Our Work
It has been 14 very difficult years without Holt and Stone here. By the end of 2023, The Foundation will have raised awareness of, encouraged volunteerism for, and given out more than $885,000 in grants to more than a dozen organizations important to Stone and to Holt -- and to more organizations responding to emergencies around the world.
We know they would want us to do this. Thousands of people have donated, engaged, and worked in creative and compassionate ways to make this possible.
With your help, The Foundation has:
** Supported blood cancer research and fundraising
** Staged blood drives
** Sponsored children with muscular dystrophy to attend summer camps across the country
** Benefitted cognitively and physically disabled Americans, including veterans
** Served the large homeless populations in Houston, Washington, DC, Maryland and Washington State
** Contributed to green home repairs and home building for low-income homeowners in Washington, DC
** Helped to protect the environment surrounding America's National Parks and across the U.S.
** Aided environmental sustainability amid climate concerns for the Lakota of Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, one of the poorest counties in the U.S.
** Encouraged environmental education and active involvement in preserving the natural world
** Sent hundreds of Washington, DC-area public school children on nature field trips
** Contributed to wildlife preservation and coral reef restoration worldwide
** Provided aid to people impacted by devastating hurricanes on/in the U.S. mainland, the Philippines, Central America, Haiti, The Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
** Given medical and rebuilding aid to earthquake victims and school children in Haiti, Nepal, and Indonesia and Puerto Rico
** Provided relief to tornado victims across the United States
** Aided those affected by wildfires in California and Oregon and Australia
** Assisted orphans, children in poverty and eco-building projects in Nepal
** Helped doctors and nurses provide emergency medical relief to the people of war-torn Yemen
** Helped fund research and development of reusable Personal Protective Equipment during the global pandemic
** Helped fund the Capital Area Food Bank in the Washington DC area in response to food insecurity during the pandemic
** Responded to the Covid-19 pandemic with assistance to particularly vulnerable populations -- in Haiti, Nepal, Navajo Nation and at Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC and those suffering from blood cancer
** Supported safety on America's roads and highways
** Provided substantial support for victims of the war in Ukraine -- and other embattled regions
The Foundation provides annual support to many organizations and encourages and supports volunteerism, leadership, and community engagement, especially among young people around the nation.
All of this is done in loving memory and in honor of Holt and of Stone -- in our heartbroken attempt to keep their beautiful spirits alive and at work in this world.
Foundation Volunteers with a camper at Muscular Dystrophy Association Camp Chicago, 2010
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
While a leadership student during his junior year at Walter Johnson High School, Holt was a primary force in creating PPP, the very successful Pennies for Patients fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). The fundraiser began a winning tradition that within a few years acheived for the school, the top fundraising spot in the nation. LLS has created The Holt Weeks Trailblazer Cup Award to honor Holt, and to encourage more creative and enthusiastic volunteerism in LLS fundraisers in Washington DC metropolitan area high schools. The annual award rewards a winning school with a generous donation from The Stone and Holt Weeks Foundation to their funds raised for LLS.
Osbourn Park High School, 2017 Recipient of Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's The Holt Weeks Trailblazer Cup Award
Michelle Hesterberg (center holding the award), 2013 Recipient of Environment America's Stone and Holt Weeks Recruiting Award
Environment America recognized Stone's role -- through his intensity and hard work assisting historian Douglas Brinkley with his book Wilderness Warrior, Theordore Roosevelt and his Crusade to Save America -- in helping to preserve the Christmas Mountains in Texas. Environment America also understood the importance of Holt's work as an intern at The James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy -- to minimize technology's environmental footprint. The Foundation provides annual support to Environment America, which created The Stone and Holt Weeks Recruiting Award to encourage hard work and intense devotion recruiting others into their Fellows Program.
Rebuilding Together of Washington DC
Holt worked on DC-based Rebuilding Together projects while in high school, serving as youth member of the Rebuilding Committee for St. Columba's Episcopal Church and House Captain -- as Stone worked on Habitat for Humanity projects. Rebuilding Together of Washington DC (RTDC) created The Green Hammer Award in memory and in honor of Holt and Stone. The award is given to a volunteer group that embodies RTDC's mission of "going green" while providing home repairs to low-income homeowners. The Foundation has sent multiple grants to RTDC.
While living in Houston and working at Rice University and The Baker Institute 2007-2009, Stone began volunteering at The Beacon, a huge volunteer-driven day center established by Christ Church Cathedral Health and Outreach Ministries in downtown Houston. The Beacon provides meals and hot showers, civil legal aid, counseling and mentoring and access to housing.to people living on the streets. When Holt joined Stone working at The Baker Institute, the summers of 2008 and 2009, Stone pulled Holt into also volunteering at The Beacon. Together they had hoped to establish a partnership between Rice University students and The Beacon, as they eagerly anticipated Holt's junior and senior years at Rice University. The Beacon created an annual volunteer award in memory of Stone and Holt. Each year The Foundation donates to The Beacon's work and Houston friends hold We Kare-eoke *Houston* to contribute to our total support.
Rebuilding Together of Washington DC's Green Hammer Award in Memory of Holt Weeks and Stone Weeks
Paul Mandell (center), 2015 Recipient of The Beacon's Stone and Holt Weeks Memorial Volunteer Award at We Kare-eoke *Houston* 2015
Muscular Dystrophy Association
During high school, Stone volunteered as a counselor at a Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) in the Chicago area. The strong impact of the experience became the subject of his college essay. Each year the Foundation sends financial aid for campers to attend the Chicago and the Washington area camps -- and sponsors special camp fun, as well. The MDA camps created an annual Stone Weeks Rock Star Award to recognize and encourage outstanding commitment among counselors.
Muscular Dystrophy Association Chicago Summer Camp 2016
Holt led Walter Johnson High School's blood drive as a senior in the leadership class. By making it fun and the coolest place to be -- and by calming anyone's fears -- Holt doubled student participation from the previous year. For five years, the Foundation sponsored blood drives for Inova, helping to save hundreds of lives. We teamed with Sandi Bourget of Inova who worked with Holt and remembered well his exuberance and impact. We will continue to support Inova through financial donations.
Stone was a founding father of The University of Delaware's Theta Nu chapter of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. He was especially excited to be involved with Pi Kappa Phi's national charity, The Ability Experience, which serves people with disabilities including veterans -- and helps to develop members of Pi Kappa Phi into "servant leaders". Theta Nu chapter has established The Stone and Holt Weeks Humanitarian Award in memory and in honor of Stone and Holt, to be given to a deserving senior brother. The Foundation gives annually to The Ability Experience in honor of the award recipient and on behalf of Theta Nu chapter. The chapter also stages We Kare-eoke *Delaware* each year to contribute to the Foundation's support of The Ability Experience.
A Foundation Blood Donor in 2010
2013 Humanitarian Award Recipient Brandon Walker (center)
Nature Forward (Formerly Audubon Naturalist Society)
When they were young, Stone and Holt loved the programs, classes, and camps of this environmental education institution outside Washington DC. And they loved its natural parkland space. The Foundation sponsors nature field trips to Woodend Sanctuary for public school children in the DC area -- and other Nature Forward initiatives. Many hundreds of underserved children have been able to participate in these environmental educational experiences. Many have said that they had never before been on a walk in the woods.
Underserved Public School Children Learning on a Nature Field Trip Scholarship
Both Holt and Stone shared an intense love of music. And they always cared deeply about disabled and disadvantaged people. The Foundation supports this Maryland-based musical opportunity for mentally disabled people by providing financial aid to sponsor participants in the interPLAY orchestra.
Maurice (Mo) Kerry, 2016-2023 Recipient of The interPLAY Orchestra Scholarship
The William Holt Weeks Memorial Leadership Award
Holt's high school alma mater, Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland established this award for a senior graduate in memory and in honor of Holt -- "For that student who best represents the Character and Spirit of Holt Weeks -- Leader, Scholar, Athlete, Volunteer -- and shares his passions of History and Government". The Foundation supports this award with an annual prize, and supports WJ's Leadership Class with an annual grant to be used for community building. We have also donated to other scholarship awards, including one helping first generation American seniors navigate the college application process.
Tyson Glover Receiving The William Holt Weeks Leadership Award, 2013
The Stone Taylor Weeks Award for Excellence in the Study of History
Stone's alma mater, St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Bethesda named their annual History Award for a graduating senior in memory and honor of Stone -- "In Memory and In Honor of the Strong Character and Extraordinary Spirit of Stone Week '03, Leader, Scholar, Athlete, Volunteer -- This Award is presented to that student who shares Stone's passion for the study and understanding of history." The Foundation supports this award with an annual prize. We have regularly send contributions to the school's Minority Students Fund.
Justine England Receiving The Stone Taylor Weeks Award in History, 2015
Both Holt and Stone volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. The Foundation has found many ways to support this building organization -- through grants to Habitat for Humanity DC and Habitat for Humanity International for disaster relief rebuilding communities after devastating tornados and many hurricanes on mainland America and Puerto Rico and earthquakes in Nepal and Puerto Rico.
American Red Cross and The International Red Cross
Another mission of The Foundation has become responding to national and international disasters -- as Stone and Holt would have been eager to do. We have sent generous funds to the American and International Red Cross to help those communities most affected after Hurricane Sandy on the Eastern US Seaboard, Typhoon Haiyan in the Phillippines, the devastating earthquake in Haiti, and destruction in The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Central America, and Louisiana by the many hurricanes in 2019 and 2020 -- and to those displaced by war-ravaged Ukraine and the Middle East.
We have sent generous funds to Partners in Health (PIH) to aid the people of Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Through the COVID-19 pandemic surges, we supported PIH's tremedous efforts on Navajo Nation in the US and in Haiti. And we have sent regular help for their work in Haiti and African countries.
On his very modest income after graduating from university, Stone became a member of World Wildlife Fund (WWF). In honor of this, and his hard work on The Wilderness Warrior, The Foundation benefitted World Wildlife Fund project with Badlands National Park and Native American tribal communities in South Dakota to expand the range of bison in the West. "No other species on Earth has declined so quickly," WWF reported. We were also able to generously contribute to WWF's Australian Wildlife & Nature Recovery Fund after devasting wildfires in early 2020.
As Holt and Stone were growing up, they came to know and care about the homeless people in Washington DC, especially through St. Columba's Episcopal Church's Water Ministry. They regularly served Thanksgiving dinners to this group. The Foundation has supported The Water Ministry, St. Columba's lunch, laundry and shower service for people without homes.
In addition to the work of the Foundation, meaningful awards and memorials have been established at -- and by -- these educational institutions:
Walter Johnson High School held a memorial service and created a memorial space -- a boulder dedicated to Holt and memorial benches to Holt and Stone -- at the entrance to the school's tennis courts. The William Holt Weeks Memorial Leadership Award was also established.
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Eckerd College held a memorial service for Holt and Stone at the Bullard Tennis Courts. The college also created a memorial boulder at the Bullard Tennis Courts complex to honor Holt -- and a water fountain with viewing benches dedicated to Holt and Stone in the center of the complex on campus
in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Holt Weeks Tennis Sportsmanship Award
was also established.
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St. Andrew's Episcopal School established two memorial benches dedicated to Stone and to Holt at the front of the school. A boulder and scoreboard at the Birbaum Soccer Field was dedicated to Stone by his classmates of the Class of '03. The Stone Taylor Weeks Award for Excellence in the Study of History was also created by the school.
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The University of Delaware created the Stone Taylor Weeks memorial bench on Old College campus -- and behind the bench, a memorial oak tree dedicated to Stone and to Holt.
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Rice University held a memorial service for Stone and Holt in Rice Memorial Chapel. And The James A. Baker III Center for Public Policy on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas established a memorial bench
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In 2018 The Foundation supported emergency medical relief to the people of war-torn Yemen and and to the Indonesian population following their earthquake and tsunami.
Walter Johnson High School's 2011-12 Leadership Class
Walter Johnson High School Leadership Class
Holt was a member of Walter Johnson High School's Leadership Class as a high school junior and again as a senior, when he was asked to serve as an intern for the class. This same Leadership Class has volunteered with The Foundation for blood drives and for karaoke and fun run/walk fundraising events. In 2017 the Foundation established a special grant for the Leadership Class to honor and remember Holt and Stone. The grant is given to help foster community engagement through student run projects which most closely demonstrate the idea 'Do Good & Have Fun.’
Holt loved that Walter Johnson gave him opportunities to lead.