MEET OUR TEAM

Treasurer
Maggie Bocsor
(Executive Officer)

In April 2020, a friend announced that Sunshine Horses, Inc. was looking for a Treasurer. Maggie’s experience in Financial Administration for nonprofit agencies was a perfect fit. Her passion is serving those who are passionate about horses, live music, and land and water conservation. She is now building and strengthening nonprofit organizations that will live on in the future and continue to carry on their mission and serve their communities. She is a strong member of the Sunshine Horses team and continues to help and support them as they grow!

Director of Operations
Mary Minkoff

Mary has been an active volunteer since 2009. Throughout the years as a proud member of Sunshine Horses, she has combined equine knowledge and her passion for horses with her 35 plus years as a nurse manager. With this combined experience, Mary has shared these strengths, helping with Sunshine’s growth.
As Director of Operations, Quality Assurance, and Safety, it is her honor to sit on the Board of Directors with the other dedicated Board members of Sunshine Horses, Inc.

Secretary
Cindy Albro
(Executive Officer)

Cindy has been a volunteer at Sunshine Horses for six years and currently serves as Secretary on the Sunshine Board of Directors. She has done it all from mucking stalls, feeding and watering horses, leading them in and out of pastures, grooming and LOVING them! She also enjoys contributing to whatever needs to be done to keep the farm running. Her favorite saying that she feels best describes her time at Sunshine is, "Whoever said Disney World is the 'Happiest Place on Earth', has never been to Sunshine Horses!" And while the horse that has impacted her life the most (Sisko), has since crossed over the 'Rainbow Bridge', his memory, and the everlasting friendships she has made with the other volunteers at Sunshine Horses will remain with her forever!

Events and Fundraising
Dianne Sestak

Dianne has been a volunteer with Sunshine Horses for 10 years. As her children began leaving the nest, she found the horses to help occupy her time. She taught Kindergarten for 37 years before recently retiring, however, prior to her retirement, she put her two passions together ~ children and animals~ and she created fundraisers in her classroom to help support the different horses. Each year she would then bring the children to the farm to see where their hard work and generosity was going. She loves the creativity of putting together an event and seeing the excitement from people when they are able to interact with the horses while supporting them with donations. Her main project is the Kentucky Derby Gala.
Most important to Dianne though, is getting the community involved with Sunshine and helping them to learn about their mission of Helping Horses, Helping People.
Dianne also takes care of the website and social media.

Christine Petrone

 Christine grew up on Cape Cod and has been involved with horses since she was 8 years old. She has a 23-year-old paint gelding named Drew that she competed with during her youth years, owning him since he was 3-years old. She attended Cazenovia College where she earned her Bachelor of Professional Studies in business management with a specialization in equine management. She fell in love with Central New York and decided to make it her permanent home in 2014. Her dream was to buy a house with land so she could put a small hobby farm up and retire Drew in her backyard. In May 2022, that dream became a reality and Drew came home to live out his retirement. He now spends his days grazing with his pasture buddies and getting daily kisses and treats! 

Christine’s career ended up in accounting where she specializes in nonprofit accounting. One of the things she enjoys most is educating nonprofit staff and board members on proper policies and procedures and making sure their accounting is set up for success! Christine currently resides in Cazenovia with her boyfriend, 3 horses, 3 barn cats and 1 house cat. In her spare time, she loves spending time on her farm, golfing in the summer, snowmobiling in the winter and reading all year long! She is excited to bring her equine knowledge and nonprofit accounting expertise to Sunshine Horses, Inc.! 

Betsy Bedigian

 Betsy’s love affair with horses started at a very young age and accelerated when her family moved to Manlius where she was able to train with Carol Northrop and Limestone Pony Club. Following a (too long) break to raise a family, Betsy rekindled her love affair as a Sunshine volunteer and schooler. As a board member, she brings to the organization more than 30 years of public relations and marketing experience. She has public relations agency experience as well as in-house experience with more than a decade in the medical  equipment and healthcare industry. She brings to the team an expertise in media relations, crisis communications and internal communications, from strategy development to writing and execution.

Previous to her retirement, Betsy served as Communications Manager for St. Joseph’s Health. She held a leadership role with responsibility for public relations, crisis and internal communication. Prior to joining St. Joseph’s Health, Betsy served as the director of marketing for the North Medical group of medical practices. She also served as the senior marketing and communications manager for Hezel Associates, a nationally recognized education research firm, where she was responsible for increasing domestic and international market awareness, demand, and preference for the firm's portfolio of products and services. Her agency experience includes being part of an award-winning public relations team at Mark Russell Associates. She served as a member of the American Heart Association (CNY) and Limestone Pony Club, along with several other nonprofit organizations. Betsy holds a Master Certificate in Health Care Management from SUNY Empire State College and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Le Moyne College. 

Equine Care Committee
Beth Smart

Beth is the Chairperson for the Equine Care Committee and the Adoption Representative. She has been with Sunshine for 9 years and just loves it. She and her family have adopted several of Sunshine’s horses.
Horse care is her thing!

Volunteer Coordinator
Diana Wellmon

Diana came to Sunshine a little over 2 years ago after seeing an advertisement on a billboard. She is a retired Medical Laboratory Technician and Co-Founder of Women Transcending Boundaries.
She oversees the Volunteer Committee which orients new volunteers and facilitates all volunteer related activities and concerns. Coordinating tours and working with the many outside organizations who are interested in doing projects at Sunshine are also part of her responsibilities.
She has had the good fortune of owning two amazing horses in the past and have witnessed first hand the healing power of connecting with horses. Helping Horses , Helping People can be seen daily at Sunshine Horses.

Facilities Manager
Mike Tebo

Mike was interested in horses at an early age. He competed in Gymkana events at small, local horse shows. While living in Ogdensburg, NY, he owned 22 acres with a house and barn that he took care of. After moving to Syracuse in 1989 for a job promotion, his priorities changed with having a family and job responsibilities. After 42 years in the grocery business, I retired in 2019.
I found out about Sunshine Horses when we attended the Uptown Hoedown in 2021. I am currently the Facilities Manager responsible for all maintenance issues on the farm, coordinating volunteer groups interested in helping out with tasks ranging from fence building, fence painting, building structures for storing sawdust, run in sheds etc.