Volunteer wisdom

All these places — VCU, Habitat, the Red Cross, etc. — are connected in that they help form civil society. What do you think about those connections? Why are they the places you gravitate toward? Because I don’t think it’s coincidental.

I think you’re right. I did a lot of volunteer work, too, with the High Museum of Art when I was in Atlanta. And as much as I loved it, I didn’t feel like I would be a good fundraiser for a museum. What’s important to me is feeling like what I’m doing is going to make a difference in someone’s life. I think that, maybe, is a common thread.

Fundraising is a lot like selling a product. In some cases, like Habitat, that’s very tangible. Getting people into affordable housing is a life-changing thing. The blood services department at the Red Cross is a lifesaving thing. We raised money to set up tech workshops through the Girl Scouts — help girls build science, technology and math skills — and had a partnership with Delta where they could meet female pilots and learn about careers in aviation. So we were exposing girls to things that they might not have had the opportunity to experience otherwise.

And that reminds me, somebody did that for me. I hadn’t thought about that quite that much.

What’s that story?

I grew up in Hagerstown, Maryland. My friend Gwen’s parents owned a peach orchard and my very first job was working in the orchard one summer, thinning peaches. Gwen was a baton twirler — I think she was a majorette in a local band — and I really wanted to try it. I started going to an instructor named Buzz Langlotz. And I loved it. 

I became a majorette. And if you chose, you could become part of the group that participated in parades, little festivals and occasionally traveled to competitions. And I remember going to a competition in Milwaukee. I remember participating in the parade at the National Cherry Blossom Festival. We went to New York and Baltimore. And my family couldn’t afford to travel like that. We didn’t do vacations — I didn’t know people who did vacations. Twirling gave me a chance to see things outside my little world. 

And then when I went to college, it really changed my life. I was a retail management major, and we had advertising classes, sales, marketing, accounting. It’s hard to believe today, but at that time representatives from major department stores would come on campus and interview those of us going into our junior year for internships. I actually did an internship before my senior year with Strawbridge & Clothier in Philadelphia. 

I think that’s what motivates me to give to VCU. There’s that chance to really change somebody’s life. Because that happened to me.

Does that answer your question or have I rambled too much?

No, not at all. I love a yarn. Sometimes that’s the best way to explain something like this.

I mean when I went to RPI, I had enough money for probably one semester, and I didn’t know what I was going to do from there. But I was there. I had two part-time jobs and graduated with substantial debt, but I also had an education. 

I went back to visit campus after I retired from the Girl Scouts in 2009, and I started to wonder if, someday, I could endow a scholarship. I was a single parent. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I wanted to do that because I felt like I would be touching lives for a long time. I know how hard it was for me and yet how freeing it was to be out of my little world and into this bigger one. My husband, Alan, and I divorced in 1979. But he was putting himself through college — he transferred from RPI to Virginia Tech — while I was at RPI, and so even though we divorced, I put his name on the scholarship because I wanted it to be a family thing.

I’ve been thinking about what you said about fundraising being like selling. Were your skills in business and where you worked a blending of what you were good at and what you valued?

Absolutely. I think the skills and my experiences … well, let me just ramble again for a second.

Go ahead.

For instance, Alan and I lived in Haiti for two years in the late 1970s. He was an industrial engineer and working for Rawlings Sporting Goods — baseballs at that time were handsewn in a plant in Port-au-Prince. Our two sons were in elementary school, and I managed a thrift shop for the International Women’s Association of Haiti. 

I saw how hard people worked for so little, and yet they still had faith and continued to get up every morning and go out and work. I admired that and I left a piece of my heart in Haiti. And I think that pushed me toward some of the positions I had and some of the ways I try to give back. 

I needed to see that a program would make a difference. Like I said, I love museums, but I don’t think I’d be a good fundraiser for a museum.

Because there’s a difference between a museum and, say, a school or community nonprofit?

Right. The mission is different. To me, in higher education you are touching lives one on one and giving [people] the opportunity to explore who they are and where they want to go. I think the thing that I learned about myself is it had to be something I could see or touch. We have a local charity here, North Fulton Community Charities. They run a food pantry, and I support them because I know their programs reach individual people and help make their lives a little bit better. So what I’ve learned is that’s what helps me form a belief in an organization. I don’t look for big and flashy. I look for steady.