Meet the National Philanthropists of the Year

Philanthropists Joan and Macon Brock of Virginia Beach, Virginia have long been some of Hampton

Joan & Macon Brock (Glen McClure photo)

Roads' most generous citizens. They enjoy funding arts, education, environmental and social action causes "where we can make something happen," Macon says.
Now the couple's  generosity is getting national attention with the recent announcement that the Brocks will be honored in New York City on National Philanthropy Day in November 2015. They will receive  the national Outstanding Philanthropist award presented by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Among those keeping company with them on November 12, 2015 at a celebration dinner at the 92nd Street Y will be representatives of the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, which will be honored as the country's Outstanding Corporation.

"We are surprised and pleased," Macon Brock says of the philanthropy award. He and Joan were honored regionally in 2013 as Outstanding Philanthropists by the Hampton Roads AFP chapter, which nominated them for the national award. The couple also will be honored in November with the Darden Award for Regional Leadership presented by the CIVIC Leadership Institute.

"We've been lucky and blessed with the success of our company (Dollar Tree Inc.)," Macon says. "With that comes the obligation of doing something for others."

Macon is a member of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation board of directors. He and Joan, who both grew up in Norfolk and met in the eighth grade, have endowed a scholarship fund at the community foundation that benefits students at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, his alma mater. They also have an unrestricted fund.  In addition, Dollar Tree also has two corporate donor-advised funds administered by the community foundation.

Over the years the Brocks have donated more than $40 million to numerous organizations around the globe, including at a school in Africa and at Randolph-Macon College and Longwood University, Joan's alma mater. Among the causes in Hampton Roads they are known for supporting are:

• The new Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Brock Environmental Center, one of the greenest buildings in the world.
• The M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
• The endowed curator of American art position at the Chrysler Museum of Art.
•  ACCESS College Foundation programs.
• The new Brock Commons outdoor amphitheater at Old Dominion University.
• United Way of South Hampton Roads' United for Children program.
• Virginia Wesleyan College's Center for the Study of Religious Freedom.

Learn more about AFP's National Philanthropy Day celebration and its honorees.  Watch the video below to hear the Brocks' philosophy of generosity.

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(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 $210 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.)

What Is Our Foundation's Greatest Success Story?

What is the Hampton Roads Community Foundation's biggest success story,  a new board

Coley Stone at Granby High, his alma mater.

member asked the other day. There are lots of great stories we could share related to big community initiatives incubated here and nonprofits whose clients and audiences benefit from our grants.

But, perhaps our best successes revolve around the 4,000-plus individuals helped by college scholarships made possible by our donors since 1951.

Just the other day we spotted a Facebook post from our former scholarship recipient Coley Stone. Today Coley works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands as a customer care and logistics specialists for Galderama, a global dermatology company. He is fluent in English, French and Dutch and also can converse comfortably with clients in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin Chinese.

Robert & Ettie Cunningham -- Coley's benefactors

Not bad for someone who in 1998 was expelled from his Norfolk middle school and never took any foreign language classes until college. 

A second chance came Coley's way after attending a Norfolk alternative school. He returned to middle school and went on to graduate on time in 2001 from Norfolk's Granby High School where he was elected prom king. In high school he overcame family issues, held down a restaurant job to support himself, lived in a group home and was homeless his senior year before moving in with the school office manager and her family. His ACCESS College Foundation advisor helped him prepare for college and find the resources to pay for it.

Coley went to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond with help from our J. Robert and Ettie Fearing Cunningham Memorial Scholarship and a Lincoln-Lane Foundation scholarship. During the four years Coley was on scholarship at college he discovered his gift for languages and excelled. In 2006 he was selected to carry the processional banner for VCU students at graduation. 

Armed with his degree in French and history and an adventuresome spirit Coley  headed to Europe after college graduation. He has lived and worked in The Netherlands since 2007. A post on Coley's Facebook page this week featured his 1998 report card from a Norfolk alternative school he attended in eighth grade. The comments section recommended his reinstatement in school and mentioned his "seriousness of purpose."

Coley's 2015 Facebook comment of "God knows I've come a long way" led us to tell him how proud his community foundation family is of him.

His reply:  "And you and the foundation made it all happen. For that I am forever grateful." 

We think the Cunninghams, a Norfolk couple who died decades ago, would be proud of Coley and the hundreds of other students their endowed scholarship at the community foundation has helped have better lives. Ettie Cunningham's 1992 estate gift created the permanent scholarship fund for Norfolk students or those from Hampton Roads who want to be teachers. There are more than 15 Cunningham Scholars in college right now and an endless procession of them will follow in years to come.

As Coley Stone says: "Despite the obstacles, I believe that everyone can achieve their goals if they keep a positive attitude and have support from the community. It has changed my life and I'll never forget."


 (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 $210 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. )

Veteran's Foresight Leads to New Scholarship Fund

Gertrude "Betty" Ward taught English at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach for 19

Fred & Betty Ward in 1941

years. 

Although she died in 1996, Betty is helping send in the fall of 2015 two Virginia Beach Public School new graduates to follow in her footsteps.

The new Gertrude Ward Scholarship Fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation is thanks to Betty's husband Fred's foresight. A few years ago he was crafting a will with his attorney John Midgett of Midgett Preti Alperin PC of Virginia Beach. 

John asked Fred the question he asks all clients making wills: "If no one you have named is living, are there charities, causes or schools you would want to benefit?"

At the time the former World War II  sailor living in a Virginia Beach retirement center had a daughter and grandson to name as beneficiaries. But, Fred heeded his attorney's advice and put the community foundation in as a contingent beneficiary to administer an endowed scholarship in his late wife's name for Virginia Beach students. He expressed a preference for Princess Anne High graduates or Virginia Beach students majoring in English never expecting the scholarship to be activated.

Sarah Burk

Daja Askew

It is sad to think that Fred's only daughter and grandchild passed away before he did in 2011 at age 92. But it is satisfying to know that this fall Sarah Burk, a Princess Anne high graduate, will be studying English at the University of North Carolina and Daja Askew, a Bayside High School graduate will be studying English at Virginia Tech. 

Sarah says: "UNC has some of the best options to give me a diverse education in preparation to enter the publishing industry, so I was extremely glad to receive this scholarship to help me attend."

Daja says: "This scholarship has allowed me the opportunity to attend my dream school and pursue a degree in English. With my English degree, I plan on pursuing the education track and hope to become a high school English teacher in the future."

We can only imagine how pleased Fred and Betty Ward would be to know they are helping shape Sarah and Daja's futures along with the many other Ward Scholars who will follow them.

Warner Fund Celebrates Submarine Commissioning

The Warners with the sub. (L. Todd Spencer photo for The Virginian-Pilot)

 

 

 

 

August 1, 2015 was a thrilling day for retired U.S. Senator John Warner. That was when the Navy commissioned in Norfolk, Virginia the country's newest submarine -- the USS John Warner. 

Warner and his wife Jeanne, the ship's sponsor, enjoyed days of official events in Norfolk related to the commissioning of the submarine that was built in Newport News, Virginia.

Although all the ceremonies are over, the Alexandria couple maintains strong ties to the new submarine and its Norfolk-based crew through the new $100,000 Warner Family Fund they and other family members started at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

The new designated fund will "provide for modest awards to sailors recognized publicly for outstanding achievements each year," says Warner, who was a Navy petty officer in World War II, a Marine in the Korean War and Secretary of the Navy before serving in the senate for 30 years. In addition to supporting meritorious service awards, the Warner Fund will help the submarine's morale, welfare and recreation programs over the next 35 years, which is the expected life of the sub. 

The Warners were introduced to the community foundation by Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim about a month before the commissioning. "The Warners wanted to make sure funds would be available for the life of the submarine," Fraim says. "I suggested the community foundation because of the great work it does and that it could manage the money and comply with their wishes."

"Our family has a deep sense of humility and gratitude to our nation ... and for the sailors and the shipyard workers," Warner says. He also appreciates President George W. Bush and his administration for honoring him upon his 2009 retirement from the senate by naming the next submarine to be constructed for him. 

The USS John Warner, the most technologically advanced submarine in the fleet, is the first of 12 Virginia-class subs to be named for a person. The others are all named for states.

(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 $210 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. ) 

 

John Stewart: Passionate About the River

John Stewart

Hampton Roads Community Foundation donors are passionate people. Among them is John Stewart of Norfolk, a retired librarian who loves the Lafayette River. 

He is restoring its wetlands and teaching others to do the same. John, a member of the Friends of Norfolk's Environment and the Lafayette Wetlands Partnership, has arranged for a bequest to the Hampton Roads Community Foundation for a field-of-interest fund to forever help our region's environment.

Take a moment to enjoy this video of John and other wetlands volunteers and experience the peacefulness of the river he loves so much. You will be glad you did. 

Community Foundations All Needs Fans Like the Rosenbachs

Kurt and Rose Rosenbach love their community.

Every nonprofit should be so lucky as to have advocates like accountant Kurt Rosenbach and his wife Rose. These long-time Norfolk, Virginia residents love their community and are ambassadors for the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. We thank them for being part of our community foundation family

For 20 years Kurt served on our board of directors. Although he left that position in 2006 he remains involved in many ways. He serves on our Audit and Finance Committee and comes with Rose to many community foundation events. Both the Rosenbachs are members of our Legacy Society for Hampton Roads, which celebrates people who have made arrangements for a future bequest.

Kurt, whose career was spent in retail, retired in 2009 as senior vice president of Hayne's Furniture in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He joined the Haynes team after serving as chairman of the board of Norfolk-based Rices Nachmans department store chain. Throughout his career he was always involved in community organizations including the Downtown Norfolk Council where he was its first board chair.

Until last year Kurt presided over the foundation at Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk. He also is active with the Tidewater Jewish Foundation.

For Kurt "the foundation world is so important. Without foundations and their financial support many organizations could not fulfill their missions."

It is particularly gratifying when professionals like Kurt, an accountant, become champions for endowment building through foundations.

(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. ) 

This Chesapeake Piano Would make E.K. Sloane Happy

Edward Knapp Sloane, best known as E.K., was a Norfolk, Virginia engineer who loved piano music but did not play the instrument. His bequest plans entrusted the Hampton Roads Community Foundation to forever buy pianos in his name. E.K. passes away in 1996

E.K. Sloane

and since then we have provided more than $3.2 million in grants to 60+ organizations -- all for pianos.

Below is an uplifting column that would warm E.K.'s heart. It is written by Toney L. McNair Jr., who heads the choral music department at Indian River Middle School in Chesapeake, which recently  received a Sloane piano. 

This is from the Chesapeake Clipper on March 1, 2015. The Clipper is a community section focused on Chesapeake Virginia that is part of The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

PURSUIT OF A NEW PIANO HIT ALL RIGHT NOTES  

By  Toney L. McNair Jr. guest column  

     WITH LIMITED funding and resources available for education, teachers are often challenged with providing a quality educational environment to inspire their students. For example, 345 of the 760 students at Indian River Middle School are enrolled in chorus, band or orchestra. Our music program is part of the fabric that makes our school unique. 

   That is why, after our spring concert in May 2014, I decided our students needed a new piano. We had been rolling our old Korg piano back and forth from the chorus room to the auditorium for the past 15 or more years. It was barely holding on to its dolly and the keys were just screaming, “One more note, really?” 

   Our students deserved better, and it was time to put the kids first and not be limited by the resources we didn’t have. 

   After several conversations with my school’s principal, I was given the approval to look for a new piano. But there was a caveat: my students and I would have to raise the money ourselves with the hope of receiving matching funds from what was already a limited school budget. That would be a great feat because I typically used our fundraising efforts to purchase choir uniforms each year. To make the effort even more challenging, a new principal was assigned to our school at the end of June, just as I had vigorously begun my pursuit of a new instrument. 

   Thinking I had to start over getting approval to pursue my quest, I met with Principal Terre Werts. After greeting me, her next words were, “So, I understand that we need a new piano ... let’s make it happen!” Well, that was all I needed and wanted to hear.    

   As we continued to talk, we decided to seek advice from Chesapeake schools supervisor of music Craig Robertson. Not long after making contact with Mr. Robertson, he informed me of a funding source known as the E. K. Sloane Fund, which is managed by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. 

   This organization, I was told, provides funds to school districts in need of pianos. Amazing! I could not believe what I was hearing. I reviewed the grant application, and my school’s administration enthusiastically encouraged me to submit it. 

  

 With my choral winter concert just a couple of months away, my hope was that we would receive grant approval in time for our performance. I wanted a more professional sounding instrument accompanying us. One week before our concert, we were awarded a grant for $9,687 from the Sloane Fund. Thanks to my school administration working feverishly with the grant source, the Piano  and Organ Warehouse and Thomas Brothers Moving Company, I was able to serenade our staff and students on our new baby grand Yamaha piano – all in time for our Winter Holiday Concert. We could hardly contain ourselves. 

   What started as a small idea became the talk of our community. Our kids deserve the best, and all of us have learned a very valuable lesson: determination can be the vehicle for reaching your destination. 

   This is truly what can happen when we work together. “Put Kids First!” 

   The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is southeastern Virginia’s largest grant and scholarship provider. Since its founding in 1950, the regional community foundation and its donors have provided nearly $200 million in grants and scholarships to improve life in southeastern Virginia. 

  Toney L. McNair Jr., D. Min., is department chair and choral music teacher at Indian River Middle School.     

(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. ) 

We are sad for the loss of loving mother, nurse and philanthropist Rita Paganelli Horvatic on February 11, 2015 in Virginia Beach. 

But we are glad to know the Hampton Roads Community Foundation brought her peace and happiness. In 2013  she entrusted us with forever awarding scholarships in the memory of her beloved son Tommy. 

Tommy passed away in 1986 at age 17 at the start of his senior year at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach. The Tommy Horvatic Memorial Scholarship Fund at the community foundation continues the work Rita and her late husband Tom started the year after Tommy passed away -- awarding scholarships in his name to students at his alma mater. We appreciate memorial gifts for Rita coming to Tommy's fund to help more students.

Here is a short 2013 video about Tommy that features his mom and sister. 

(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. ) 

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. )

$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. )

Engineering Student Follows Benefactor's Path

Virginia Tech senior Shae O'Hara of Virginia Beach, Virginia never met the late Wilfred G.
Semple.

But he is having a great influence on her life because he left a bequest to the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, which is providing Shae a scholarship for the second year. She also is spending this summer interning at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth,

Shae O'Hara
 (photo by Glen McClure)

Virginia for the second time.

It's a great coincidence that this is the same shipyard where Wilfred, who died in 1966 at age 80, spent his career as an engineer.

Shae, a senior industrial and systems engineering major, is preparing to follow in the footsteps of Wilfred G. Semple, whose scholarship is for upper-level students from Hampton Roads studying engineering, physics or math.

We can only imagine how happy Wilfred would be today to know that Shae is working at the same shipyard where he spent his career. And, even better, she has been offered a job after graduation next May that she is planning to accept.

"College expenses can be a considerable financial burden for a family, especially when its chief bread winner is a public school teacher," says O'Hara, whose brother also is in college.

Since 1991, when the Semple Scholarship started, 34 students have been helped by $155,000 in scholarships. Semple's original charitable bequest was $120,713, but the power of endowment has made his fund grow over time to a value of $277,627 while helping students like Shae. This fall there will be four Semple Scholars in college, including Shae.

It is donors like Wilfred Semple who make all the difference for students with dreams of great careers.

(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. )