Rye residents Kevin Kavanaugh and Jon Elsen have been named The Rye YMCA’s 2025 Gold Spirit Award winners and will be honored at the organization’s benefit on Friday, Feb. 28 at the Harrison Meadows Country Club. The Community Service Award will be presented the same night to volunteer and Rye resident Sam Dimon.
The highest award for Rye Y volunteers, The Gold Spirit Award recognizes leadership and service and is given to recipients selected by former Gold Spirit winners.
Kavanagh and his wife Amanda have lived in Rye since 2007. He has trained for triathlons by swimming laps in the pool, and his daughters Elizabeth and Claire swam on the WaveRyeders swim team. During his six-year tenure on the Board of Trustees, which began in 2012, Kavanagh served on the Investment, Centennial, and Y Studios Capital Campaign Committees. He co-chaired the Annual Campaign Committee, raising support for the Y Cares Financial Assistance Program.
A graduate of Princeton University and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, Kavanagh worked for Lehman Brothers and Taconic Capital. He founded and serves as Chief Investment Officer of 7 Main Capital. In his spare time, he co-founded and serves as a trustee for PlaySmart, Inc., a non-profit organization that helps underserved 5th through 8th grade students realize their potential through sports. He has coached Rye Youth Soccer, volunteered as a trustee for Regis High School and serves on the Investment Committee for Sacred Heart school. He is dad to four daughters: Julia, 20; Elizabeth, 18; Claire, 17; and Kaitlin, 14.
“For me, the Rye Y represents the spirit of the Rye community,” Kavanagh said. “Among the many great organizations that serve the area, the Rye Y stands out due to the broad array of programs it offers and the myriad ways it makes a positive impact on people from all walks and stages of life.”
Elsen, who is editor-in-chief and co-publisher of The Rye Record, was elected to the Y’s Board of Directors in 2018 and was board president in 2022 and 2023. He and his family have been members of the Rye Y since 2001. Elsen provided key leadership during a time change and challenge, shepherding the Y through the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Hurricane Ida flood, the retirement of longtime Executive Director Gregg Howells, the opening of the Y Studios, and the search for a new CEO. Elsen served on the CEO Search and Program and Membership Committees, and chaired the Strategic Plan Committee. He stepped down from the board after he and a partner, Zac Wydra, acquired The Record.
Elsen, a graduate of Columbia University, worked as an associate editor at The New York Times, business editor of the New York Post, and as a communications consultant. He and his wife Ellen have three children: Maggie, 24; Ben, 22; and Becca, 19.
Elsen said, “I have been honored to be part of an organization that does so much for so many: the elderly, those battling cancer and other diseases, children and families who need daycare and summer camp, and teens who gain so much from being camp counselors and lifeguards. The Rye Y provides these services and opportunities, and significant financial aid to those who need it.”
Dimon, who will receive the Community Service Award, is an active member of Rye Presbyterian Church, serving on the Vestry and on the Mission and Outreach Committee. He is the current board chair of Meals on Main Street in Port Chester. He was the founding board chair of the Washington, D.C.-based International Justice Mission, an anti-trafficking, anti-oppression organization. He founded the affordable housing organization Grove Park Renewal in Atlanta, Ga., and served on its board from 2019 through the present. He also served on the board of For A House on Beekman, an early childhood education and afterschool program in the Bronx. He also volunteered as a board member for Sanctuary for Families, a New York City organization that fights domestic violence and human trafficking.
“It has always been my privilege to serve,” Dimon said.
A 1975 graduate of Harvard College, Dimon worked at Emmaus House, an Episcopal community center in South Atlanta, was a preschool teacher, and worked in construction before entering the University of Michigan Law School in 1985. He retired as a partner in the law firm Davis Polk in 2012.
Dimon and his wife Cheryl have three adult children, Alison, Stephen, and Anna.
The Dancing Through the Decades benefit will also feature a live auction whose proceeds will support the Y Cares Financial Assistance Program, which provides membership, child care, summer camp and program scholarships for those facing economic hardship.
For ticket information or sponsorship opportunities, visit www.ryeymca.org or contact Susan Olson at susanolson@ryeymca.org or (914) 967-6363, ext. 202.
