Directors and Officers
Jim Cruff, Director and President
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and having participated in sports through his teen years and beyond, Jim Cruff noticed that there was a positive link between participation in sports and its connection to a strong community.
For five years, Jim was a Board Member at Head over Heels Athletic Arts, an Emeryville, California non-profit gymnastics facility. Jim also holds a B. S. degree in Information Technology. He is currently a Senior Database Administrator with EECU in Fresno.
Jim has been married to his wife, Charlotte for more than 36 years. They have one son, Justin. One daughter, Krista and a granddaughter, Karly.
He is a founding member of the Athletic Scholarship Foundation of Tuolumne County.
Email: JimCruff@Gmail.com
Krista Cruff, Director and Vice President
Krista grew up in Hayward California. At age 13, she moved to Castro Valley. She was a gymnast from age 7-18 and competed competitively for seven years at Head Over Heels Athletic Arts in Emeryville CA. Although she no longer competes, gymnastics is still a large part of her life. Krista has been coaching gymnastics since age 16, and has coached for several gyms around the bay area. As of June 2014, she has been a head coach at American Sports Acro Gymnastics in Sonora, CA.
Participating in sports is not cheap. One of the most difficult parts about coaching is losing students that you have spent so much time with, and bounded with, due to financial burdens. After losing a handful of students, Krista expressed her concerns to her father. From that conversation, the Athletic Scholarship Foundation of Tuolumne County was formed.
Along with gymnastics, Krista has a passion for photography where she excels in portraits as well as sports photography. Krista also attends Columbia College where she plans to major in Child Development. She is a loving mother to her 3 year old daughter, Karly.
Email: KristaASAG@Gmail.com
Marianne Freiwald, Director and Secretary
I have lived in the Twain Harte community for the past 38 years and raised my family. Volunteering in the community and the schools gave me the opportunity to see value in participating in fundraising and seeing the power in people getting together for a positive purpose. I believe sports and activities for our youth is vital to their physical and emotional well being.
I am involved in real estate and being able to bring families into our community is always a special part about working with people.
Email: mfreiwald1@gmail.com
Kevin Smith, Director
Growing up, Kevin ran track and field and cross country competitively at the state level. Nowadays he still finds the time to get out and run the trails through the Redwoods in the Oakland Hills and the occasional marathon and half-marathon.
He began his professional career working in high-tech and studying electrical engineering. After several years he quit and studied music. After years of playing guitar on cruise ships, Kevin settled in the Bay Area where he finished his MA, and now works as a jazz guitarist and music instructor.
Since 2015 he has become interested in nonprofits. Since then he has worked with several nonprofits in the areas of nonprofit structure, fundraising, and editing/proofreading. He has been specifically focusing on grant proposal writing and is a member of the Grant Professionals Association.
Email: kevinsmithgrants@gmail.com
Charlotte Cruff, Chief Financial Officer
Softball was her passion in her high school years. It lead to a championship win in her senior year. Little did she know that she would find another sport in college, tennis. She worked hard during the summer of 1976 and all of 1977. Charlotte learned a two-handed backhand and copied Chris Everett's game as closely as she could. The hard work paid off. In 1978, She made the tennis team at Chabot College. She ranked number three that year. In 1979, she was ranked as high as number one but played many matches as the number two player. This short collegiate career lead to an amateur tournament career with the United States Tennis Association.
In the 1990's, Charlotte Cruff was an accounting professional for Compu-Fax -- a software development company located in California. There, she produced monthly accounting reports, handled bank statements and ran the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable departments. She also worked closely with their CPA to prepare quarterly and annual statements and tax returns for Compu-Fax.
Charlotte also was a volunteer for a California non-profit organization where she helped plan state and local events. These events hosted hundreds to thousands of people at each event. She has been married to her husband, Jim, for 32 years. They have a granddaughter, one son and one daughter.
Wanting to build a strong community, Charlotte believes that participation in sports can prepare children to be good citizens and those good citizens will contribute to a strong community. Charlotte was instrumental in the formation of the Athletic Scholarship Foundation of Tuolumne County with a single goal in mind, that goal being every child having access to sports, regardless of their family's ability to pay.
Email: CharlotteCruff@Gmail.com