HISTORY

2013

Jared Ciner founded SPIRIT Club, a for-profit gym that offers a universal design for fitness that empowers people of all abilities to exercise successfully in a socially integrated setting. 

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2015

Jared teamed up with Steve Allen to launch Spirit Club Foundation, a non-profit that provides financial assistance so that people with disabilities can access programs to achieve their fitness goals.

Steve served as the founding executive director and, under his five-year tenure, Spirit Club Foundation provided more than 750 scholarships, purchased equipment, provided financial assistance to and from gyms, funded training and certification for health and fitness professionals, awarded the achievements of athletes and those who support them, and provided technology grants to help people connect to virtual fitness at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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2020

Bethany Keener became the executive director when Steve retired in the fall of 2020. She oversaw the redesign of the foundation’s logo and website, updated the accounting practices, began a monthly e-newsletter to keep constituents informed, raised nearly $70,000 at the most successful Fitness Festival fundraiser to date, and lead the board in a strategic planning process. Bethany also secured a three-year strategic grant from the William S. Abell Foundation, which funds sub-grants for fitness programming in Prince George’s County.

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2022

Kim Schofield became the newest Executive Director for the Spirit Club Foundation. Her first responsibility as the new ED was to make sure that our annual Fitness Festival happened. Within 7 weeks, she created a wonderful, heavily attended in-person event that many of you enjoyed. Kim comes from a marketing and sales background and has supported the special needs community for decades. Kim hopes to connect more people and organizations to our Foundation in 2023. 

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