'Cranston for Life'

New development director has lifelong bond with Meeting Street School

The Cranston Herald ·

Bernadine Sadwin, who is the new director of development at Meeting Street School in Providence, says she was introduced to the school at an early age, because of her family’s Cranston-based surgical equipment company.

Cranston Surgical Center, which her grandparents owned and father worked for, provided the adaptive equipment, like wheelchairs, for the students of the school when she was young. Sadwin would accompany her father into the school as a child as he worked on the student’s wheelchairs and other equipment.

“At an early age I became compassionate for what they do here,” she said. “Knowing how lucky I was, seeing the care providers being so nurturing and patient and kind really impressed me.”

That impression has now come full-circle, as she is the newest director of development at Meeting Street, focusing her efforts there on raising funds for the school and making it even bigger than it already is.

But her new position isn’t what she saw herself doing when she became connected to Meeting Street over 20 years ago. She originally thought she’d be an art teacher, even doing a high school internship in an art class at Meeting Street while she was a student at West. She thought she’d end up in the arts when she graduated college, she said, but instead she found a job working in special events and fundraising at the American Heart Association, since “nothing in the arts was available” at the time.

After beginning her career there, she started working as a fundraiser for the United Way, “getting a sense of many different organizations,” including the Diabetes Society, hearing impairment organizations, and the American Cancer Society. She also rekindled her connection to Meeting Street, as they were one of the local organizations that the United Way serviced at the time.

She moved on from there to the Lincoln School, her first step into private school fundraising and development. Sadwin worked there for eight years, she said, working with parents, alumni, and students to develop the Providence independent school.

She then applied for a job at Meeting Street but was rejected, instead getting a job in higher education at the University of Rhode Island. She was there for the last 11 years, working in fundraising and development for the college.

Then, this position opened up at Meeting Street, and Amanda McMullen, the chief operating officer there, reached out to Sadwin, knowing about her experience and background.

“I never expected in my wildest dreams to get this position,” Sadwin said. “It’s the best gift that could ever had happened to me.”

That enthusiasm is partly based on an even stronger personal connection she had to the school in recent years – her autistic son, now in the special education program at Cranston West – attending the Early Intervention program at Meeting Street.

“It was interesting to be on the other end of it, knowing how these children go through all these different struggles,” she said about her son, who she said was nonverbal at a young age. “They gave us so many different tools and ways to communicate. They served as a resource and support system. When you get a diagnosis like that you have to kick in and know what you need to do. Their program gave me a wealth of information.”

So when the position opened up for her to be in charge of raising funds for the school that she’s had a lifelong connection with, Sadwin jumped at the opportunity, and got the job.

But despite now working in Providence, she added that she’ll never leave Cranston, where her family, including her husbands and two sons, both at West, live.

She said that she’s focusing her efforts in her new position on working with sponsors and donors to continue sustaining “all the positive things that” the school’s programs do, which she said serves over 5,000 children.

“I joined Meeting Street because I wanted to be part of an organization that is making a transformational impact in the lives of children and young adults of all abilities,” Sadwin said. “It is truly a privilege to work in an environment that is all-encompassing and has such a dedicated group of professionals that are committed to ensuring that every child thrives.”