Pines of Sarasota Foundation says goodbye to its decade-long president

Estelle Crawford might have been skeptical when she first visited the Pines of Sarasota Rehabilitation and Senior Care Community, but it didn’t take long for her to fall in love with the facility.

It was 2006. She was interviewing to be president of the Pines of Sarasota Foundation.

“I was reading a book of letters from families, sharing their love for the Pines. By the time I got into the interview, I had tears (in my eyes,)” Crawford said.

The foundation supports the Pines’s mission to provide compassionate care for seniors even after they have outlived their financial resources.

It was an appropriate way to begin her tenure as the foundation’s president. Crawford remembers it as period punctuated with resident and staff interactions that reminded her that while the function of a foundation president is partially motivated by the bottom line, people are always worth more.

“The foundation is housed on the campus. So every day we see the impact of the funds,” Crawford said. “We see the impact that the Pines has on this community.”

After more than a decade with the organization, she has decided to retire as president, effective Sept. 30.

It’s not a decision Crawford made lightly. The Pines staff's commitment and compassion towards their residents — the same commitment and compassion that brought her to tears 11 years ago — has buoyed her throughout her service.  

She moved to Sarasota from Rockland County in New York.

“I ran a chamber of commerce there called the Rockland Business Association for a decade,” she said. “I thought that was my favorite job.”

Looking back at her time with the Pines she sees a list of accomplishments including the addition of the Jean and Alfred Goldstein Pavilion. She contributed millions of dollars in endowment funds, which are used for capital projects and continuing the Pines’s mission.

“There is no question she made a major contribution of time and energy,” Interim President and CEO John Overton said. “That’s our greatest challenge here is helping people understand that senior care communities like the Pines … need help to survive.”

For Crawford, the Pines’s mission was, and is, an easy sell.

“I lived it,” Crawford said.

Crawford’s mother lived at the Pines briefly before her death in 2011. Suddenly, she was more than an advocate for compassionate and dedicated care, she was a beneficiary.

“That was something I never would have anticipated,” Crawford said. “My mom could not sleep at night. I came in in the middle of the night, (and there she was), sitting in walker, talking to the nurses and eating strawberry ice cream and so happy.”

She’s proud of her work, the millions of dollars she helped raise and the programs she has helped sustained. But most of all she’s proud of the person to which she is leaving her legacy.

“To be able to put someone in place who has the ability to do better than you — I’m proud,” Crawford said.  

Janet Ginn, previously of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and the Sarasota Ballet, is serving as the foundation’s interim president.

“To be able to put someone in place who has the ability to do better than you — I’m proud." - Estelle Crawford

For Ginn, Crawford’s dedication to residents and families offers direction as she steps into her role as president.

“Her greatest contribution to the organization has been her devotion and commitment to our residents,” Ginn said. “We’re the voice for our residents. She has transferred that passion for our residents onto me.”

Ginn’s goals are simple — meet and surpass the foundation’s one million dollar goal contribution to the Pines endowment fund.

“So that we can continue to build on the legacy left by estelle and those that came before her,” Ginn said.

As for Crawford, her goals are a little more dynamic as she approaches retirement.

“I want to go dancing with my husband,” she said.

Besides that, Crawford is keeping her options open. She doesn’t know where her skills will take her next, but she is happy to wait for her next opportunity.

“I always believe it kind of comes,” Crawford said.