Workers’ Compensation Professionals Form Kids’ Chance of New Hampshire

Workers’ compensation professionals have created Kids’ Chance of New Hampshire, a 501c3 organization that provides scholarships for children of workers who are seriously injured or killed on the job.

Sebastian Grasso, CEO of Windham Group, a workers’ compensation case management company, helped establish the state organization before he and other board members voted Stacey Foote, director of Claims Shared Services at MEMIC Indemnity, as the inaugural board president.

“A major work-related injury creates an incredible financial hardship on an employee’s family, putting the children’s opportunities for higher education at risk,” Grasso said in a press release announcing the formation of the organization. “When I realized New Hampshire didn’t have a Kids’ Chance, I knew we needed to start one.”

Each state organization operates independently, and the New Hampshire Kids’ Chance will provide scholarships for children of workers who are injured in the state. Information on an eligible child is entered onto Kids’ Chance of America’s website, and the state organization starts the scholarship process when the child turns 15 or 16.

In addition to Foote and Grasso, the state organization’s board members are Dan Landers of AIM, Marian Mitchell of The Lawson Group and Donna Daneke of Summit Packaging Systems Inc.

Kids’ Chance of America supports state organizations and provides a forum to discuss best practices, share resources and collaborate on projects at a national level. Currently, there are 39 state organizations and another seven states are preparing to incorporate. Collectively, Kids’ Chance organizations have awarded 6,000 scholarships across the U.S.