whose plan is to reach and excel at high performance dressage.
“Now, The Dressage Foundation will be able to award two $25,000 Prizes each year, if we have the qualified applicants,” said Carol, who lives in North Carolina and Florida. On Gifted, a 1980 Hanoverian, Carol won team bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, competed at the first World Equestrian Games in Stockholm 1990 and four years later in The Netherlands as well as World Cup Finals in 1992 and 1993.
Carol’s “Gifted Fund” makes available nine scholarships a year to help adult amateurs focus on training with a horse they own without daily pressures of job and family.
“Now, thanks to Dad’s gift, we can increase the dollar amounts of these annual scholarships,” said Carol.
Carol’s family regularly helps other funds at the Foundation, such as Michael Poulin’s ‘Olympic Dream Program,’ through which four top young American Dressage riders, accompanied by two adult chaperones, go to Europe each year for a 10-day introduction to international dressage, trainers, riders, facilities and events.
John Boomer said, “Carol Lavell is the Mother of Giving-Back. She cares so much about our sport. She has created machinery that will keep giving far into the future–her father’s gift adds a wellspring–a continuous funding stream that will keep on helping for many years to come.”
Maj. Gen. Jonathan Burton, the foundation chairman, expressed the board’s gratitude to Gordon Cadwgan for his donation, saying it “firmly fortifies the Foundation’s financial future.”
