Donor's Special Interest Grants Help Vulnerable Children

Norfolk car salesman Guy M. Winfrey was a hard worker whose challenging childhood gave him a passion for helping others. Guy dropped out of school at age 14 after his mother died so he could go to work to help support three younger sisters.

Guy Winfrey

Guy, a man who loved to read, sell cars and help others, passed away in 1996. Through the charitable bequest he left to the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, today he is giving hope to some of our region's most vulnerable children -- child-abuse victims, kids involved in court cases and those waiting in foster homes to be adopted.

Just last week the Sue Cook Winfrey Memorial Fund, established in 1997 through Guy's estate in memory of his first wife, provided $97,027 in grants for programs at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters Child Abuse Center, The Up Center and Voices for Kids CASA Program of Southeast Virginia.

 Click here to learn more about the Winfrey grants and other special-interest grants provided by donors' permanent field-of-interest funds.

We are grateful to generous donors like Guy Winfrey who have our region's best interests at heart and entrust us to do good works in their names forever.   



(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. ) 

Why Should Your Will Include a Contingency Beneficiary?

It's good that Virginia Beach attorney John Midgett of Midgett & Preti PC asked his client, the late Frederick G. Ward, a key question several years ago.

Frederick Ward

"If no one you have named is living, are there charities, causes or schools you would want to benefit?"

Ward was a retired Naval officer and widower living in a Virginia Beach, Virginia  retirement community. He thought carefully about that routine question his attorney always asks clients preparing wills, trusts or other estate plans.

Fred decided to include his community foundation as a contingent beneficiary should his daughter and grandson pre-decease him. Although it was unlikely it would come to fruition, he expressed a desire for a scholarship for Virginia Beach students with preferences for Princess Anne High School graduates or people studying English in college.

It's sad that a few months before Fred passed away in 2011 at age 92, his only child Sharon died. Her only son Roger had passed away before her in an accident.

Gertrude "Betty" Ward

Because of Fred's contingency plans, the Gertrude Ward Scholarship Fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation will be helping its first students attend college in the coming year. Gertrude, who was nicknamed Betty, had taught at Princess Anne High. Fred's idea was to use his estate to  honor his wife's memory and her years of teaching. Since no relative outlived him, Fred's wishes were carried out by his executor Mavis McKenley of AMG National Trust Bank in Virginia Beach.

What a gift it is that in finalizing Fred's estate Mavis found a wonderful World War II era scrapbook documenting his and his wife's lives. This special book of memories includes the photos of Fred and Betty you see above.

On December 1 we will begin taking applications for the new Ward Scholarship and the more than 70 other scholarship funds we administer at the community foundation. Each permanent fund was started by a generous donor like Fred Ward -- people interested in education and the promise it holds for people to lead better lives. Click here to learn more about Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarships.


(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

How Can a $1,000 Grant Make a Big Difference?

Why do these students look so happy and eager to learn? Maybe it is because they are in their favorite spot -- the garden at their school. Since last year Seatack Elementary: An Achievable Dream Academy in Virginia Beach, Virginia has offered hands-on learning about plants, the environment and healthy eating.

Last year Seatack's gifted resource teacher Marie Culver pioneered an organic community garden at the Title 1 school where 90 percent of its 388 students receive free or reduced-price lunches because they live in lower-income families. 

Recently a $1,000 grant from the Future Leadership Partners, a Hampton Roads Community Foundation giving group, helped expand the program for this school year. The grant went to the Virginia Beach Education Foundation to support Seatack's garden. The education foundation provided funding last year to seed the garden.

"The new grant gives us money for another raised bed for each grade level," Culver says. "We will have more space and can grow a greater variety of plants." The grant will also pay for compost pails, blueberry bushes and other garden supplies.

Culver reports that last year, students learned a lot from the melons, radishes, basil, beans, peppers, tomatoes and other food they grew.
Gardening enhanced their science and environmental studies and taught children discipline, teamwork and patience.

Many Seatack students live in areas too dangerous for them to play outside. Many have little connection to nature. The garden has helped them enjoy working in the dirt, seeing seedlings grow, watering and weeding their gardens, and harvesting and eating the bounty.

Seatack's young gardeners come from all grade levels and get to witness first-hand the life cycle of plants they nurture. Science classes often take place in the garden, and students have treated their parents to healthful salads made with produce they grew, picked and turned into delicious dishes.

A group of high-energy Seatack fifth-grade boys (pictured below) work in the garden each morning before school as part of the Garden Breakfast Club. They enter class focused and ready to learn, Culver reports.

"The boys say the favorite part of their day is being in the garden because it is so peaceful," Culver says.

Virginia Beach Education Foundation was among 21 nonprofits receiving a total of $216,000 in grants this year from two Hampton Roads Community Foundation giving groups -- the Community Leadership Partners and the Future Leadership Partners. Click here for details.  

Photos courtesy of Marie Culver and the Virginia Beach Education Foundation

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

Slover Library: World of Wonders Coming Soon

Over the decades Hampton Roads Community Foundation donors have helped build some impressive and needed nonprofit facilities throughout southeastern Virginia. We are excited that $685,000 in donor grants are helping build the Colonel Samuel L. Slover Memorial Library, which will open in downtown Norfolk, Virginia in January 2015. It is destined to be a gathering place for book and information lovers of all ages and interests.

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is honored to administer $2.7 million Virginian-Pilot Fund, which was created in 2010 to support future technology needs of the new library. When it opens, the Slover Library likely will be the country's most technologically-advanced library. But, it will take constant attention and upgrades to keep it in the lead.  

This altdaily.com piece entitled Ten Reasons You Are Going to Love the Slover Memorial Library gives a good glimpse into what wonders await us in January when the Slover Library opens. Until then you can get a sneak peek at the new library's technology at a Slover Library preview center open in downtown Norfolk at 230 E. Main Street on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.



Norfolk's Slover Library will be a high-tech gathering place for people of all ages.

Scholarship Will Forever Remember a Special Teacher

In August 2013 Virginia lost an amazing educator -- Jennifer Mooney Greene. She  was a

Jennifer Mooney Greene

33-year-old English teacher at Green Run High School in Virginia Beach who loved her work but passed away all too soon from an illness.

As Jen's sister, brother and parents planned her memorial service the Hampton Roads Community Foundation staff was honored to help them find a way for Jen to forever make an impact on the lives of students. They chose to create a permanent scholarship fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation for students in the Achievement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program. Jen founded AVID at Green Run to help students prepare to be among the first in their families to go to college. Memorial gifts from family, friends and colleagues brought Jen's endowed fund to $27,777 by the end of December 2013.

Diamond Lee (center) celebrates her scholarship
this spring with Susanne and Kevin Mooney.

In the spring of 2014 Jen's parents presented the first Jennifer Mooney Greene Scholarship to Diamond Lee as part of the inspiration and healing that can come through philanthropy.

Diamond, the first Jennifer Mooney Greene Scholar, was Green Run's 2014 salutatorian and Student Council Association presidentShe discovered AVID in seventh grade and says "it has been the best thing I ever did in school. AVID opened so many doors for me."

Diamond is the first in a never-ending line of scholarship recipients who will carry on Jen's legacy of learning. She is among more than 390 students attending college in 2014-15 with help $1.1 million-plus in Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarships. Each scholarship fund was started by donors to honor a special person.

People often ask why donors should consider connecting with a community foundation. There are many reasons, but one of the best is that  endowed funds forever provide grants or scholarships in the names of loved ones to help other people lead better lives.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

$1.1+ Million in Scholarships Send Students to College

Kellam High School graduate Cole Neubert of Virginia Beach headed west on

Cole Neubert takes a break from his summer construction job at Kellam High to pose by his scholarship's namesake, Judge Floyd Kellam.

Tuesday for his new life as a freshman at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. He is among more than 390 students attending college this year with help from more than $1.1 million in scholarships provided by Hampton Roads Community Foundation

donors. This is the largest amount of scholarships awarded in a single year during the 64-year history of the community foundation.

Cole's scholarship is provided by the generosity of sisters Anne Kellam and Becky Kellam Chalmers of Virginia Beach. In 2013 they started the Judge Floyd E. and Annie B. Kellam Scholarship Fund in memory of their parents. The sisters created the permanent scholarship fund to help celebrate the opening of the new Floyd E. Kellam High School in Virginia Beach named for their dad, who passed away in 1958.

"This is a nice way to honor our father and mother who particularly liked education. Scholarships are so lasting," says Becky Chalmers.

The sisters had students like Cole in mind when they endowed scholarships for Kellam High graduates interested in careers related to math, science or business. Cole, Kellam's 2014 salutatorian, is among the first four Kellam Scholars and plans to become a mechanical or structural engineer and start his own firm.

He got hands-on experience in that area this summer as an intern with S.B. Ballard Construction Company, which built Kellam High. On Monday, the day before leaving for Tech, Cole was in his hard hat helping the company finish a few "punch list" details at Kellam High when he paused to have his photo snapped standing by a portrait of Floyd Kellam. Cole plans to work with Ballard Construction again over winter break and next summer.

Cole is happy to be a Kellam Scholar and to know his scholarship is renewable for up to four years of study. At Tech he is looking forward to "having new experiences and learning about engineering."

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

St. Mary's Home Girl Scout Enjoy a Fun 'Staycation'

St. Mary's Scouts and troop leaders have their photo made.
Watch their video to see more of their fine day in Virginia Beach.

A summer day at a seaside resort is something most people take for granted. But not the members of Girl Scout Troop #5067. On a beautiful day recently, they enjoyed some great fun being tourists in nearby Virginia Beach.  

The troop's members are all girls with disabilities who live at St. Mary's Home in Norfolk, one of more than 150 nonprofit organizations receiving support from Hampton Roads Community Foundation donors during the past year.

During their "staycation," St. Mary's Scouts, their troop leader and her assistants had lots of adventures dreamed up with help from the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The girls dressed up in fancy costumes for pictures at Flashback Old-time Photo, touched stingrays at the Virginia Aquarium, dined at Rockafeller's Restaurant, shopped along the boardwalk, enjoyed Dough Boys California Pizza, rested at a Barclay Towers suit and were dazzled by circus performers and fireworks at night along the boardwalk.

This short video created by St. Mary's summer intern Katie McCarthy of Chesapeake, a James Madison University senior, captures the magic of fun-filled day. Enjoy!