Meet Our Board
Barbara J. Dabler
President
Barb, a mother of 5 and grandmother of 9, is one of the original founders of Operation North Pole. Introduced to the idea of fantasy trips for sick children while also working for UAL as a flight attendant in the mid-2000's, Barb decided that the idea could be developed into a much larger community-based program. She spearheaded the other co-founders to start ONP in 2009. She has primarily worked in Emergency Services at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital since the mid-70s and as a result, has been responsible for the large participation of the public safety personnel she has met along the way. Her compassion to help others has been an inspiration for the many volunteers who make ONP the organization that it has become.
Timothy J. Crossin
Treasurer
Tim is one of the original founders of Operation North Pole. He is a retired Firefighter/Paramedic, a Certified Public Accountant ("CPA") and held the designation of Certified Financial Planner ("CFP") for many years. Since retiring, he has devoted his time to giving back to help others in need in the community through his volunteer work with ONP.
E. Jason Tremblay
Secretary
Jason was one of the original founders of Operation North Pole, Inc. He has served as a Board Member and/or Secretary since the organization obtained its 501(c)(3) status in 2009. As the current Secretary of ONP, Jason is generally responsible for, among other things, overseeing contractual, legal and compliance related issues. When not fulfilling his duties for ONP, Jason is a partner at the law firm of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP, where he specializes in employment, labor and commercial law. In this regard, he has represented for-profit and not-for-profits in many different industries over the years. Jason, along with his wife and three children, live in close proximity to ONP, as well as the communities that ONP serves, and they strongly believe that community involvement and volunteering is essential to making this world a better place.
Timothy E. Sashko
Director
Tim is a retired Fire Chief having served 36 years in the fire service. Tim served as the fire chief in Buffalo Grove through 2007 and finished his career in Mundelein in 2015. Tim was the Executive Director for the Illinois Fire Chiefs from 2015 - 2017. Tim is currently a consultant, vice-president with GovHRUSA providing public safety consulting in the public sector. He also has been a member of the Lake County Board of Health since 2003 and has served as the President/Chairman since 2013. Tim has served on numerous local, regional and state professional Boards during his career. He became actively involved with Operation North Pole in 2011 fostering the fire service partnership with ONP with the desire to grow the level of involvement by local fire departments and regional fire service associations as well as business partnerships. Tim became a member of the Board of Directors with ONP in early 2014.
Terry C. Chiganos Jr. M.D
Director
TJ has been involved with ONP since 2012, joining the executive board as a member-at-large in 2015. TJ grew up in Downers Grove, graduating with MD and PhD degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2009. He currently practices emergency medicine at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL. He now resides with his wife and three children in the western suburbs. When not stuck at work, he enjoys spending time with his family and pretending to play sports like he's still 18.
Alan G. Wax
Director
Alan served nearly 40 years in the fire service before retiring in 2019. He served as Fire Chief in Highland Park from 2004 until 2009, and the last ten years as Fire Chief in Des Plaines. The Des Plaines Fire Department is the hometown fire department to Operation North Pole, and served as the original "North Pole Fire Department" before "NPFD" membership was expanded to many other Chicago-area fire departments. Alan is very honored to have been appointed to the ONP Board in late 2019 following his retirement from the Fire Department.
Chris Wendt
Chris is the Director of Programming and Design at Syscon Inc, where he works with construction companies to utilize technology to run their business. He works with everything from cloud services to custom programming to help companies run their businesses effectively and efficiently. Chris has been working with ONP since 2013, joining the board in 2019. He uses his background in technology to help ONP better serve those in need.