Give and Live: The Board

We come from many walks of life...
Retail sales, law, marketing management, mortgage banking, teaching, music performance, writing and journalism. Here are a few facts about each of us.

Todd Pellizzer, Vice-chair: Todd and his two brothers make the best ice cream in Minneapolis and perhaps the Western Hemisphere at Sebastian Joe's Ice Cream, although we appreciate his experience and enthusiasm almost as much as the ice cream he brings to meetings. An avid traveler, he spent two years on a kibbutz in Israel, visited Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand, Guatemala, Mexico and was an Enduro India participant riding to raise $425,000 for a hospice in India. He consistently volunteers for many nonprofits including Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers and Commonhope. An avid motorcyclist, he helps plan and rides the Give-Live-Ride Thailand Charity Motorcycle Tours. Todd demonstrated his over-developed heart while visiting Children's Garden in 2006 by spontaneously giving founder Stanley his excess traveling money: $500 = 20,000 baht.

Lynn Anderson, Secretary: Give and Live secretary Lynn currently works full time at the museum store at The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN although she and husband Andy are on a two-year timetable to move to Thailand. They both were are part of the Give-Live-Ride Thailand Charity Motorcycle Tour in 2007 and will be back for the ride in 2008. She has hands-on understanding of and experience with children's needs in Thailand.

Amy Asbury, Marketing: Amy currently works as a Marketing Director for Stonearch Creative, a design and communications firm in Minneapolis, and following her honeymoon in Thailand with her new husband Jon, Thailand is still alive and well and living in her heart.

Jim Vanderlinden, Legal: Jim is the newest member to our board and didn't get his bio to me before I had to head out of town on my motorcycle towards Thailand, but I know he's a lawyer because he was the only person wearing black tie and tuxedo at Judy and Patrick's summer garden party last Saturday. Todd and Patrick vouch for him since they met in high school about 400 years ago. I'm pretty sure he's excited to be on the board, since at the first meeting, he tried to vote before we accepted him as a board member.

Barbara Bailey Hutchison, Sponsorship Programs: Barbara is a Grammy Award winner with 16 albums to her credit, composer of children's songs, performer everywhere including yearly at the White House and at the 6th Annual FERC Give and Live Benefit Gala in Chiangmai. She and her husband Chris are dreaming of living in both countries, though so far, they're only living in Thailand vicariously. Pray for them to realize their dream and offer to buy all of their possessions in America.

Patrick Nolan, Member: Most recently a mortgage banker who has had every job that you can imagine and some you can't, he's looking for work better suited to his heart in the environmental industry. He's married to former board member Judy, plays guitar, piano, the stereo and with their daughter Jessica a lot.

Charles Johnson, Member Extraordinaire: Charles isn't pictured here because he's probably out giving somewhere. His life has been devoted to teaching and helping those in need: missionary work in the Congo (Zaire) in the fifties, teaching on the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona in the 60s, ceaseless assistance to the displaced Hmong families from Laos coming to Minnesota in the 70s, 80s, 90s and today. His books and pamphlets are still being used around the world to help educate them in English and Hmong, using their own myths, legends and folk tales, thereby preserving their oral histories with vital written accounts. A former French professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, we're honored to have him on our board and a picture of his book the left.

Scott Jones, Chair: My qualifications for Chair are simple: it was my idea and I'm on the front lines in Asia. Besides, I looked like a board chair at age two. (My mother won a prize for this photo at the state fair in Fargo, North Dakota. I was born there, but I take pills for it.) Most of my life has been in the entertainment business as singer, songwriter, performer, producer, arranger, pianist, guitarist and comedian. I performed in all 50 states and released four albums of original music and comedy. For five years I was creative director for a graphic design/internet development company, then spent five more as VP of a textile company. I have a serious photography passion for the ridiculous as well as the sublime. I've lived in Chiangmai since 2003 and plan to do so until my next life. I'm currently on the board of directors of FERC (Foundation for the Education of Rural Children), write the weekly humor column "Life in the Laugh Lane" for Chiangmai Mail newspaper and perform regularly for events and benefits in Thailand and the USA. I love to bike hike, inline skate, canoe, eat Thai food and attempt to build this web site.

Joom Tewintarapakti, Future Executive Director in Thailand:
Though not officially on the board, we couldn't do it without Joom's heart, help and command of both the English and Thai languages. For several months she has been preparing our application for official Thai Foundation status, which should be in place early in 2008. She graduated from Thailand's oldest and most respected Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and spent 10 years in America in such diverse locations as Virginia, California, Florida, studied at Southern University in Illinois, somehow survived a winter in Bayfield, WI, and barely made it out of New Orleans during the Katrina Hurricane disaster. On her birthdays, she puts together gift packages, one for each year of her life, and gives them away to random needy folks on the street, or in 2007, stuffed animals to poor children in an acute care ward in a Chiangmai hospital.


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		© 2007 by Give and Live, USA

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