"The Beacon is pleased to name Corie Philips as the annual Stone and Holt Weeks Volunteer Award recipient for 2024. Corie’s very first volunteer shift was in November of 2022 with her sorority. As the community service committee chair, she sourced The Beacon as a place to give back with her Delta Sigma Theta sisters. She immediately felt comfortable in the space, serving alongside her sisters and other volunteers helping make meals and do laundry for individuals experiencing homelessness.

.... And, just like Stone and Holt, she soon began to multiply the impact of her generosity. Since 2022, Corie has brought many family members and friends to serve with her. Corie stated that encouraging others to volunteer is easy because the work is so visible and so important.

In all, Corie has volunteered more than 170 hours of her time thus far. Those hours are undoubtedly multiplied by the many people Corie has brought in to volunteer with her, which is exactly what Stone and Holt sought to do for our mission – multiply the impact by introducing new people to our work.

Thank you all for everything that you do to support our mission and the individuals that we serve."

Also recently we heard from Krishna Gurung at the Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco Foundation in Nepal. They too, have been dealing with catastrophic flooding, "causing widespread damage to countless lives.... including the entire community we serve at the Foundation. ....a landslide washed out the lower level of our.... kindergarten. Other homes, schools, and essential infrastructure like roads.... destroyed, leaving families in the area displaced and without access to necessities." Hundreds are reported killed and unaccounted for.  

Our Foundation has provided strategic support to KRMEF and is doing so again with a grant to help it recover from the flooding. Krishna writes, "We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your kind donation in the name of Stone and Holt. It truly made a big impact at the foundation and for many individuals."

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Holt and Stone, Summer 2004

Since its inception, The Foundation has sent campers to -- and sponsored activities at -- MDA summer camps. In 2024 MDA will offer nearly two dozen in-person camps across the country. As the MDA website explains: "MDA Summer Camp provides opportunities for campers to participate in enriching recreational experiences that promote independence, self-advocacy, self-confidence, development of critical life skills, while forging lifelong friendships. MDA has been providing summer camps for children with neuromuscular diseases for nearly 70 years at no cost to families."

With the new school year in mind -- and the notion of "Leadership" consuming what feels like the entire world -- in this Fall Newsletter we wanted to share a new video completed this summer, especially for the Leadership Class at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland. We tend to think of the class as Holt's WJ Leadership Class.

The video was created by Holt's high school friend, now our friend and member of The Foundation Advisory Board, Caroline Lacey -- narrated by and with assistance from us. We consider this, as well as the other Foundation videos she has made, to be profound examples of Caroline's artistic vision and continuing friendship with Holt, and now with Stone and this Foundation. For years to come, this video will stand in for Holt's dear friends who have attended the Leadership Class on our behalf and introduced to each new year's group of Leadership students -- Holt and the Foundation, and the Foundation's grant to the class, made in memory and honor of Holt.

A number of years ago, Caroline created a video for the same purpose for Stone's Pi Kappa Phi fraternity chapter at The University of Delaware -- to help introduce Stone and his role in their chapter's history, the Foundation and the grant the Foundation gives to Pi Kappa Phi's national charity in memory and honor of Stone. We plan to share that video in the Spring Newsletter when there will be another fraternity leader chosen to receive The Stone and Holt Weeks Humanitarian Award which Stone's fellow Founding Fathers created and now administer.

Carrie Dalton of the Muscular Dystrophy Association wrote this fall announcing this summer's 2024 Rock Star Awards in honor of Stone. They are John Remillard and Analiz Wickham.

John Remillard,  the Assistant Fire Chief in Norristown, Pennsylvania, has been a part of the MDA Summer Camp volunteer program for more than 20 years. Every year he also recruits fellow firefighters to volunteer at MDA camps. Carrie says that John "is one of our strongest Cabin Leaders and helps train new volunteers through the week. He truly cares about the experience that the campers have and is willing to do whatever he needs to do to make it happen."

Analiz Wickham has volunteered at six MDA Summer Camps -- in California and Oregon -- and she is in the process of getting her master’s degree in education. Analiz "is always willing to step into difficult and sensitive situations with campers," says Carrie, and she "has an ease that calms campers going through challenging behaviors, and a unique perspective of what our campers are capable of and hope to do."

Analiz says, "I feel very honored to have been nominated. My favorite part of camp is when my campers get really excited about coming back next year."

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Every year in spring and fall, The Foundation underwrites under-served students to spend time in a place that was very meaningful to our family, Woodend Sanctuary at Nature Forward in Bethesda, Maryland.  In the summer, our scholarships in memory of Holt and Stone provided outings and transportation for more children from Beacon House in Washington DC and the Long Branch community in Silver Spring -- for field trips and camp sessions to learn about the flora and fauna of the Washington environs.

Again, we were told some young people were on their first nature field trip. One mother of campers writes, “Thank you for giving me this grand opportunity. My children are really happy, I have never seen them so excited... Thank you from all of my heart.”

As we finish putting together this newsletter, we receive word that the Friends of The Foundation are planning another Virtual Fun Run/Walk/Roll the weekend after Thanksgiving -- Saturday & Sunday, November 30 & December 1. This year the event will raise money for the Red Cross and its long storied tradition of helping others who are in real, immediate need -- in the spirit of Holt and Stone and their many loyal friends.

Thank you especially to Rob Bouknight, Allie Seale, Caroline Lacey, Sarah Bower and Nathan Barash. You can sign up here.

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In closing, we thank you for your stalwart love and support in honor and memory of Holt and of Stone, helping us to continue some of their exceptional compassion in this world. Constantly we feel, how eagerly they each wanted to do more.

Always,

Linton and Jan

This summer The Beacon's Julie Falcon wrote,