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In Richmond one can become numb from touching history. From Thomas Jefferson (Virginia’s Capitol; Tuckahoe Plantation) to Patrick Henry (St. John’s Church; Historic Polegreen Church) to the Civil War (pick your battlefield), this town is blessed with abundance. Nearby are giants of historic preservation (Williamsburg, Jamestown-Yorktown, Monticello).

However, for many baby boomers like me, who have spent our lives changing the world, numbness turns to tingles when we can touch the history we have actually lived. I was recently introduced to the open-but-still-under-development Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville, Virginia.

We baby boomers were but youth during the Civil Rights era. Roll your mind back to the 1950’s and 1960’s. Recall the cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Conjure the scenes of sit-ins that evolved to marches that culminated in King’s stirring speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial looking out over the throngs of people who dared to dream. Feel the fear of the riots that tore our cities apart after King’s assassination.

The role of the Robert Russa Moton School in Farmville was less visible, yet vitally important, and it occurred four years prior to Rosa Parks’ renowned bus ride. Here began a Civil Rights drama that unfolded in the courtroom. Richmond attorneys Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill were the protagonists, school desegregation was the issue, and Massive Resistance and Brown v. Board of Education (the consolidation of five cases including Moton) became the battlefields.

In 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns motivated 400 students to strike in response to the unequal education system afforded African Americans under the “separate but equal” doctrine. She hounded Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill, according to her sister, until they would take the landmark case in which they prevailed. You can stand on the stage where she spoke. By the way, this very story is the subject of the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial, adjacent to the Executive Mansion on the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol.
(http://www.dgs.virginia.gov/DivisionofEngineeringandBuildings/CivilRightsMemorial/tabid/1035/Default.aspx)

New exhibits will place Johns in the historical context of the era and will tell the story of how Prince Edward County closed its public school system for five years beginning in 1959, rather than integrate them. A generation of learners was lost. Visitors will learn how National Education Association members from across the country made gifts to support the opening of “Free Schools” to educate Prince Edward County children in 1963 and 1964, until he schools were finally re-opened by order of the Supreme Court.

Moton has great advisors – consultants Charlie Bryan (formerly president of the Virginia Historical Society) and Dan Jordan (formerly president of Monticello). The plans are impressive as are its early supporters, which include Prince Edwards County, the Kellogg Foundation and Altria.

For information about visiting Moton or providing funding for its development, visit the website at http://motonmuseum.com/. For more background on Barbara Johns’ remarkable story, including an eyewitness account by her sister, visit http://www.core-online.org/History/barbara_johns.htm.

If fund raising is successful, at the Moton Museum we will be able to touch history while a few of the hands that molded it can still be held.

Kristan Schaaf was having a bad day last January, when Media General announced furloughs for the staff to cut expenses. “With the negativity prevalent in the workplace and on the news,” recalls Kristan, “I decided to surround myself with better. There is good going on despite all bad.”

Donning a positive attitude and brimming with desire to spend her unpaid time doing something for someone less fortunate, Kristan reflected on her prior work at Beads for Life (http://www.familymatters.tv/level_4/makeadifference/beadsforlife.htm), a program that created a cottage industry in Uganda to help women earn their way out of poverty. While a week is too short for most mission trips, Kristan found Heaven Sent Ministries (http://www.hsminc.org/), which assists people who want to make a difference and have limited time. Early this morning, with the financial participation of friends and family, she left for Honduras bearing gifts for kids, donated clothing and 24 toothbrushes.

“I will be staying with two missionaries who live in a house in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
I am helping out with the children’s orphanages, both local and state run. I have never done anything like this before. Everyone is so supportive. I really need this in my life right now.”

Jennifer Miller had an even worse day last January, losing her job of 9 years at Circuit City. She made a poignant observation, “With my pink slip in hand, I realized that I had just been promoted to full time volunteer. I had always wanted to have more time to volunteer and now I had my chance.”

In her own words:

“My first week off, I began taking a group of former Circuit City associates to the Central Virginia Foodbank (http://www.feedmore.org/) to volunteer in the warehouse. As the weeks went by, my group grew. I started with 3 volunteers and ended up taking between 12 and15 each week. I started to put together a fundraising cookbook for the Foodbank, thanks to the support of Pat Morris. I never would have been able to kick off such a large project while I was working. We intend to go to print this fall in time to sell lots of cookbooks for the Holidays.

“I also used my free time to volunteer more with Hands On Greater Richmond (http://www.handsongr.org/). Although I had become a Team Leader last summer, I had always been too busy working to volunteer as much as I would have liked. So, I started signing up for all kinds of projects from painting murals at a community center to feeding the homeless at the Conrad Center and to doing arts and crafts with the kids at HomeAgain. I updated the training manual for the HOGR Team Leaders, working out of the office with Vanessa Diamond and her team at least once a week, helping however I could. Vanessa and Elaine Summerfield asked me to chair the Steering Committee for Hands On Greater Richmond Day on October 17th, so we’ve started the planning for that over the last few months.

“I am also on the Cabinet for the Susan G. Komen Race for The Cure, as the Volunteer Co-Chair, so my free time allowed me to get more involved with the planning and preparation for our Race on May 9. I helped plan our first Annual Volunteer Celebration and Training Luncheon on April 25 to thank our volunteers during National Volunteer Week. And just this week, they asked me to help plan the Survivor Celebration in September.”

Jennifer’s story has a happy ending. She found a job in early April as the communications and training manager for AECOM (http://www.aecom.com/). Jennifer reminisces about her 10-week career as a full-time volunteer, “I know now that I will always make time for my volunteer work, and I will never allow my “day-job” to be as all-consuming as it was when I worked at Circuit City.”

Mom was right. If you’re having a bad day, then don’t. You have a choice.

Famous people have the power to motivate young people. Witness Friday’s event where NASCAR driver Bobby Labonte drove 10-year-olds Kara Satterwhite and Janak Jaini from home to Cold Harbor Elementary School (http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/education/article/BOBB02_20090501-222025/265232/) in a No. 96 Ford decorated specially for the school. The entire student body cheered their arrival, and these two innovative kids earned ultimate lunchtime bragging rights for weeks to come. Kara and Janak earned their free ride by winning a contest sponsored by Ask.com, and the school received $10,000 in computer equipment that will facilitate safe searches on the internet.

This PR event was all positive. Kids in many area schools competed and learned about internet safety. The story puts a punctuation point on Richmond’s big race weekend.

There are many examples of famous people leveraging their brand for good:
• Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (http://www.oprahsschool.com), which provides education and leadership opportunities for girls in Africa;

• Cal Ripkin, Sr. Foundation (http://www.ripkenfoundation), which builds ball fields in inner city neighborhoods and is developing locations here in Richmond in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond (http://www.bgcmr.org/);

• Tiger Woods Foundation (http://www.tigerwoodsfoundation.org/), which sponsors a career and character development program for youth.

However, the leverage in building star power brands cuts both ways. How many young people had their dreams dashed when some of baseball’s biggest stars were caught up in the steroid scandal? How many admiring kids felt disillusioned when Michael Vick went to jail over dog fighting? How many Oprah Winfreys, Cal Ripkins, Tiger Woods and Bobby Labontes will it take to repair the damage done by these fallen heroes?

We have local examples of heroes who have used built their brand in very positive ways:
• Richmond Kickers soccer star Rob Ukrop is a leader in the Richmond Police Athletic League (http://www.richmondpal.com) and tirelessly promotes the sport of soccer for local youth.

• Astronaut and former Richmond Spider Leland D. Melvin has been highly visible promoting youth education, and science education in particular.

• Finally, who could have been a more influential and positive role model than the late Arthur Ashe, Jr.?

As we celebrate these heroes and hold them high as examples for our youth, we also pray that they appreciate their responsibility to steer clear of bad behavior. To paraphrase the motto of Bobby Labonte’s sponsor, Ford, encouraging today’s youth to learn and achieve is job one.

It was a mild, breezy morning at the cemetery. The family and Mom’s few remaining closest friends gathered in remembrance and in anticipation of what the grandchildren would have to say. This was their day to talk and ours to listen.

After reading some of their Gram’s favorite poems, they each read a final email to her. You see, my mom began emailing practically when AOL was created. Email was her daily connection to all the family. Electronically she followed our lives and spread her optimism and her values, and yesterday we appreciated just how strongly she had influenced this younger generation. Mom always signed her grandchildren’s emails, “Hugs and love, Gram.”

Let me digress. The morning after my mom passed away, I invited all the family to our house to remember her in the manner she would have wanted. She loved bringing the family together. Bringing us together was her role, and continuing that tradition is a challenge she set forth for my siblings and me in no uncertain terms.

There were no speeches, just 100% of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren clicking glasses and saying “Happy Days,” playing and having fun. At the end of this exhilarating evening, made poignant by the sadness we all felt, we asked the grandchildren if they would take charge of doing their grandmother’s eulogy. We thought this would be a good way for the cousins to share together their memories and to inspire the rest of us, as these grandchildren are all adults now.

So, the next night the seven grandchildren got together to write their eulogy at my nephew’s house. And, following our good example the night before they partied and laughed, shared their stories and decided little more than their motif for the eulogy, which was to each write a final email to Gram. Sometime between late that evening and the following morning, each put their pen to paper.

The outcome was emotionally breathtaking. Each of the grandchildren – so different in their own goals and life choices – all expressed that same positive, can do spirit. My niece said that Gram came to visit her at the restaurant where she worked and asked how she was doing. She said she was having a bad day, and her Gram said, “Well, don’t! You have a choice.”

Another niece repeated Gram’s words, “You can never love your children too much.” Everyone recalled fun times with her, and some recalled times when she helped them through a rough patch. She was a friend, not just a grandmother.

Looking forward, not back. Bringing everyone together. Choosing to find the positive in every situation. Loving unconditionally. Always finding something to do for someone else. We witnessed the passing of values from one generation to the next and the next. That legacy is now each of ours to pass to future generations.

So, you see, we haven’t really lost our mom and our children’s Gram. We just have to get busy and move forward. There are lots of hugs and love we have to pass along.

Capt. Richard Phillips made me well up with pride as I watched his homecoming speech. “I’m not the hero,“ he said. “The military is the hero. Thank them.“ Wow.

Indeed there are many heroes in the return of the captain and crew of the Maersk Alabama from the grasp of the pirates. A success like that doesn’t happen unless many people play their roles well from the President to the military, so many people behind the scenes, the ship’s owners, the crew and their captain.

I want to focus today, as Capt. Phillips urged, on the military. Capt. Phillips is right. Our military personnel are heroes every day, even when their efforts are pushed from the front pages of the newspaper.

The wounded, particularly, are heroes, and their families bear a huge burden when their lives have to adjust to their bread winner’s treatment, recovery and subsequent disability. The military does a lot for these people, but they cannot do enough.

We have a group of heroes here in the Richmond area doing something about this problem. They call themselves Families of the Wounded (http://www.familiesofthewoundedfund.org), and they are a 501(c)(3) public charity, and they operate from Midlothian.

The board consists of veterans who care for their own. Nothing seems beyond their capability. Every dollar they raise goes to the families of the wounded. A wounded soldier shows up at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center, and the group’s president, R. Calvert “Cal” Esleeck, Jr. hands the family a check for $6,000. No strings attached and no questions asked. As many of these people are in financial straits, receiving a check like this can be a religious experience.

I have known about this group since their formation at the height of the Iraq War, and I had a chance to re-connect at a recent breakfast with Cal, Paul Galanti and our host, Bruce Heilman. Talk about being in the presence of a hero, I hope you have the chance to have breakfast sometime with Bruce Heilman in the Heilman Dining Center at the University of Richmond. This first class facility rivals any of its kind, and it is a fitting tribute to a man who as University President left a legacy of greatness. Ever a Marine, Bruce, who is in his 80’s, was well into his breakfast and preparing for his day when I arrived at 7:15.

Paul told me a story about a soldier’s wife who literally prayed for a solution to her dilemma. Cal showed up with a check the next day, and her relief is still palpable years later. She told Cal he was her angel.

I checked out the facts on zero operating expenses by reviewing the organization’s IRS Form 990. In 2007, expenses were $176,700, and not a dime went to operating expenses. Cal, who knows a thing or two about accounting, prepares the tax forms by hand for free. Village Bank handles administrative costs like printing. The volunteers pay for everything themselves.

So, the next time you are looking for a way to do what Capt. Phillips suggests and say thank you to the military, here is a great way to do it. Make a gift to Families of the Wounded. The angel who arrives with a $6,000 check will deliver your thanks in a way that truly makes a difference.