Pulse June 2020 | Page 68

ISPA FOUNDATION THIS IS NORMALLY AN EXCITING AND BUSY TIME of the year for myself and the ISPA Foundation—as spring turns into summer, we are typically in the midst of planning for the ISPA Foundation Live & Silent Auctions and selecting that year’s recipient of the ISPA Foundation Mary Tabacchi Scholarship. Instead, we now find ourselves busy in very different ways: coping with a world in lockdown, preparing our businesses to reopen and working tirelessly to make the best of a challenging situation. As your businesses and spas work through this crisis, I hope you take advantage of the resources that ISPA and the ISPA Foundation have created for you and our entire industry, including recently-released research into what FOUNDATION ISPA FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS CHAIRMAN Frank Pitsikalis ResortSuite DIRECTORS Garrett Mersberger ISPA Chairman Brennan Evans ISPA Vice Chairman Lynne McNees ISPA President “...I hope you take advantage of the resources that ISPA and the ISPA Foundation have created...” consumers’ expectations will be for spas going forward. In this way, the Foundation has done its best to turn lemons into lemonade. Despite our best efforts, though, the COVID-19 crisis has necessitated making the hard decision to postpone MEDICAL ADVISOR Brent Bauer, M.D. Mayo Clinic HONORARY BOARD MEMBER Deborah Szekely WELLNESS WARRIOR the Mary Tabbachi Scholarship process for 2020. Every year, I look forward to learning more about each applicant, meeting the Scholarship recipient and helping them imagine their future in our industry. I hope that we’ll soon move forward, past the pandemic, at which point we’ll be able to resume the Scholarship process and help more students as they pursue a career in spa. Until that time, the ISPA Foundation will continue doing what it’s always done: supporting our industry, lifting up ISPA members and creating strategic resources to help spa leaders build towards a better future. The ISPA Foundation wishes to thank the following supporters for their generous contributions: BENEFACTOR Dr. Howard Murad PATRON Circadia Mynd Spa & Salon ResortSuite FUNDRAISING ADVISORS Lynelle Lynch Yvonne Smith —FRANK PITSIKALIS, ISPA FOUNDATION CHAIRMAN 56 PULSE ■ JUNE 2020