{"id":47173,"date":"2017-04-17T18:23:39","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T18:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/?p=47173"},"modified":"2017-05-26T15:53:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T15:53:53","slug":"stepping-up-for-the-stepup-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/2017\/04\/17\/stepping-up-for-the-stepup-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping Up for the StepUP Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cindy<\/a>
Cindy and Tad Piper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About 25 years ago, young Toby Piper LaBelle \u201996 had already learned a few things. He\u2019d taken a year off after graduating from Breck School and gone west to teach skiing, which convinced him that he aspired to more than a minimum-wage job.\u00a0 And he\u2019d spent time in treatment for addiction, which taught him that staying sober was the only way to ensure success in college.<\/p>\n

\u201cToby wanted a local school and chose Augsburg. It was the right place for him. He felt comfortable there,\u201d says his mother, Cindy Piper. But he wasn\u2019t comfortable sharing a dorm with students who drank alcohol, so he moved into an apartment off campus. Eventually he approached Don Warren, then director of the Academic Skills Center at Augsburg, about the need for a safe, sober place where students in recovery could live and support each other. In 1997, under Warren\u2019s direction, the StepUP program was born.<\/p>\n

The Piper family have been staunch supporters ever since. Cindy and her husband, Tad Piper, retired CEO and chairman of Piper Jaffray, recently pledged $500,000 to establish the Piper Family Executive Director of Recovery Advancement as well as to inspire others to contribute to the StepUP Program Endowed Fund. \u201cWe wanted to give a significant gift to get this program off the ground,\u201d Cindy says. They have currently raised $5.2 million toward their $10 million endowment goal.<\/p>\n

Thanks in part to Toby\u2019s advocacy, StepUP became one of the first residential recovery programs in the nation and continues to be viewed as the gold standard for residential collegiate communities. Six months of recovery is required before students are admitted, and infractions are not tolerated. Today about 90 students are enrolled, and they maintain high abstinence rates and an average GPA of 3.2.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Cindy Piper at the 2016 StepUP Gala.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAddiction is an ugly, cunning, baffling disease. Young people have to make up their minds they don\u2019t want to be in it,\u201d says Cindy. \u201cI just feel so strongly about recovery for all people, especially young people who want to go to college. Toby\u2019s business degree from Augsburg has served him well.\u201d Now senior vice president at Northland Securities and a father of three, Toby is former chair of the StepUP Advisory Board and a member of the Augsburg College Board of Regents.<\/p>\n

Cindy, who spent nine years as a trustee on the Hazelden Foundation, is now vice-chair of the StepUP board, where she organizes galas that gross half a million dollars a year. \u201cThat\u2019s an unusual amount of money in recovery organizations. We\u2019ve been able to add to the endowment through our proceeds,\u201d she says. \u201cAs my son reminds me, we must keep in mind that we are changing lives. That\u2019s the magic of the recovery community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Cathy Madison<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About 25 years ago, young Toby Piper LaBelle \u201996 had already learned a few things. He\u2019d taken a year off after graduating from Breck School and gone west to teach skiing, which convinced him that he aspired to more than a minimum-wage job.\u00a0 And he\u2019d spent time in treatment for addiction, which taught him that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[119,122,116,58,118,121,90,120,117],"class_list":["post-47173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gift-announcements","tag-addiction","tag-advancement","tag-cindy-piper","tag-gift-announcement","tag-giving","tag-recovery","tag-stepup","tag-substance-abuse","tag-tad-piper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47173"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47224,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47173\/revisions\/47224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}