Adelaide Schaeffer
President/CEO

Adelaide Schaeffer is the Executive Director and Founder of Champions for Kids. Her deep concern about the escalating challenges and needs facing children, coupled with diminishing resources necessary to help kids live healthy and hopeful lives, moved Adelaide and her husband, Rick, to launch Champions for Kids in 2003. Champions for Kids is an organization focused on strengthening nonprofits to better serve MORE kids.

Champions for Kids is dedicated to providing matching grants, resources and training to nonprofits who serve kids. The primary wellspring for Champions for Kids is the commitment to community organizing: equipping nonprofit leaders to organize and mobilize people to help them better serve more kids.  When 31 % of America’s children live in poverty, such poverty means that millions of children are likely not receiving the critical resources they need to not only survive, but to live healthy, productive lives. A primary strategy to effecting social change both locally and globally is to strengthen nonprofits with community mobilization strategies and skills to get kids the resources and opportunities they so vitally need. 

While the stroke of a pen can pass welfare and government policies that can effect vast numbers of youth on a global scale, government policy alone can never provide what kids need most: a caring arm around their shoulder and people who surround and support them on a daily basis.  A primary key to getting kids the help they need and deserve is to organize and mobilize communities to build the networks of care and support that kids really need, and deserve. Community organizing—nonprofits working hand in hand with faith based organizations, government agencies, civic and neighborhood associations and community citizens—is a primary strategy that Champions for Kids is focused on developing in communities locally and nationally.  This is the strategy that can really effect change.

Adelaide received her undergraduate degree at the University of Arkansas. Adelaide did post graduate studies in theology and public life at Indiana University and Notre Dame.  She completed a master’s degree in theology at Emory University in Atlanta with an interest in the intersection of faith in public life. After Emory, Adelaide completed another masters degree in theology from Boston College with an emphasis in education and spiritual formation.  She attended Harvard University as a Resident Graduate where she became deeply engaged in the area of community organizing at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Adelaide has always been interested in how communities come together to effect social change.  Strengthening the fabric of community engagement with social needs is, itself, a lived expression of faith—without the trappings of language, doctrine or culture.  When people wipe the tears from the face of those whose names they may never know, such care is perhaps the purest expression of faith we can embody in our lives.

Adelaide and her husband, Rick, have been married for 25 years and reside in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Adelaide is an avid reader and runner, running 75-80 miles per week. She and her husband have provided a home to many youth in need of care and support.  They have celebrated the achievements and victories of many youth who have overcome great odds in their lives.  They know first hand how critical it is to provide care, hope, support and encouragement to youth who are often so very alone in their life journeys. 

Adelaide is currently enrolled in the Masters in Public Administration program at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The intense program is designed to increase the knowledge and skills of well established, high-performing professionals, who seek to enhance their public service careers. Not surprisingly, the program includes some of the most accomplished students. They represent many professional backgrounds and come from across the United States and around the world. Adelaide is using this great hands-on opportunity to directly effect and enhance the mission of Champions for Kids.

Rick Schaeffer
Director of Community Relations

Rick Schaeffer serves as community relations director for Champions For Kids while also serving as the communications director of the Springdale School District. He and his wife Adelaide founded Champions for Kids in the spring of 2003.

Schaeffer worked in the sports information office at the University of Arkansas for 24 years, the first three as assistant and the final 21 as director. He has been color analyst on Razorback basketball radio broadcasts for 27 seasons and has served in the same capacity on Razorback baseball radio broadcasts for seven years. He was radio football color analyst from 1990-99 and currently serves during the pre-game, halftime and post game of the UA football broadcasts.

He is Randy Rainwater's co-host on Drive Time Sports, heard daily statewide from 4-7 p.m. and writes a column for the Arkansas Razorback Sports Network website. After leaving the UA athletic department, Schaeffer spent three years with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes before beginning his work with Champions For Kids.

Schaeffer’s first book, The Game of My Life, was published in August, 2005. His 2008 book, UA Football Vault, is a huge hit with Razorback fans and all proceeds benefit Champions for Kids.

Cathy Cooper
Chief Operating Officer

Cathy Cooper joined Champions for Kids in 2006 and serves as COO. She is responsible for office operations and the coordination of Champions for Kids grand events.

Cathy earned more than 17 years of experience at Tyson Foods. Her corporate experience in business processes and training, as well as her contagious high energy, are invaluable to this important role.

Cathy’s passion to serve others has been met over the years by volunteering for the Susan G. Komen Ozark Race for the Cure, Big Brothers & Big Sisters, The Heart Walk, EAS RazorFest and the Troops Care packages. She has been highly active as a member of the Yvonne Richardson Community Center Board of Directors since 2002.

Her involvement with sports management includes serving as general manager of the Arkansas Stars Indoor Football League team during the 2006 season. She provided travel arrangements and team appearances, and handled promotions and game-day operations. She has served on the Tyson Softball Tournament Board since 1998 and on the City of Fayetteville Softball Board of Directors for eight years.

Cathy is a graduate of Fayetteville High school and took business classes at American Junior College. She graduated from the Tyson Leadership College at Russellville, Arkansas in November, 2004. Courses included; Values, Ethics, Communication, Coaching, Problem Solving and Change.

A Fayetteville native, Cathy enjoys spending time with her family, league bowling and traveling.

Dr. Fred Heismeyer
Director of Education and Training

Fred Heismeyer joined Champions for Kids in 2003 and serves as the Director of Education/Training. He is responsible for facilitating educational programming for the partner organizations of Champions for Kids. His primary role is to oversee the curriculum design of the CFK training programs.

Fred brings experience as well as a flexible, creative and passionate, style to this important role. For the last 12 years he has been the Global Human Performance Coach and Owner of Career Dimensions, a team and leadership consulting and training company, which includes international experience in Poland.

Fred has 15 years in the student development profession working on five college campuses. As well as 10 years as an adjunct professor for Webster University teaching in the MBA and Human Resources areas with teaching excursions to Shanghi, China.

Heismeyer earned his Doctor of Education in Higher Education Administration at the University of Arkansas. He also holds a Master of Science in Counseling from Emporia State University in Kansas and a Bachelor of Science in Recreation from West Virginia University.

Heismeyer was recognized by the Arkansas College Personnel Association, Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the Society of Human Resources, and the Arkansas Society for Training and Development for outstanding leadership. He was also honored by the Up With People International Alumni Association as an outstanding alumnus. Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity has honored Fred in various ways for outstanding accomplishments.

Originally from Carlstadt, New Jersey, Fred, his wife and dog make their home in Springdale, Arkansas. He is involved in community service groups which include the Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity, of which he was the National President, the Springdale Rotary Club, and the NWA Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team.

Christine Magness
Director of Marketing and Creative Services

Christine Magness joined Champions for Kids in 2005 and serves as the Director of Marketing and Creative Services. She is responsible for the communications, marketing and creative services at Champions for Kids. She is also a resource for the nonprofits that partner with Champions for Kids. The majority of her career has been working with or on behalf of children.

Magness brings experience as well as a creative, strategic, and personable style to this pivotal role. Previously, she was the creative services account executive for Compassion International, a nonprofit organization that serves children in need. Prior to that, she worked for six years at Give Kids The World, a resort for terminally ill children as the creative director. There, she participated in marketing partnerships with corporate sponsors such as Procter & Gamble, American Airlines, Kmart, Walt Disney World, Tide, NASCAR and Wal-Mart.

Magness also planned and implemented creative programs for more than 300 young people per week as a youth director for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Then she was the public relations director for Seattle Christian Schools where she implemented a new branding and public relations program.

Magness earned her B.A. in communications/advertising from Washington State University while working as an advertising designer for the college newspaper. Upon graduation, she put her communication expertise to work at KMTT radio station in Seattle, Washington.

A Seattle native, Christine and her family make their home in Bella Vista, Arkansas. She enjoys time with her family, reading, crafts and water skiing.

Michelle Reed
Accounting/Event Management

Michelle Reed joined the Champions For Kids staff in September as administrative assistant. She also continues to work in real estate and as accountant for her husband’s business.

Born in California, Reed grew up in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, where she graduated from high school. She spent a year at the University of Arkansas then earned an accounting diploma from Draughon Business College in Springfield, Missouri.

For 18 years she worked for LATCO in Lincoln, Arkansas. She was chief accountant and helped switch the company to its computer system. She has had a real estate license for four years.

She and her husband, Mike, have two daughters, Morgan, 13, and Madison, nine. They spend countless hours supporting their daughters at school functions, including athletic events. They live on a farm near Lincoln.