Lifetime Achievement Award - Honoree
Stephen "Steve" Athas
HONORING STEVE ATHAS
Early Supporter | Educator | Mentor | Champion for Youth & Community
Supporting Positive Opportunity Connection
With heartfelt appreciation for your extraordinary leadership, compassion, and decades of service to youth and the Springfield community.
Steve, your tireless dedication as an educator, mentor, and community builder has touched countless lives. Through your leadership in schools, your visionary work with Springfield Parks, and your unwavering support of SPO Connection, you have shaped opportunities for generations of young people.
You lead with integrity.
You mentor with kindness.
You build community through service.
We are forever grateful for your lasting impact and continued commitment to SPO Connection’s mission.
Presented with admiration and deep appreciation,
Charles King
Founder, Supporting Positive Opportunity Connection
2025
My Story
Steve Athas – by Coach King and community media, is a leader by example, an educator with compassion, and a community builder at heart. His tremendous impact on generations of Springfield youth is immeasurable. Always quick to mentor and share his knowledge freely, Steve has touched thousands of lives through acts of kindness, leadership, and unwavering commitment to service.
A longtime assistant principal, teacher, and Parks Department volunteer, Steve has served the Springfield community for more than five decades. Over 52 years with the Springfield Parks Department, he has held multiple roles — from Head Recreation Leader, Sports Specialist, and Director of Summer Camps at Greenleaf, to Director of the Greenleaf Community Center and Night Gym Supervisor. Whether paid staff or volunteer, Steve’s dedication to the city’s youth has been constant and selfless.
For the past 10 years, Steve has served as Director of the Greenleaf Community Center, where he continues to design and lead a wide array of programs, camps, and activities for young people.
In addition, Steve had a distinguished 35-year career with Springfield Public Schools. He served as Assistant Principal at Duggan Middle School and previously taught sixth grade for 19 years at Armory Street School.
A proud Springfield native, Steve’s lifelong dedication to the city and its youth is not measured in years, but in the countless lives he has helped shape. He has also been an instrumental supporter of SPO Connection and its mission, for which we are forever grateful.