John C Read is the 2011 recipient of the Invisible Disabilities Association Impact Honors Award. John has been chosen based upon his passion and leadership for helping children and their families impacted directly by illness, pain and disability as the President and CEO of the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps.

It all began in the late 1980s with a brilliant idea coupled with a little bit of luck and a whole lot of laughter.  After years of giving money to different charities, actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman decided to create one of his own – a whimsical camp for children with cancer. He envisioned the camps as places where children could escape the fear, pain and isolation of their conditions, kick back and “raise a little hell.”  This idea has since flourished and today the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps is the world’s largest family of camps for children with serious and life-threatening medical conditions.

John Read joined the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps in July of this year. He previously was with Outward Bound, where he served as President since 2001 and President and CEO since 2005.

John earned a BA and MBA from Harvard University. He was honored in Newsweek’s “The Giving Back Awards” as one of fifteen individuals who make America great. John served as Chief Economic Advisor to the Governor of Massachusetts and later as an Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Labor. Read founded Heavy Duty Holdings (now Commercial Vehicles Group, Inc.), a global supplier of components for heavy equipment, and acted as its CEO until 2000.