Foundation honors  

2012 award recipients    

  

The Annual Meeting provides a public moment for the Waterford Foundation to acknowledge outstanding contributions of its members and supporters. Board members called up on stage individuals to receive Lifetime Achievement, Volunteer of the Year, and Partnership Awards last Tuesday evening.

  

Bonnie Getty congratulates Ann Mathews.

Ann Mathews received the Lifetime Achievement Award for her decades of effort in support of the Foundation's mission.

  

Ann can truly be credited with helping launch the conservation easement program in the Waterford National Historic Landmark  in the early 1970s. Without this effort, Waterford would be a very different place today. Because of her efforts, as the Foundation's first chairman of the Open Spaces Committee, Waterford has the highest concentration of easements on its historic structures and open spaces in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She helped define the true mission of the Waterford Foundation.

 

As a member of the Board from 1975 to 1978, and again from 1997 to 2002, our Lifetime Achievement Award winner has also demonstrated her ability to raise the thousands of dollars it takes to preserve a fragile historic area in the midst of booming suburbia. She has been an untiring fundraiser as co-chair of capital campaigns during two crucial times in Waterford's recent history--in the early 1990s when development first became a threat to the Landmark and the Foundation was actively engaged in purchasing and easing endangered properties and during the 2009 to 2012 Raise the Roof of the Old School capital campaign which has brought us to this shining new auditorium today.

 

A resident of Waterford since 1969, she has shared her former home, the Mendenhall House, (which she placed under easement in the early 1970s), and her current residence, the Shawen House, during many Waterford Homes Tours and has served on the Fair Review Committee.

 

Though she has retired from her distinguished career in journalism and public affairs, she and her husband Tom continue to provide invaluable fundraising and public relations advice and actively engage in preserving the Waterford National Historic Landmark they helped to establish.

  

Mary Hutton cleans up after setting stones outside of the John Wesley Community Church.

Our volunteers are a priceless asset. Each year we recognize one volunteer who has gone above and beyond in their efforts to support the Foundation's work. This year's Volunteer of the Year is Mary Hutton. Mary has contributed her time and energy in especially noteworthy ways. She is one of our most devoted preservationists; she understands old buildings and what it takes to keep them well maintained.  

 

As acting chair of the Properties Committee in 2011, she stretched every penny the committee had available to maintain the Foundation's properties. And thanks to her, our HVAC systems are all working. Trees that might threaten any building--or visitors--have been trimmed or removed and are under control. A strategy for approaching non-emergency repairs is in place. Monitoring reports we received from our easement holders have been thoroughly responded to. And instruction sheets for our alarm systems are posted next to each system. Many times the work needing attention has prompted her to haul out her own ladder to tend to the repair. Thankfully the repairs are minor, but they require attention. And she has always been ready and willing to provide the needed support.

 

In addition, she is a member of the team that is overseeing our use of transportation enhancement grant funds for our important Mill restoration project that got underway in 2011. She also served on the Foundation's Ad Hoc Water Supply Committee that looked at all the Foundation's water resources on its various properties and quantified just how those resources benefit the Foundation and the village for which she authored a thoroughly documented report that will be an extremely useful resource for many years to come.

 

And as the year drew to a close, she worked very closely with the Foundation's Finance Committee to create a workable budget for the Properties Committee to ensure continued maintenance of the Foundation's properties during these lean times.

 

We cannot begin to count how many hours Mary has devoted--and continues to devote--to our properties and their well being. Mary, we are extremely grateful.

This year's Partnership Award recognizes a business that has repeatedly supported the Foundation in countless ways. Known as a "Neighbor You Can Bank On," this organization has proven to be an exceptional neighbor of the Foundation. We are exceptionally pleased  

Dwight Lampley accepts from President Getty and Executive Director Nancy Doane the Partner of the Year Award for Middleburg Bank.

While our relationship with Middleburg Bank began a number of years ago, during the past two years we have forged a partnership that is truly extraordinary. They have been exceptionally responsive to any call for guidance or assistance, and through their cooperation we were able to expeditiously update and extend our existing line of credit to be used for construction of the Old School auditorium. And now that we are here to celebrate its completion, it becomes readily apparent how meaningful that action was.

They have also, through their Community Cares program, extended services to nonprofit organizations which are unparalleled. The favorable interest rates applied, and particularly the free remote check-depositing service provided, were instrumental in our decision to utilize accounts with their bank for our state rehabilitation tax credit initiative as well as for a segregated Rebuild the Old School account.

Our positive experience with those accounts subsequently led the Finance Committee to authorize the transfer of the Foundation's operating account as well to Middleburg Bank. The efficiencies of their services and professionalism of their staff-without exception-have reinforced the soundness of this move. Teller support during the Fair--an area of major concern--was extraordinarily seamless. Accompanying this contributed service was also the donation of credit card machines for points of sale throughout the Fair through their merchant services vendor Terrapin Services. And let's not overlook their offer to join the ranks of our corporate sponsors for the Fair.

A true business partner is someone you know you can rely on when you turn to them for support. And without question, this is precisely what we have come to depend on from Middleburg Bank. Indeed, we deeply value the partnership we have forged.

Two Foundation Board members completed their terms this April, and were honored for their service: Warren Hayford served three years on the Board, one as treasurer; Phil Paschall has completed a second 6-year term. The Foundation thanks them for their donations, time, and expertise, and looks forward to their continued volunteer service on committees.  

At its business meeting April 17, the Foundation elected new officers and welcomed three new board members. Walter Music is the Foundation's new president; Margaret Bocek will serve as vice-president. Susan Honig Rogers will be secretary and the new treasurer is Jim Sutton.

Charles Beach, Jim Gosses, and Kent Marrs have joined the board for their first three-year term.  

SESQUICENTENNIAL  

Samuel Means.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the formation of the Independent Loudoun Virginia Rangers, the Waterford Foundation is cosponsoring with the Lovettsville Historical Society and two Union Veterans' groups a Reunion of Ranger descendants on June 23, 2012. This event will honor the only organized cavalry command from present-day Virginia to fight with the United States Army during the Civil War. On 20 June 1862, Waterford miller Samuel Means began mustering in his command on Waterford's main street.  

Organizers of the event are seeking to locate as many Ranger descendants as possible.  New research shows that there were almost 300 men who enlisted in the Loudoun Rangers, mostly from the Lovettsville and Waterford areas, but also from Frederick and Washington counties in Maryland and from Jefferson County in what is now West Virginia--as you can see on the roster posted here.   

Festivities will begin between 10 and 11 a.m. at Waterford's Old School with registration. Attendees will be able to mingle with mounted Loudoun Ranger re-enactors who will perform cavalry demonstrations. Local historians Taylor Chamberlin and John and Bronwen Souders will be available to sign their books about the Civil War in Waterford and its surroundings. There will be a guided tour of Civil War sites in the village to include the Sam Means House and the Union of Churches Cemetery. Lee Stone, an officer in the Sons of Union Veterans who is currently preparing an annotated Roster of the Rangers to be published by the Waterford Foundation, will give a talk in the Baptist Church about the clash that took place there between Means's command and Lige White's Confederate Cavalry forces.  

Later that afternoon descendants will reassemble for a reception, dinner and further discussion at historic WeatherLea Farm in Lovettsville (this portion of the Reunion will be restricted to direct and co-lateral Ranger descendants).

Descendants and others interested in attending this event should email the Waterford Foundation or call 540-882-3018, ext. 117.