Investor's Business Daily
Thursday, August 12, 1999

Leaders & Success

Tennis Pro Andrea Jaeger
Determination Helped Her Win On And Off The Court

By Amy Reynolds (photo: Andrea Jaeger, second from left, smiles with several of her young charges from Silver Lining Ranch in Colorado. )

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"The most important lesson I've learned is (that) you don't need the world to believe in you. As long as you believe in what you're doing, and work towards it, you have that satisfaction." -Andrea Jaeger

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It's 4:30 a.m. on a Saturday. Andrea Jaeger picks up the phone. She hears the chirp of the numbers she punches, followed by ringing and then a recorded voice. It's a patron's office voice mail. Smiling, Jaeger leaves a quick message to thank him for his donation to her Silver Lining Foundation. She doesn't expect to reach anyone at that hour. But the call gives backers a message that can't be put into words. It says Jaeger is willing to wake up long before daybreak to get things done. It says she'll lose sleep to make sure donations get put to good use. It says that the Silver Lining Foundation is her life. "This is what I love to do," Jaeger, 34, said in a recent interview. "It's what I go to sleep dreaming about." Throughout each year, Jaeger's organization brings 400 children with life-threatening illnesses to Aspen, Colo. There, the kids go horseback riding, rafting and skiing, and spend time in the mountains. More important, they get a break from the hospital. Jaeger, once a top tennis pro, started the foundation in 1990 after a shoulder injury ended her career in sports. She didn't focus on her setback. Instead, she sank every penny of her $1.4 million earnings from tennis into the organization. Each year, she's raised $2 million for its efforts. In July, the foundation opened the Benedict-Forstmann Silver Lining Ranch. The $8 million ranch now serves as home to the kids who visit Aspen, and replaces hotels where the foundation once put up guests. It took lots of hard work to get her dream off the ground. But Jaeger is no stranger to that. As a child in the Chicago area, she greeted many sunrises on the tennis court. Every day, before and after school, she'd practice her serve and volley. Over and over again, she'd pound the woolly ball. The results were gradual, but sure. At age 14, Jaeger was winning professional tennis tournaments. By August 1981, at age 16, she was ranked No. 2 in the world. She went to the singles finals of the 1982 French Open and the singles finals at Wimbledon in 1983. One afternoon when she was 15, Jaeger rode through New York City as she waited to play a tournament. When she passed Helen Hayes Hospital, she thought of all the kids inside. Stopping at a toy store, Jaeger weighed herself down with games and gadgets. Then she went to the hospital.

"(I) walked into the playroom, and there was this boy who had lost his hands. There was another girl who was attached to an I.V. pole and another little girl who was bald from the effects of chemotherapy," Jaeger remembered. As they played and laughed, the kids taught her a powerful lesson. "Even though these circumstances had changed their lives dramatically, they were still in the spirit of, 'Gosh, I have today, and today is great." Jaeger was already a young tennis champ, but on that day, "I decided that when I grew up, I was going to help kids stuck in the hospital." Then, during the 1984 French Open, Jaeger felt her shoulder pop. In 1987, nine surgeries later, she decided to call it quits. Jaeger didn't let her lost tennis career undo her. Instead, she looked for a silver lining. There were still sick children out there. And she still wanted to help them. So Jaeger analyzed the situation. Lots of foundations raised money to find cures for illnesses. She was interested in making kids who had those illnesses happy right now. She moved to Aspen in 1988. With its soaring peaks and tall trees, Aspen seemed about as far away from a hospital as one could get. It was a perfect getaway place for youngsters who were burned out on treatment. Jaeger sensed she needed to know more about kids, illnesses, and nonprofit groups. So she got a job at the Continental Airlines ticket counter at the Aspen airport. She used her free tickets to travel to hospitals around the country and volunteer. That way, she got to know the kids and their diseases. She went to the county library and read every book she could about life-threatening conditions, nonprofit groups and fund raising. Starting small, Jaeger brought 12 kids to Aspen in 1990. She named her organization the Kids' Stuff Foundation, later changing it to its current name. She was sure Kids' Stuff was the beginning of something big. Even though she had $1.4 million in the bank, Jaeger knew the money wouldn't last. So she came up with a plan. She asked around and put together a "Who's Who" list of people in her area and around the country who were donating money.

She sent letters by the hundreds. At first, the response was zilch. "Every week, I'd go to the post office and say, 'Excuse me, you're not delivering our mail,' and they'd go, 'Yes, Miss Jaeger, we are. You just aren't getting any," she said. Jaeger decided she had to change her approach. She realized that people needed to know to whom they were giving. When on likely donor in the Aspen area asked Jaeger to drop off a fundraising packet at his office, not only did she hand deliver it, she made sure she was there to greet him on his way into the office first thing the next morning. "He said he'd be there in the morning. I didn't know what his morning was, so I sat there from 6 o'clock to 10:30 waiting for him so I could personally hand it to him, so he'd have a face," Jaeger said. To save money, she pared back. She owned no car and walked everywhere. She moved into a small basement room in an old chalet. "OK," Jaeger told herself. "This is going to happen no matter what. If I have to wash people's cars, teach tennis ­ no matter what- I will find a way to get this done. "The most important lesson I've learned is (that) you don't need the world to believe in you. As long as you believe in what you're doing, and work towards it, you have that satisfaction," she said. Donations started coming in, but even then, Jaeger didn't rest. She jacked up her efforts even more. She urged possible backers to say yes to donating something ­ anything. "In tennis, I was the same way," she said. "I never gave up. I ran down everything. "I think everybody can do something to help, whether it's a financial contribution, or maybe they have extra clothes in their closet. Or they know someone who can print things for free," she said. That approach persuaded the Benedict family of Aspen to donate the $5 million site where the Silver Lining Foundation's ranch stands. Businessman Ted Forstmann later donated $1.7 million to help construct the buildings. Now that the ranch is built and 400 kids visit each year, Jaeger doesn't expect those 4:30 a.m. phone calls to end. "It's just as tough now as it was 10 years ago," she said. "It's just that now, we see results."

Jaeger at a Glance

Born: 1965 in Skokie, Ill.

Education: Attended Adlai Stevenson High School in Buffalo Grove, Ill.

Achievements: Founded the Kids' Stuff Foundation, later the Silver Lining Foundation, an organization that gives seriously ill children a chance at fun, in 1990. Ranked the No. 2 tennis player in the world at age 16 in 1981. Went to the finals in the 1982 French Open and the 1983 Wimbledon tennis tournaments.