Christopher Toone, Williamsville SOUTH High School,Class of 2009

Christopher Toone is co-founder of The Senase Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 that works to eradicate poverty through community development in rural Ghana, West Africa. 

Mr. Toone attended Forest Elementary, Mill Middle School and Williamsville South. In high school, he was a member of the Varsity Boys Soccer Team and played percussion in band. He was voted “most well-rounded” by his classmates as a senior. After graduation, he attended Ithaca College and during his sophomore year, participated in “Semester at Sea”, a unique study abroad program where students live on a ship as they sail around the world. 

On the ship, one of his instructors was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, renowned South African theologian and human rights activist,who taught students how one person can make a difference in the world. When the ship reached port in Ghana,  Mr. Toone traveled with a small group to a small rural village in Senase. They visited the village school and found children trying to study in small shacks as rain poured in from leaking roofs. When they returned to the ship, he and his friends brainstormed ways they could help and the Senase Project was born. Mr. Toone returned to Ithaca and found himself balancing his college studies with running a global non-profit organization from his dorm room. 

Nearly a decade later, The Senase Project remains committed to creating sustainable change for the people of rural Ghana focusing on education, health, and sanitation. In 2018, Mr. Toone received the Ithaca College Humanitarian Alumni Award given to alumni who have made a transformative contribution to the nation or the world and has made it a better place to live. 

After he completed his undergraduate degree at Ithaca, Mr. Toone earned a master’s degree in athletic training from the University of Utah. Upon graduation, he became the athletic trainer for the U.S. Ski Team, Men’s Alpine division for three years and then worked one year for Team America’s Men’s Alpine Ski Team. He currently resides in Corvallis, Oregon.