Mission.

We are A Leg To Stand On ("ALTSO"), a non-profit organization working in emerging countries to bring free, high-quality prosthetic limbs, orthotic braces, and appropriately fitted wheelchairs to children with limb disabilities whose families cannot afford treatment.

Mobility is a human right. Our mission is to provide every CoolKid treated under our programs with high-quality, continuous care through the age of 21 as a means of offering them the physical capabilities needed to access the opportunities and self-esteem earned through education, independence and mobility.

Since 2003, through local treatment providers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, we have treated more than 23,000 children in need.

Financials.

A Leg To Stand On is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization registered with the IRS under FEIN: 02-0594709. Each year, as required by law, we file tax form 990 along with audited financials.

Copies of previous years financials are public and can be requested by emailing info@altso.org or calling our office at 212.683.8805.

view annual financials

Accreditations.

We strive to be transparent in our work while making your donations work as efficiently as possible to see that we can provide more patients with high-quality free care. Our commitment to transparency, efficiency, and impact have earned the following merits:

Meet the board.

C. Mead Welles

Founder & Chairman

Mead co-founded ALTSO in 2002 and serves as the organization’s Chairman. Mead is also the Founder and CEO of Octagon Asset Management, LLC and is responsible for managing the core portfolios and determining the overall strategy of the hedge funds managed by Octagon. Mead brings to Octagon unique experience in trade and commodity finance, emerging market fixed income asset management, and emerging market structured finance. Prior to Octagon, Mead worked at Cargill Financial Services International, the internal emerging market investment and trading arm of Cargill, Inc. As one of the original members of the emerging markets trade and structured finance group, Mead focused on finding ways of using Cargill’s international trade and working capital flows to arbitrage capital markets, finance subsidiaries, mitigate risks and minimize balance sheet usage. Before Cargill, he worked in asset management for Bull & Bear Securities and for Shearson Lehman Hutton. Mead received his B.A. in Economics from Bates College in Lewiston, ME with additional studies in international business in Lugano, Switzerland.

Catharine A. Carroll, MBA, PCC

Co-Founder & Treasurer

Cathy is the owner and founder of Legacy Onward, Inc., which brings leadership coaching services to family businesses. After growing up in a family business, Cathy pursued a 20-year corporate career before leading her father's manufacturing business. Before joining Pro Equine Group, she spent twelve years in the travel industry at United Airlines and Sabre Inc, as well as six years as a pension actuary at AON/Hewitt. Cathy holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, a BA from Boston College, and she earned her Associate in the Society of Actuaries (ASA) prior to attending graduate school. She is also a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation. Cathy has always been active in her community and is currently serving on both non-profit and family business boards.

Edwin W Laffey Jr.

Director

Wynn attended the Lawrenceville School and Columbia University before pursuing a career on Wall St, starting in 1970 with Chemical Bank, and culminating with his co-founding of First Money Managers International in 1982 (a concern no longer extant). Also during that period he served on the boards of 313 East 10th St. Corp., Collette Mfg. Co., and the Children of Bellevue Hospital. After taking some time off, but looking to re-engage with the charitable sector, particularly with an enterprise that was young and as much in need of sweat equity as donations, Wynn was introduced to Mead Welles and the newly created A Leg To Stand On. At first his involvement was primarily passive due to personal time constraints, but that all changed when he took on a more active role following the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. After visiting the Hôspital Albert Schweitzer (HAS), 2 1/2 hours north of the capital, in 2011, Wynn joined ALTSO's Advisory Board. Wynn is also currently involved in the activities of another not-for-profit, Puppies Behind Bars, an organization dedicated to the raising & training of service dogs by prison inmates for the primary benefit of those service men & women who suffer from ptsd &/or have limb disabilities. He also takes a "puppy" once a week to the New York City District Attorney's Family Justice Center to assist in a pilot program to help victims in battered families adjust to and accept their trauma as well as seek justice.

Ray McKenzie

Director

Ray McKenzie has worked in financial services and technology for most of his career. He has been a trader at J.Aron/Goldman Sachs, Senior Sales Executive at Morgan Stanley, CME Group and ICE and now works at Apple helping enable employees to do their best work. Ray also owned an independent record label, Zero Hour. Ray has been involved with ALTSO for over 10 years helping grow the Chicago, New York and London support in the financial services community. Ray is a graduate of New York University and musician and plays in bands in New York and Chicago.

Dr. Harold van Bosse

Co-Founder, Medical Director & ardent fan

Dr. van Bosse is an attending pediatric orthopedic surgeon at the Cardinal Glennon Hospital for Children in St. Louis, and his niche specialties include treating the orthopaedic manifestations of arthrogryposis and Prader-Willi syndrome, as well as spinal deformity, upper and lower limb deformities, hip problems and neuromuscular diseases. He has been deeply involved in popularizing the Ponseti technique for treating clubfoot as a low cost alternative for developing countries. Dr. van Bosse trained at the University of Illinois for his general orthopedic residency, followed by a fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He has been a proud member of ALTSO since joining the first mission to Ahmedabad, India in 2003, and counts his 5 trips with ALTSO among the highlights of his professional career. He remains committed to providing orthoses and prosthetics to children in third world countries.

Meet the team.

Gabriella Mueller Evrard

Executive Director
gevrard@altso.org

After traveling extensively throughout developing countries in Latin America, Gabriella decided she wanted to do something to help the many children she saw begging for money or food. In 2006, she signed up to volunteer at A Leg To Stand On. Now the Executive Director, Gabriella is humbled to have overseen the organization’s growth from three programs to over 10 programs in six years, and to continue cultivating relationships with supporters as passionate about A Leg To Stand On’s mission as she is.

A.J. Warco

Director of Programs
awarco@altso.org

A.J. joined us in 2009 after working on humanitarian projects throughout both South and South East Asia. While abroad, he learned firsthand how many children with physical disabilities miss out on the opportunity to attend school, are labeled as family burdens and often abandoned to fend for themselves. Upon returning to the States, his experiences led him to learn more about suitable prosthetic and orthotic technologies and physical rehabilitation programs in the developing world. He now develops and manages our program partnerships, traveling annually to our programs around the world.

Beth Ann Hemming

Director of Operations
bhemming@altso.org

With a passion for advocating the underserved and underrepresented, Beth Ann fit right in at ALTSO when she joined the team in 2013. She started as the team's administrative assistant and has been helping to grow both ALTSO's network and impact since. Now as the Director of Operations, Beth Ann oversees the organization's operations and accounting while working with the rest of the staff to fulfill her personal and professional desire to empower more children each year.

Hannah Schumacher

Marketing & Communications Manager
hschumacher@altso.org

Since a young age Hannah has always been curious about exploring new places and cultures. As she grew, her experiences fueled a desire to help those in need. When joining ALTSO in 2017, she was excited to jump into all aspects of the organization. She continues to enjoy traveling and bringing care to ALTSO’s CoolKids around the world.

Ellie Ramirez

Administrative & Development Assistant
eramirez@altso.org

Growing up with an emphasis on serving her community, Ellie has centered her career on helping those who need it. She has worked with nonprofit organizations since 2019, focusing on helping children through education initiatives and protecting our environment for current and future generations. Now in 2024, she is excited to join ALTSO in growing their impact with CoolKids around the world and expanding her expertise to do the most amount of good when and where she can.

Dhiren Joshi, C.P.O.

Country Director India / Chief Prosthetics and Orthotics Consultant
djoshi@altso.org

Dhiren worked in support of ALTSO for more than 15 years during his time with the Civil Hospital Ahmedabad. In 2017, he retired and joined ALTSO as Country Director India / Chief Prosthetics and Orthotics Consultant. Dhiren is a founding member of the Indian Association of Assistive Technologist - an institute that works in disability device technology - and is a member of various orthotic and prosthetic institutes globally. He has extensive experience teaching and training future orthotic & prosthetic professionals - many of whom have gained their bachelor's degrees under his guidance during his tenure as the in-charge principal at Prosthetics & Orthotics College Paraplegia Hospital & Physiotherapy College. During his 19 years as the workshop manager at Paraplegia Hospital Ahmedabad India he developed numerous external supports, orthoses, and prostheses for patients with limb disabilities. His enthusiasm for developing artificial limbs continues as he develops the best tools available for ALTSO's CoolKids. Because of his dedication, long term support, and continued passion, ALTSO's Joshi modular prosthetic limb kit was named in his honor and we are grateful for his work every day.

Meet the advisory board.

André Donatiu

Director, Client Relationship Manager
Business Development and Partnerships
SG 29 Haussmann

Gabrielle Guttman

President, Connext Consulting Inc.

Esther Song

Mondrian Park Avenue, Journal Hotels

Bonnie Walker

Fathom Creative

Greg Winterton

Managing Director, The Sortino Group
(ALTSO UK)

Bob Zagotta

President, RJZ Advisors

In loving memory of Eric Saucedo

Eric's passion for philanthropy was evident in his tireless advocacy for ALTSO's children. He will be remembered for his tenacity, compassion and generosity.

Privacy Policy.

This website is owned and operated by A Leg To Stand On (ALTSO). We recognize that visitors to our site may have concerns about the information they provide to us, and how we use and treat that information. We are highly committed to protecting the privacy of all visitors to our website. This statement describes how we collect, use and secure the information we receive.

We reserve the right to make changes or updates to this privacy policy at any time. If you have any questions about our privacy policy, you can contact us by email at info@altso.org, by phone at 212-683-8805 or by mail at A Leg To Stand On, 135 Madison Ave, Fl 5, New York, NY 10016.

Information Collection & Usage.

General Visitor Information
When you visit our site, we collect non-identifying basic information that includes the total number of visitors, pages viewed by each visitor and other metrics that are typically collected by web hosting companies. The statistical and non-identifying information we gather is used solely for internal purposes, to determine how we may improve our website. None of this statistical information is used to identify a specific visitor or linked to any personally identifying information about a visitor.

We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf. For further details, please see the ‘about Hotjar’ section of Hotjar’s support site."

Personally Identifiable Information
All online donations and purchases are made using Stripe payment processing connected to encrypted and secure systems. When you make a donation or purchase online, we obtain only the information you provide to us (your name, address, phone number, email address and credit card processing information). This information is required to process your payment, and to verify the credit card data. Only your contact information including donation details, name, address phone number and email address is then stored in our secure internal database to facilitate future communication and tax documentation of your donations. Credit card and payment data is encrypted via Stripe and not saved by ALTSO.

When making a donation, your email is added to our communications list. If you would like to be removed from our email or physical mailing lists, you can simply click 'unsubscribe' at the bottom of our emails or contact us directly by email at info@altso.org, by phone at 212-683-8805 or by mail at A Leg To Stand On, 135 Madison Ave, Fl 5, New York, NY 10016.

Information Sharing
We do not for any reason share your personal information with any third parties. Per the statement above, the data collected by ALTSO on an individual is limited to the data that is submitted via donation collection or other online submission forms. This information is stored in our secure internal database to facilitate future communication and tax documentation of your donation. It is our policy to never sell, trade or rent your personal information to anyone. If you would like to contact us to have your information removed from our records or to confirm that your information has not been shared please contact us directly by email at info@altso.org, by phone at 212-683-8805 or by mail at A Leg To Stand On, 135 Madison Ave, Fl 5,
New York, NY 10016.

Website Security.

Encryption and Secure Transactions
We care about the safety and security of your information. Our interactive site components use high grade encryption and the https protocol to communicate with your browser to ensure maximum security. Companies we work with to process credit card transactions also use high grade encryption and security protocols.

Use of Cookies
Visitors should be aware that non-personal information and data is automatically collected by us through the use of “cookies.” Cookies are small text files that websites use to recognize repeat visitors, facilitate the visitor’s ongoing access to and use of the site, and allow us to track visitor behavior and compile aggregate data that will allow content improvements. Generally, cookies work by assigning a unique number to the visitor that has no meaning outside the assigning site. Cookies are not programs and will not damage your files.

ALTSO uses cookie technology only to obtain non-personal information in order to improve your online experience and facilitate your interaction with our site. When accessing our website for the first time, users will be given a notice that cookies are in use. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that will let you deny them.

Beneficiation Protection Policy
ALTSO takes the privacy and protection of our beneficiaries, mainly children, very seriously. For this reason we will not ever post or release certain details about our beneficiaries including, but not limited to, last names, date of birth, certain clinical photos deemed private, religious or other personal views, addresses, contact information or other identifying information. ALTSO has the right to withhold certain identifying information when telling beneficiary stories in order to protect the privacy of the patient. All data collected by ALTSO on its beneficiaries is stored locally in secure databases and never shared or sold for any purpose.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
ALTSO has updated our policy to align with the new requirements of GDPR. If you are a resident of the EU and your donor records reflect that address, you may be entitled to certain additional protections in accordance with GDPR. If you have any concerns or questions, you can contact us directly by email at info@altso.org, by phone at 212-683-8805 or by mail at A Leg To Stand On, 135 Madison Ave, Fl 5, New York, NY 10016.

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mobility is ALTSO.