About Us
Andy Arizala
Director of Operations (He/His/Him)
In 2005 Andy retired from owning and operating a small software company that specialized in developing financial software for small local governments. Since then, he has been active at Hope Medical Clinic as a volunteer handyman, member of the Board, and Treasurer of the Board. He also serves and chairs the Ways and Means and the Finance Committees of the Board. For over 10 years, he has also been and continues to be a current Board member of the University Lutheran Chapel Ann Arbor Alumni Association.
Andy grew up in Wahiawa, Hawaii, and came to Ann Abor at the age of 17 to attend the University of Michigan. He earned a BSE in Aeronautical Engineering and was commissioned a 2nd Lt. US Army in May 1964. After serving on active duty being assigned by the Army to NASA on the Saturn V moon project, he returned to Ann Arbor and earned his MBA in May 1969.
Andy has been a long-time member the University Lutheran Chapel and that is where he and his late wife, Anne, met as undergraduates and were married in 1965. They raised their two children (Heidi and Scott) in Ann Arbor. Anne passed away in 2018. Currently, Andy still lives in Ann Arbor, as does Scott, his wife Karin, and their three children.
Andy was taught and believed from a young age that “it is better to give than to receive”. His personal experiences of both direct volunteering as well as serving on the Board at Hope Medical (free clinic providing medical, dental, food pantry, meals, and mental health services) have given him true joy in serving others. The creation of the Arizala Foundation fulfills a lifelong dream and goal to make a difference in the lives of others by helping them with their life-changing obstacles. “To those who much is given, much is expected.”
Heidi Arizala Showman
Executive Director (She/Her/Hers)
Heidi has been working in the social service field since 1992. She got her B.A. in Psychology and then went on to get her Masters in Social Work degree from the University of Washington in 1997. Heidi then spent 9 ½ years as a Youth and Family Therapist with Youth Eastside Services which is a community youth and family mental health center in the Seattle area. During this time she also wrote and published a girls group curriculum/preventative model as a way for girls to use connections with others to help them navigate early adolescence. In 2006, Heidi opened her own private mental health counseling practice as well as a co-working office sharing business. She currently still runs the office space business and both sees clients in her private practice as well as supervises clinicians who are licensure candidates in the State of Washington.
Heidi grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and then went to college in California at UC Berkeley before moving to and settling in the Seattle area. She and her husband, Ken, have lived there since 1994. They have two kids, their son is a student at the University of Washington and their daughter will be graduating high school in 2022. Heidi and Ken also share their home with two furry kids, a Labradoodle named London and a little Yorkshire Terrier named Rosie.
Heidi and Scott’s mom, Anne, passed away in May 2018. Since then they have had many conversations with their Dad, Andy, about how to live life intentionally and in the present and also how to make a larger impact. The Arizala Foundation is their creation to operationalize a way to help others in tangible ways where other means may not cover immediate needs. Heidi, Scott, and Andy each bring years of professional and personal experiences that have led them to this place . . . a place where they truly want to make a difference in the lives of others.
Scott Arizala
Director of Finance (He/His/Him)
Scott is one of the leading experts and trainers on kids, staff and the experience of summer camp. He is the CEO of The Camp Counselor, a consulting and training company working with hundreds of camps and thousands of staff & administrators across the country and abroad.
He is the Founder & Chairman of Chasing Summer, an organization dedicated to creating access for people with autism in summer camp, recreation, and education, Founder of Camp Stomping Ground a camp focusing on radical empathy and child freedom, and the National Consultant for Camp Kesem, a student-run, national organization delivering camp to over 10000 kids who have been affected by a parents' cancer. He partnered with Sanofi Genzyme to create and deliver the Camp Academy staff training program to camps for kids with bleeding disorders and has trained with other major associations including the American Camp Association, YMCA, Girl Scouts, Campfire, the International Association of Burn Camps, the Children’s Oncology Camp Association International, the Diabetes Education & Camp Association, Western Alliance for Independent Camps, and more.
He is a regular contributor to Camping Magazine and an award-winning author of the best-selling books on summer camp and youth development, S'more Than Camp and Happiness, Diversity & Autism: Practical Strategies for Inclusion.
“What if I could help? It seems like most of my life has been answering that question in some kind of way. From teaching to summer camp to leadership consulting, the stuff that always filled me up was when I could see my effort make a difference for someone else. So when my Dad suggested the idea of the Arizala Foundation, I was all in. My initial response was, ‘When do we start?!?”