New executive director provides strength at Foundation for Dreams

Her gift was discovered years ago, when she was fresh out of college and looking for a full-time job.

Tara Elementary Principal Tom Wailand saw something special and hired her to be a teacher.

Elena Tomeo Cassella was telling the story from East County's Dream Oaks camp, after she was named last week as the executive director of Foundation for Dreams, which operates the camp to serve children with disabilities.

Tomeo Cassella still remembers the words told to her by Wailand in 1995. "You're a natural," he said.

Wailand then started sending students with behavioral problems and special needs to Tomeo Cassella's classroom. It sparked a passion in her that eventually drove her to the position she now holds.

It took a while, though. First came 17 years with the Manatee School District working as an instructional coach, inclusion teacher and member of the curriculum design team.

She spent those days, simply said, making sure no child was left behind because of a special challenge or disability.

"I'll never forget this child who was dyslexic," she said of a time she spent at Stewart Elementary. "The child was broken, no confidence, no self-esteem. We started building her back up and we saw this glow. Her smile was coming back. There is so much similarity here."

In 2011, she was looking for a new challenge when childhood friend and then executive director, Jodi Franke, asked her to come to Foundation for Dreams. She not only took a job with the organization, but she doubled their fundraising dollars in her first year.

That amount has increased each year.

Now she has the big job of fundraising for a nonprofit with a yearly budget slightly over $500,000.

In Dream Oaks' summer camps, they will help about 40 students a week and about 240 for the summer. That's double the amount of students Dream Oaks served a year ago.

In taking over as executive director, the 44-year-old Tomeo Cassella has restructured the organization, which only utilizes three full-time employees. She hired Donna Pasko to be director of camp operations to handle day-to-day operations. That will give Tomeo Cassella more time to raise funds and educate the public about the organization's goals.

It takes only a single visit to get a good look at the work taking place.

"When we are talking about what we do, we say 'We're letting a kid be a kid," said Tomeo Cassella. "We work with their abilities, not disabilities."

Her eyes twinkled as she talked about kids. Tomeo Cassella talked about how the camp's staff adapt all the activities that would be offered at any camp anywhere. "We can adapt yoga or horseback riding or canoeing or sports or games," she said. "We're like Mary Poppins. We have a bag of tricks for everything."

She told a story about a camper who didn't have the use of his arms. The staff figured out a way for him to paint with his feet, and he created a "masterpiece."

"We hear children say 'I can't,'" she said. "That becomes 'I can. I trust you.'

"That gives me goosebumps."

Pasko follows Tomeo Cassella's direction of serving children with any kind of disability. "There's not a single game that can't be adapted to meet anyone's needs," Pasko said. "To me, it's more about seeing what kids can do.

"And the kids are thinking they come here for fun. But they learn motor skills, behavior skills, social skills. Our society has made it where a (challenged) child has to sit at the end of the table. Here, they can pull right up to the center of the table. They like it."

The campers' parents like it too. It gives them a chance to focus on their other children or their spouse.

"Every week we see a parent in tears," Pasko said. 

Susan Tambone, who supplies Prospect Riding horses to Dream Oaks, said she loves the work they do. "This is the least restricted camp we work with," Tambone said. "It is phenomenal what they do. The children have more opportunities."

Now it is up to Tomeo Cassella to educate the public about the organization.

In taking a tour around the grounds, Tomeo Cassella pointed out cabins used by both the Boy Scouts and the Foundation for Dreams. She stood in front of the Patrick and Charlene Neal Environmental Center.

Neal said he was asked by the organization's founder Eddie Mulock, to build the environmental center, and he was happy to commit the funds so the groups could have both an outdoor facility and an indoor, air-conditioned facility.

However, the organization needs funds to continue its work, and eventually, it would like to own its land.

Tomeo Cassella will continue to spread the word.

"When you support a child with special needs, you are giving a gift to a child, to the parents and to your community," Tomeo Cassella said.