The Cindy Miles Adaptive Fund serves as an example of how LVCF makes charitable giving easy, impactful, and local, while building a legacy
In spring of 2023, Kristy Miles Valladares, who learned of LVCF through Beth Boyer, a former Community Foundation board member, called the Foundation asking about a fund. Her mother Cindy only had a few days to live, and they couldn’t wait any longer to find a way to accept donations in her memory. Cindy was well-loved, and so full of life; her family knew there would be many family, friends and colleagues wanting to contribute in her honor. Within a few days the Cindy Miles Adaptive Fund was established at the Community Foundation.
In the year since the fund was established, Cindy’s family has raised $40,000 through 228 individual donations and counting. In their partnership with the Community Foundation, they found a community of people who want to make a difference with philanthropy. By entrusting the fund to the Foundation, they could focus their efforts on fulfilling Cindy’s mission: Fun and fitness for all abilities through active play.
But this story is really about Cindy, a doctor and beloved community member in the Lehigh Valley.
Cindy was a pediatric clinical specialist in physical therapy and a world-renowned expert in torticollis. Her daughter, Kristy, fondly recalls her mother’s commitment to making fitness not just accessible but enjoyable for everyone. Cindy always said “Fitness should be fun!”
As a doctor, teacher, and advocate, she touched countless lives, particularly in the field of physical therapy. She treated children through her physical therapy practice, presented at international conferences, and even delivered wheelchairs to distant corners of the globe. Learn more about Cindy’s life.
She believed in big ideas, in the power of community, and in the simple joys of watching children play. In November 2021, as the family began to process Cindy’s diagnosis, they asked, “How would you like to be remembered?” and Cindy said “Well, I think I’d like to have a park named after me.”
The first goal of the Cindy Miles Adaptive Fund is to build an adaptive playground in the Whitehall-Coplay Area. Kristy can imagine herself sitting on a bench in that park here in the Lehigh Valley, watching families of all socio-economic backgrounds and children of all abilities playing together in celebration of her mom. “LVCF offered the simplest path to offer a way to raise money without the challenges of obtaining our own 501c3 status,” she noted. “Working with the Community Foundation was easy and efficient in our time of grief that we knew we truly had a partner in this venture.”
The mission of the Cindy Miles Adaptive Fund is clear: to spread joy and fitness to all, regardless of ability, through inclusive play. In the future, Kristy would like to expand the fund, possibly endowing it, and offering grants to organizations that make fitness and play accessible to all.
