Meet the Faces Behind the Mission
Matt McCombs | VP - Legacy Giving
If you get Matt talking long enough, he will probably tell you about his personal maxim: “I am in the business of making others successful.” It is the thread that is woven into every chapter of his life - from a decade spent in city management, to nurturing business relationships as a development manager and entrepreneur, to volunteering at church and in his community. He feels others’ success as though it were his own and loves nothing more than to lift up others and help them accomplish their goals. A part of that is owed, in part, to the example set by Finnleigh’s Grace Founder, Kenny Infante.
A long time friend of the Infante family, Matt grew up down the street from Kenny. Matt loved Star Trek and video games while Kenny enjoyed soccer and playing outside. In Matt’s words, “the jock and the nerd.” Despite being polar opposites they became good friends, playing basketball, swimming, or watching MTV after school. Further still, Kenny was not shy about calling Matt his friend at school - a simple kindness that put a quick stop to any hallway bullying. Years later, when tragedy struck, Matt remembered the example set so many years before and reached out to Kenny. After a two hour phone conversation through the wee hours of the morning, they sketched out the framework of a non-profit group that would eventually become Finnleigh’s Grace.
Though he never met Finnleigh, Matt has come to learn her story and feel the weight of her loss through those who knew her best. As a father of two girls, the thought of losing a child deeply affected him. In the months after Finnleigh’s passing, Matt’s girls were enrolled in swim lessons and pool safety is constantly stressed when swimming at their Grandma and Grandpa’s house. In learning more about pool safety trends, he was shocked to find out that drowning is responsible for more deaths among children between ages 1-4 than any other cause except birth defects. While the latter is largely beyond humanity’s capacity to prevent right now, drowning is definitely not. Through a shockingly simple implementation of several layers of protection (door locks, alarms, swim training AND physical barriers), the rate of preventable drownings falls dramatically.
If there was one thing Matt would say to guardians of children with pools, it would be:
“These layers of protection are not nearly as difficult, expensive, or time consuming as you might think. This is particularly true when weighed against the value of a child’s life. It is the mission of Finnleigh’s Grace to ensure that no family endure the loss of a child to preventable drownings. Pools should be fun, and we aim to keep it that way.”
