Why does this stuff happen at Christmas?
By Linda Stein
lstein@mainlinemedianews.com
@lsteinreporter on Twitter
Officials say future of horse show at stake
Devon >> Despite an apparently successful Devon Horse Show this past May, a group of nine members of the Devon Country Fair Committee called a surprise board meeting Monday to oust Sarah Coxe Lange, the president and CEO of the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair, and board Chairman Henry Lafayette Collins III.
When Coxe Lange took the reins of the horse show earlier this year, she announced some changes including streamlining the board, beginning a separate endowment fund and establishing new bylaws for the board and attracting new, younger volunteers. Coxe Lange also noted that the horse show made a profit of $200,000 in 2014 after years of breaking even. The Country Fair earned $400,000 for 2014. Also, the foundation garnered an 11 percent increase in donations.
“I want people to know Devon has never been so successful, so modern and energized and yet this is happening,” said Coxe Lange…..She believes the group opposing her is among those who would allow the grounds of the horse show, founded in 1896, to be developed and the show itself moved to the hinterlands.
(take the time to read the entire article – long but worth it.)
Wonder where the former chair of Devon who was ousted over the development issues is in all of this, hmmmmm? Remember that article from this past October? And all the scuttlebutt about the proposed Urban Outfitters Eli Kahn Devon Yard development plans?
….The current horse show president Sarah Coxe Lange has been in her present post for less than a year, after a controversy arose regarding McDevitt, the former chairman, who stepped down in February.
McDevitt, whose grandfather was one of the horse show founders, is the principal of The McDevitt Co., a commercial real estate developer that, along with Eli Kahn, has proposed Devon Yard, a mixed use shopping center, at the former Waterloo Gardens site. McDevitt’s company develops sites worldwide for Urban Outfitters and other clients. McDevitt stepped down from the horse show in February after controversy over plans to lease the horse show parking lot for overflow parking for new shopping center, Devon Yard, to be anchored by an Urban Outfitters branch. McDevitt said that he had announced his retirement previous to that brouhaha and wanted to spend more time with his family and to concentrate on business. McDevitt’s wife, Wendy, is president of Terrain, one of the Urban Outfitters brands and Wendy McDevitt also withdrew from the horse show.
An anonymous email received by Main Line Media News claimed that some of the Country Fair board members were given gifts and promised jobs by McDevitt and Urban Outfitters for their support.
In a phone interview, Hayne, of Unionville, called all the allegations in the email “crazy” and “not true.” He denied his company has designs on the horse show grounds.
The board members who signed the letter in the news that broke yesterday barely a week before Christmas should be ashamed of themselves. They are Gail McCarthy, Karin Maynard, Mimi Killian (she’s the one with the vanity plate and bad parking jobs, right?), Carolyn Capaldi, Beth Wright, Eileen Devine, Dolly Somers, Sandy Shinners and Ann Seidel – ANYONE who knows them should apply social pressure and whatever other pressure is needed to save this horse show from ruin. (And lest we forget this show was founded to fundraise for a hospital, not to just be a horse show.)
These people are JUST AS BAD as the people who were for eminent domain for private gain at Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show.
These people want to change Devon irrevocably and for the worse. Do you want what is Devon Horse Show replaced by development? I have a hard time respecting people who can’t respect tradition.
The Nouveau Main Line could very well completely ruin Devon.
Sarah Coxe Lange turned a significant profit for the horse show this year, and although they had broken even in years past, they had not done that. Ms. Lange rose above all the drama and she deserves kudos and thanks. She also owns a horse farm in Malvern, Willisbrook. And Henry Lafayette Collins III has an impeccable lineage and wow just wow.
I haven’t a clue as to how this gets undone but I felt compelled to post because what is happening is just so wrong.
Again the magic signers of this letter as per the published media reports are Gail McCarthy, Karin Maynard, Mimi Killian, Carolyn Capaldi, Beth Wright, Eileen Devine, Dolly Somers, Sandy Shinners and Ann Seidel. Shame on the Scrooges of Devon.
First, not so unexpected that this would be done at this time of year, well played.. Whom is their Crisis PR management firm? They need to round up those wagons first before anything goes out. How to shoot yourself in the foot 101.
I’m available