Kathy Alm

Former Executive Director

How I first came to Little Bit was through a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck.

The hard work came because I had been working in nonprofit live theater for about 14 or 15 years. And the next natural step was for me to become a managing director. And I realized that I didn't want to do that.

Don’t get me wrong, I love theater. I think it's important, but I didn't have the kind of passion for it that is necessary, I believe, to raise money for it. So, I asked myself, what do I have passion for? I now have all these skills to lead a nonprofit. What do I want to do with them?

And that was the hard work. I knew it had something to do with animals and people together, but I didn't know what. I started volunteering in the community to figure it out. I volunteered at the Seattle Humane Society. I volunteered at my local vet clinic to see if I wanted to be a vet assistant. I was just doing all this research. And then the little bit of luck happened. I saw an ad from Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center that they were looking for an executive director.  At the time, I didn't know that something like Little Bit existed. And it was in my own backyard. I thought, oh, oh, now that sounds like something that I could have a lot of passion for!

I didn't grow up with horses. I wasn't that lucky. I was a suburb kid. However, in later years when my mom made me clean out the basement of all my childhood stuff, I realized that every drawing I had done since I was four or five years old had a horse in it.

I applied for the job. When I walked through the doors (this is when Little Bit was at the Woodinville location), I took a big deep inhale and immediately thought, “I am home and I HAVE to get this job”.

The hiring committee was not sure about me because I didn't have any true horse background. This was back in the day when people in the industry thought the executive director had to have a really strong horse background in order to lead a center. My message then, and I still believe this today was, “You don't want me in the barn. You don't want me in the arena. You want me in the community. You want me working with the board. You want me at the strategy level, ensuring we have the right expertise in the barn and in the arena and the right resources to fulfill the mission.” Initially, they did offer the job to someone else who had a horse background. Luckily for me, and I like to think for Little Bit, she turned them down. So that's how I came to Little Bit.

There were many impacts from our programs that affected me.

The first one that jumps to mind is, and this was early in my time as executive director, a young boy, I believe he was about eight years old, came in for an assessment. He had sensory integration issues. He had said a word here and there but had never spoken a sentence before in his life. He couldn't sit still. He was constantly bouncing, constantly moving all over the place.

The program director put him on the back of the horse for the assessment. The assessment was all of 15 -20 minutes. After the assessment, he gets off the horse, he walks over to his mom, he puts his hand in her hand and stands there quietly and says, “Me ride horsey.”  The first sentence he had ever spoken. It still gets me. It’s over 25 years ago and it still gets me. You know, when you're lucky enough to be the executive director, you see and hear story after story.

The other participant who had a huge impact on me was Margo O'Callahan. Since I didn't have any horse background, I joined a class and started taking horseback riding lessons. It was so special to be learning from and alongside of Margo. She was my hero on horseback.

Margo had such amazing energy. She couldn't necessarily speak sentences very clearly, but boy, she communicated very clearly. And she was my role model in riding. Margo worked very hard to be a part of the Paralympic team. She was a very good rider and her musical demonstrations were beautiful! It was poetic watching her.

My last impact story is of Alexander. I hadn’t seen Alexander for many years, when he and I connected at Little Bit’s 50th celebrations this year. It was such a joy to see him and listen to him share that if it wasn’t for Little Bit (and the encouragement and advocacy of his father), he wouldn’t be walking today. He came back to the Little Bit 50th celebrations because he wanted to give back. Because Little Bit had given so much to him. Alexander is a very special person who exemplifies the impact Little Bit’s programs have on participants.

What did I miss most when I left Little Bit for the CEO position with PATH, Intl. (the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, Intl.)? The people and horses that make up the Little Bit community. I missed seeing the participants, the families, the volunteers, the horses, and the staff on a daily basis and being able to directly see those amazing moments in the arena. I missed the donors who became an important part of the Little Bit community.  I missed the essence of Little Bit.

In my early years, I would go down the list of participants to see who was riding when and when volunteers were going to be there so that I could make sure and get out there at the different times to meet the different people so that I could really know the community. And that's what was so special for me.

The position at PATH, Intl. is different.  It’s probably a large part of the reason that I instituted so much travel as CEO; why I went to all of the regional conferences because that's how my spirit got fed and how I made sure I was knowing who the membership was and what they wanted and what they needed from their professional organization.

To this day, I miss the Little Bit community. That’s why I love coming back.

What are Kathy’s hopes for the next 50 years for Little Bit? Well, I’ll tell you, a number of them have been fulfilled. My hope for Little Bit is always to have a sustainable model and be able to support all of those amazing, impactful services for the various participants as well as excellent care for the equines. And I guess my hope is that Little Bit continues to do what Little Bit does best, which is figure out what the community needs and develop services for that. And be flexible. Not say, the only thing we are is X. So that's what we do. But to recognize the needs of the community as well as the versatility of horses and diversify the services to meet those needs. 

I’m very excited that the mortgage has been paid off and that a reserve fund has been started--all of those things that tell me Little Bit is going to be around for the next 50 years and beyond and continue to serve such an important role for people with disabilities or other challenges trying to figure out how to live their best life.

I think that's why you see so many people stay connected to Little Bit. Maybe they grew up with Little Bit by serving as a volunteer, then they go off to college and then they come back. Maybe they stay year after year as a volunteer. Maybe they remain a steadfast donor, providing the necessary resources. Maybe they have a staff position, leave for one reason or another, and come back in a different position, at a different point in their lives. You also see so many participants that stay at Little Bit for their entire life. It is their thing, it's that important, and it has that kind of impact.

Little Bit remains incredibly important to me. It's because of the people. It’s because of the horses. It's because of the impact. It's because of the integrity of the organization. Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center is very special to me now and always.

 Find more 50th anniversary stories HERE.