Why Include the NATA Foundation in Your Estate Plan?
By incorporating the NATA Foundation into your estate plan, you’re making a commitment that will continue to positively impact the athletic training profession and those we serve for generations to come.

• Leave a Legacy of Impact: Align your estate plan with your philanthropic goals by supporting causes you believe in, ensuring they receive the resources needed to thrive.
• Steps to Get Started:
  • Consult Professionals: Work with legal and financial experts to navigate the complexities of estate planning.
  • Identify Your Intentions: Determine the nonprofits you wish to support and outline your specific goals.
  • Choose the Right Assets: Decide which assets, you’d like to allocate.
  • Update Regularly: Life changes, so keep your estate plan current with your wishes.
  • Communicate Your Intentions: Share your plans with loved ones and the nonprofits you support to ensure your wishes are clearly understood.

This August, take the opportunity to create a will that not only secures your loved ones’ future but also empowers the causes you care about. 

The Shoe Box Society

The Shoe Box Society is designed to honor those who utilize estate planning to support the mission of the NATA Foundation. These commitments hearken back to the visionaries who founded NATA in Kansas City in 1950. Those pioneers undoubtedly knew their efforts would benefit all who would follow them in the profession much more than themselves.

Shoe Box Society membership is open to those who have completed and returned an enrollment form, designating the NATA Foundation in their estate plan.  Any size commitment qualifies an individual for membership.  Please contact the NATA Foundation Director, Kathryn LaLonde, at kathrynl@nata.org to discuss your planned giving options.  You may also complete the enrollment form found here.

Benefits to Joining

In addition to knowing that a planned gift will benefit the NATA Foundation and the athletic training profession in the future, you also have the opportunity to motivate others to make a planned gift or to designate the NATA Foundation in an estate plan. Members have the option of allowing us to highlight their planned giving commitment through various publications, and are gifted a commemorative recognition pin*.

*Shoe Box Society pins for new members and any needed replacement pins for existing members may be picked up at the NATA Foundation’s booth each year during NATA’s annual convention.
**Shoe Box Society members will be posted on our website, in various publications, and acknowledged in public.  If you prefer to keep your membership anonymous, please contact Kathryn LaLonde at kathrynl@nata.org
***Next to Shoe Box Society member’s name below indicates final planned gift has been received by the NATA Foundation.

FoundATion EstATe Gift Champions

The FoundATion EstATe Gift Champions giving society recognizes and honors members of the Shoe Box Society, when their final planned gift has been received by the NATA Foundation.  In addition, donors that were not Shoe Box Society members, but provided an estate gift to the Foundation valued at $10,000+ will be recognized and honored as a FoundATion EstATe Gift Champion.

FoundATion EstATe Gift Champions Include:

Stephen (“Steve”) Earl Bair, MEd, ATC
(1949-2023)

The NATA Foundation’s Ted Quedenfeld Endowment was established through a generous estate gift from Stephen E. Bair, MEd, ATC. This estate gift is the single largest donation the NATA Foundation has received from an individual to date, and the Ted Quedenfeld Endowment will provide significant annual support for the NATA Foundation’s research programs in perpetuity.

Steve was a member of the NATA Foundation’s Shoebox Society for planned giving, and he was a steadfast supporter of the NATA Foundation for many years. He was a Legacy level member of the NATA Foundation’s AT Loyal Giving Society, which recognizes cumulative giving over time. During Steve’s lifetime, he provided substantial financial support to help fund several Foundation managed endowments including the NATA Hall of Fame Scholarship Endowment, the Ted Quedenfeld Student Research Grant Endowment, and the Edward Pillings Scholarship Endowment. In 2008, Steve’s friends, colleagues, and peers established the Stephen E. Bair Management Endowment, providing annual operating support for the NATA Foundation in his honor. The NATA Foundation is grateful for Steve’s generous and long-standing commitment to support the athletic training profession, the Foundation’s mission, and the stakeholders we serve.

Steve earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Western Michigan University and his Master of Education in Athletic Training from the University of Arizona. He began his athletic training career as an Assistant Athletic Trainer at Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1978, he was named Head Athletic Trainer at Temple, a position he would hold for 10 years. In 1988, Steve took his talents to Overbrook Senior High School in New Jersey where he would remain until his retirement in 2010.  

Where Steve truly shined was as a mentor, teacher, and friend. As a mentor and teacher, he was an outstanding clinician that could teach at the level the student needed.  Steve taught his students to be involved and to promote themselves within the athletic training profession.  Steve was recognized for his outstanding service to his patients and the profession. He was a member of the NATA Hall of Fame, the Athletic Trainers’ Society of New Jersey (ATSNJ) Hall of Fame, and the Eastern Athletic Trainers’ Association (EATA) 49 Club. Steve was also recognized with the ATSNJ Distinguished Service Award, the EATA Excellence in Secondary School Athletic Training Award, and the EATA Leadership Award.  

Steve was a leader who was committed to serving the athletic training profession at the local, regional, and national levels. At the New Jersey state level, he was significantly involved in the ATSNJ where he served as the treasurer, the treasurer of the New Jersey Political Action Committee, and a founding member of the ATSNJ Golf Outing that raises funds for various charities in New Jersey. On the regional level, Steve served on the Executive Board of the EATA. On the national level, Steve served as director for the Board of Certification for The Athletic Trainer, District Two Director for the NATA and he served on the NATA Foundation’s board of directors as the District Two Chair from 2004-2010.

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Rachael Oats, CAE
(1974-2019)

Rachael Oats was a member of the NATA Foundation’s Shoebox Society for planned giving, and she named the NATA Research & Education Foundation as a life insurance beneficiary. This generous estate gift established the Rachael Oats Management Endowment, which provides annual operating support for the NATA Foundation in perpetuity.

Rachael began her career with the NATA in 1997 as a continuing education assistant. Her talent and leadership potential was evident early in her career, prompting the creation of a new position for her as the NATA special projects coordinator in 2001. Throughout her 22 years at the NATA, Rachael held leadership positions at virtually every level of the association, including special projects volunteer and engagement manager, and she served for several years as the Director of the NATA Research & Education Foundation.  In 2013, she earned the role as NATA’s Associate Executive Director and oversaw strategic initiatives, as well as several departments within the association, including Membership/Business Development, Marketing/Communications/Public Relations, and Knowledge Initiatives.

In 2016, Rachael received the Korey Stringer Institute’s (KSI) Lifesaving Service Award for taking the lead in advancing youth sports safety programs with the NFL and KSI. This work included facilitating national and NFL club AT programs, as well as Collaborative Solutions for Safety in Sport and National Youth Sports Governing Bodies meetings. In 2019, after years of dedication to improving and advancing the athletic training profession, the NATA named Rachael as an honorary member of the association. 

In 2019, friends, colleagues, and family members established the Rachael Oats Leadership Scholarship Endowment with the NATA Foundation, which awards an annual scholarship in Rachael’s memory.  In addition, the NATA Research & Education Foundation renamed its annual “President’s Award” to the Rachael Oats Leadership Award – to recognize those representative of Rachael’s exemplary characteristics of leadership, selflessness, commitment, and loyalty to the NATA Foundation, its volunteers, and its donors.

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Raymond Christopher (“Chris”) Snoddy, MA, ATC
(1959-2023)

Chris Snoddy, MA, ATC, named the NATA Foundation as a beneficiary in his will, providing a substantial cash gift from his estate. This generous unrestricted gift will provide much needed support for the NATA Foundation and its programs for many years to come.

Chris was a leader and mentor during his professional life as an athletic trainer. He spent many years with Star Physical Therapy, where he managed sports medicine services for 15 high schools.  He directly supported Goodpasture Christian School athletics in Madison Tennessee for more than 20 years as their athletic trainer.

Chris was a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), the Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association (SEATA) and the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society (TATS), where he served as President from 2010-2014. He was recognized as the Clinical Athletic Trainer of the Year twice (1992 & 2003) by the Tennessee Athletic Trainers Society, and the Athletic Trainer of the Year by the Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association (2005). Chris was also inducted in the Lipscomb University Hall of Fame (2004) and the Tennessee Athletic Trainers Society Hall of Fame (2005). Chris earned recognition on the national level with the NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award (2012) and NATA Secondary School Athletic Trainer of the Year (2019 & 2023).