How Can I Help People Go to College and Succeed in Life?

To give the gift of education, you can be like Fannie Royster Cooke and her husband Richard Cooke. You can endow a scholarship at your area community foundation and have it last forever. There are more than 700 community foundations serving specific geographic areas in the United States. Your thoughtfulness will help people forever.

In 1951 the Cookes, who were long-time Norfolk, Virginia residents, created the first fund

Fannie Royster Cooke

at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, which was founded in 1950 as Virginia's first community foundation. The Cookes' goal was to honor their two adult sons and to help send southeastern Virginia students to Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond.

Sixty-three years later, the Richard Dickson Cooke and Sheppard Royster Cooke scholarship is alive and well. Hampton resident John C. McClure is the latest in a long line of Cooke Scholars being helped long after Fannie, Richard and their sons have passed away.

The Cooke Scholarship is one  of more than 60 endowed scholarship funds administered by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation -- most for undergraduate education. During the 2013-14 academic year there are 358 students receiving more than $1 million from endowed scholarship funds.

Each scholarship fund reflects the unique interests of the donors who started it. Some scholarships are for specific fields of study such as architecture or education. Others are for graduates of specific high schools such as Ocean Lakes High in Virginia Beach or Maury High in Norfolk. And, some scholarships are for students attending specific colleges and universities such as the University of Virginia or Hampden-Sydney College. 

Since 1951 more than 3,900 individuals have received more than $18 million in Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarships. Most of them have been a scholarship recipient for up to four years of study.

Tomorrow, February 28, is the application deadline for students to apply for 2014-15 Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarships. This year there are eight new scholarship funds available because caring donors last year entrusted the Hampton Roads Community Foundation to forever help students in their names. Learn more.

Scholarship application season is an occasion to pause and say thank you to the generous donors who make education a reality for so many students.  

 (The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. 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.)

Philanthropist to Help Future Generations Nurture The Environment

Jane Batten is a Hampton Roads philanthropist, mother and grandmother who loves

The Learning Barge gets kids on the water.

children and preserving the environment. For Batten, helping kids become adults committed to caring for the world around them "makes good sense."
That's why Batten recently made the Elizabeth River Project the latest Batten Endowment Challenge grant recipient. The environmental group was announced in January 2014 as the eighth area nonprofit to benefit from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation program that gives organizations $1 million endowments and then challenges them to double that amount. This is the Elizabeth River Project's first permanent endowment fund.

Here is how the latest Batten Endowment Challenge works for the Elizabeth River Project:

 *A $1 million grant from the Batten Educational Achievement Fund has created an endowment fund for Elizabeth River Project at the Hampton Roads CommunityFoundation.

Jane and Frank Batten

The grant came from a donor-advised fund Jane and her late husband Frank started in 2003 at the community foundation with a $20.3 million gift.  

*Jane Batten has challenged the Elizabeth River Project to raise within five years another $500,000 from additional donors. She will match every dollar donated up to $500,000 -- essentially doubling the Elizabeth River Project's endowment.

"I'm impressed by the way the Elizabeth River Project is getting industries to be its partners," Batten says. She also likes its innovative programs that are helping create "a generation of children who go home and talk to their parents who may not have thought much about the environment."

Each year the Elizabeth River Project works with more than 30,000 area students -- from preschoolers to high school seniors. Programs are held on its learning barge parked in area waterways, in classrooms and in the new Paradise Creek Nature Park in Portsmouth. In addition 150 area schools are River Star Schools where teachers involve students in hands-on environmental projects each year.

For Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, executive director of the Elizabeth River Project, the new endowment and its challenge mean "stability" and that the organization she founded 21 years ago to restore the tainted Elizabeth River is "maturing."

The endowment will initially provide the Elizabeth River Project annual grants from the community foundation of 4.5 percent of the fund's value -- $45,000 the first year. As the endowment grows, the amount of grants coming to the environmental group each year will increase.

"When you have major urban rivers used and abused for years, you need dollars to stretch as far as you can," Jackson says. The new endowment will help Elizabeth River Project expand its efforts to once again make area rivers safe for swimming and fishing.

Donations to the Batten Endowment Challenge should go directly to the Elizabeth River Project by:

• Sending a check to the Elizabeth River Project earmarked for the Batten Endowment Challenge. Mail it to 475 Water Street, Suite 103A, Portsmouth, VA 23704.
• Clicking here to donate online to the Elizabeth River Project's Batten Endowment Challenge.
• Calling the Elizabeth River Project at (757) 399-7487 to talk about other ways you can support the endowment challenge.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. 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.)
 

Lang Lang to Warm Donor E.K. Sloane's Heart

There will be two international stars on stage at Norfolk's Chrysler Hall on February 13, 2014 for Virginia Arts Festival's preview concert for its upcoming spring season.

Lang Lang doing what he loves

One of them is Lang Lang, the 31-year-old energetic piano virtuoso from China, who has ignited the music world since he was discovered as a teenager.

The other star is a new Steinway D grand piano made in Hamburg, Germany. The arts festival bought the instrument in January with help from a major grant from the E.K. Sloane Fund of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

"It's the cream of the crop," Robert W. Cross, executive director of the festival, says of the new piano. It previously graced Carnegie hall's stage and has been declared by renowned concert pianist Andre-Michel Schub to be "the best piano I have ever played." Schub directs the festival's annual chamber music series.

E.K. Sloane, a Norfolk engineer who died in 1997 at age 90, loved piano music even though he didn't play the

E.K. Sloane

instrument. Because he thought to put a bequest in his will for a field-of-interest fund at his community foundation for pianos, our region has more than 110 amazing Sloane pianos. They are valued at more than $3 million and belong to more than 60 different nonprofit organizations. 

There were flames on stage at the Grammy Awards last month in Los Angeles when Lang Lang stole the show by performing with Metallica. Click here for a video. 

We expect Lang Lang and the new Hamburg Steinway to generate all the heat on Thursday at the 7:30 p.m. Norfolk show. And, we think E.K. would be thrilled with the spectacle. His pianos anchor many stages throughout our region will be featured venues during the festival, which will run from April 2 through May 25.

For information on Lang Lang and how to get tickets click here. Tickets range in price from $20 to $75. 

A dollar from each ticket will be donated to the Virginia Arts Festival Endowment at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. The endowment helps the festival bring special concerts to Hampton Roads audiences. The festival's endowment was established in 1997 -- the same year E.K. Sloane's bequest created his permanent fund for pianos.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. 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.)
 

Grants to Help Southeastern Virginia Youth Baseball & Softball Leagues

Dal Paull has helped about 20 leagues  since 2005.

Dal Paull is passionate about the game of baseball. It was a game his late father taught him to appreciate when Dal was growing up. He has never outgrown his admiration for the game and what it teaches you.  

Dal, a Norfolk, Virginia resident, wants area children to grow up knowing the thrill of catching a fly ball, running the bases and seeing how hard work teamwork pay off on the field and in life. 

That's why each year he funds grants to help youth baseball and softball leagues in southeastern Virginia. He does this through his donor-advised fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

February 15 is the deadline for leagues to apply for 2014 grants from the Dal Paull Fund Dal created in 2005 at the community foundation. Grants can be used to help leagues buy uniforms and or pay for needed equipment to help the players on their teams. Grants also can be used to improve the parks where teams play. 

Dugout improvements, batting cages, breakaway bases and lawn mowers are just a few examples of what Dal Paull grants have funded over the past eight years. His efforts have helped hundreds of young ballplayers have better equipment and athletic complexes in Hampton Roads, Western Tidewater and the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Click here to learn more about this helpful fund, see which leagues have received grants in past years and download a 2014 application.

Baseball season will be here shortly, and there are bound to be plenty of needs in the various leagues working with area youth eager to play softball and baseball. 

Please help spread the word about this wonderful charitable fund that reflects the passion of its donor. 

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. 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.)