Photograph by Jess McNavich

What if I told you that for the last 40 years, Saratoga County’s civic institutions—from the smallest grassroots charities all the way up to the Saratoga Springs City Council—have been run in large part by a collective of highly trained community members who all just so happen to know each other? When you put it like that, it sounds like some sort of underground cabal. But the real explanation is even more interesting.

In 1984, Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce President Joe Dalton and Executive Vice President Linda Toohey were faced with a conundrum. While the county was home to several not-for-profits, very few individuals were running those organizations. “I was on the United Way board, and I’d see a person there, and then I’d see them running the Y,” Toohey says. “We needed to find new leadership because these people were getting older. We had to come up with a program that was going to get more people involved in organizations.”

Their solution? Leadership Saratoga.

“The elevator pitch that I’ve used for years when describing Leadership Saratoga is that it’s an intensive, selective, nine-month training program to get people skilled in understanding how the community works, how impact sector organizations work, and how to engage in leadership roles in their community in order to make the places that we call home better for everyone,” says Kathleen Fyfe, a 2009 Leadership Saratoga graduate who took over from Toohey as director of the program in 2012 and served until 2023. “What that doesn’t capture is the power of the connection that you make with your classmates going through this intensive program together. Because anytime human beings have experiential learning, it instantly creates a bond that’s different than anything else.”

That bond is exemplified by the Class of 1986. When I asked Tom Roohan, a member of that inaugural class, if I could interview him for this story, he texted a group of his Leadership Saratoga classmates from 40 years ago to see if they’d tag along for the interview.

“Our friend Tom sent one text, and we’re here,” longtime Saratoga financial services advisor Michael Okby explained when I met the group of five at the Roohan Realty offices earlier this year.

“You never say no to the people around this table,” added Cynthia Hollowood, the former general manager of the Holiday Inn who now works for Roohan Realty and as the executive director of Saratoga Sponsor-A-Scholar. “When somebody asks for money, or a donation, or a room on Travers weekend, you don’t say no to them.”

That sentiment, Hollowood continued, extends beyond the members of your immediate Leadership Saratoga class to the more than 700 members of the Leadership Saratoga Alumni Association, a network that includes some of the biggest names in Saratoga County leadership, from former Mayor Joann Yepsen (Class of 1993) and current Commissioner of Public Works Chuck Marshall (Class of 2012) to Stewart’s Shops President Gary Dake (Class of 1987) and DeCrescente Distributing Vice President Carmine DeCrescente III (Class of 2016). Grads stay in touch via regular alumni events that raise money for the Leadership Saratoga scholarship program, as well as an online directory that comes in handy for nonprofit organizations seeking knowledgeable and engaged board members.

“Look at any board in Saratoga and you’ll find two, three, four, or more graduates of Leadership Saratoga,” says George Hathaway, a member of the Class of 1986 who worked for the New York Racing Association and the Adirondack Trust Company and is now retired. “That’s impact.”

Full disclosure: I’m a 2025 Leadership Saratoga grad—part of the second class directed by Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce Chief Strategy Officer Greg Dixon, who took over from Fyfe in 2023. It was during our last session of the year that Dixon (Class of 2007) suggested I write a story about the program’s upcoming 40th anniversary. Clearly, I didn’t say no. 

But this article is much more than a favor I’m doing for a fellow alum. It’s a well-deserved feature on a vitally important piece of Saratoga’s past, present, and future—a program that’s played a major role in the success of both our city and county by producing 24 engaged, informed, and well-trained potential board members each spring.

While my classmates and I are only a few months removed from Leadership Saratoga graduation, the members of the inaugural class I spoke with have literal decades worth of memories together, from a bake sale fundraiser at which Okby’s infamous store-bought place-and-bake cookies had unsuspecting customers asking him for the recipe, to a talent show in which losers were cut off mid-performance by the ringing of a gong.

“Remember Sonny and Cher?” former New York State Association of Realtors Education Director Priscilla Toth said, thinking back to the Gong Show the Alumni Association hosted. “Bob Allen was Cher.”

“And how about the violinist?” Hollowood added.

“The violinist!” Hathaway chimed in.

“We’ve actually made fun of each other, and we’ve laughed at each other, and it’s OK.” Okby said. “That’s why we can have civil discussions. I encourage the new Leadership Saratoga graduates to communicate. That doesn’t mean email or text—it means getting to know each other.”

While the Leadership Saratoga Alumni Association extracurriculars have changed—I haven’t been invited to a Gong Show (yet)—the format of the program itself has remained largely the same. Applications open in the spring, and applicants must interview with the program director as well as two members of the Leadership Saratoga Advisory Board. (Toohey stresses that the program is open to anyone and that scholarships are available for those who aren’t able to pay for it.) The board selects 24 individuals for the program, which kicks off with a transformational two-day opening retreat in September and continues over the course of the next nine months with 13 sessions that cover everything from fundraising (presented by Dave Collins) to zoning boards (presented by Sonny Bonacio). Throughout the program, class members are also responsible for completing group projects that challenge smaller segments of the class to work with local nonprofits to solve current, real-life problems. Graduation is in May, at which time members of the class join the Alumni Association.

Over the course of her 40 years of involvement in Leadership Saratoga, Toohey says she has been continuously blown away by the number of people willing to show up to make their community a better place.

“The people in this county are unusually generous of their time, of their expertise, and of the financial resources that they are able to provide,” Toohey says. “You look around at other counties, and you just don’t have the generosity. It’s remarkable.”

Tom Roohan, whose father helped lift Saratoga out of its 1970s slump and instilled in his son a sense of civic pride that’s helped shape the Spa City we know today, has an explanation for that generosity: “There’s just something in the water,” he says. “We give a darn. And we’re not going to accept anything but the best for our community.”