The Cameron MacDonald Scholarship

Cameron MacDonald was a member of our inaugural Peak Pilates Master Instructor Team. From the beginning it was clear that Cameron was an inspirational and charismatic leader. A gifted instructor, Cameron loved learning about the body and movement as well as how people learned and what motivated them. It was not unusual at the end of a long training day to find Cameron recruiting a group of fellow MIs for a hike in the mountains. Sadly, in 2018 we lost Cameron’s bright light and looked for a way to keep her legacy alive.

The Cameron Mac Donald Scholarship was created due to the generous donations in her name. We thought it perfect to earmark the funds for a PES (Pilates Empowerment Summit) scholarship.

The Leader’s Team, who worked closely with Cameron over the years, reviewed application submissions. It was a unanimous decision to award the scholarship to Peak Pilates Comprehensively Certified Instructor Barbi Smole. Barbi is the owner of Pointer’s Pilates in Maryland and had studied extensively with Cameron. Her application was a clear and beautiful reflection of her time with Cameron. Barbi’s experience is captured in her application’s opening statement:

“There is only joy and appreciation in my mind when I think about Cameron. I met Cameron about four months after my son was born and I quickly learned that she was a firecracker of knowledge, secrets and excitement for this new “thing” in my life, Pilates. It was like she had everything bottled up and as soon as you got her talking it was an explosion of all things Pilates. She could talk for hours about the spine or show you five different ways to modify an exercise. As soon as I met her I knew that this woman had so much to share, I just had to listen.”

Due to the pandemic, we were unable to hold PES this year, but we look forward to its return next year, and to recognizing Cameron and Barbi on stage.