Some mothers from McLean are using their talents — and phone books — to kick up support for a Washington, D.C., man who has opened his heart and wallet to children.
A group of 19 women from McLean, lead by Cynthia Bapst and Pamela Thompson, will be hosting the Diamonds and Boots Under the Stars fund-raiser on June 18 to benefit the Community Youth Connection, a nonprofit organization founded by Al Fox, a driver for a lobbying firm in Washington that has spent the past 16 years raising money to provide some basic supplies to underprivileged children.
"Even though the event hasn't happened yet, it's a huge success," Bapst said. "We've sold out our 20 tables."
With ticket prices at $150 per person and 10 people per table, the event has already raised $30,000 for the Community Youth Connection, she said.
For Bapst and her friends, the call to help was an easy one to answer.
"I've always felt I was lucky and fortunate, living here in McLean," she said. "I wanted to contribute to a charity where I could actually make a difference. We have so much, I had no idea there were so many children in our area that needed so much."
In 1989, Fox decided to take the matter of child poverty into his own hands and began using his client phone list to solicit contributions to purchase things like shoes, clothing, winter jackets and other basic needs for school children in D.C., Bapst said.
"So many of these children never knew what it was like to go to a store and pick out a shirt or pair of brand-new sneakers themselves," she said.
FOX WORKS WITH schools in the District to find the most needy children to help, she said. In addition to providing clothing, sometimes Fox will throw pizza parties for students who have improved their grades, even taking a group of students who had improved the most to Disney World.
"What Al would like to do is take these kids out of the city," she said. "He depends on his family, including his 10 grown children, to help him out and act as chaperones when he takes the kids to different places, but he pays for everything himself."
A portion of the proceeds from the event on June 18 will be used to send some children to summer camp, Bapst said, where the children will have a chance to see grass and wild animals her own children take for granted.
For his work helping underprivileged children, Fox has been featured as one of Oprah Winfrey's "Angels," Bapst said, which helped him receive a $1 million federal grant to keep up his charitable work.
"There's a short tape of his appearance on the show that we'll show at the fund-raiser," she said. "It's amazing what he's done. The tape made me cry."
An event like this, featuring professional musicians Dillon Dixon, David Williams and James Dean Hicks, all flying up from Nashville for the evening, in addition to food from local restaurant Sesto Senso and tables from local shops, sounds like the work of a professional.
But these women have never coordinate an event before on their own.
"I love to entertain, so I just kind of figured this would be like one big party," Bapst said. "I've served on committees before, but I've never coordinated something like this on my own."
A friend of Fox's for more than 10 years, Pamela Thompson said she first got involved in the Community Youth Connection when Fox asked some of the women in his office to write letters to his clients for donations.
"We'd write letters at Christmas to try to raise some money for him to take the kids to the store to go shopping for their families," Thompson said. "He's been able to foster relationships with various schools in the District to help families who need it most."
Each family receives a certain allotment of money to use for buying clothes and he also gives the families a gift basket with $150 worth of food, she said.
"He's been doing this for so long," she said of Fox.
Before becoming a professional driver, Fox owned some stores throughout the area and saw children "who had nothing. How can you not do something when you see that? People always want to help, and all you really need to do is look into your own community" to find a place to give, she said.
The fund-raiser will feature a sit-down dinner, she said, along with cocktails and the musical performances. "Squire Chase of McLean has donated some china that we'll raffle off to raise more money for him," she said. "We'd love for this to be an annual event, but we'll see how this goes first."
FOX IS PLANNING to attend the fund-raiser, Thompson said. "He's thrilled that we're doing this for him. He's a big old teddy bear and he's just tickled pink that we're trying to help him," she said. "Anything to help the kids, he's all for it."
Thompson said she has thrown dinner parties in the past and served on a few committees, but this is the largest event she has been involved in on an individual basis.
"Cindy's done all the organizing, and it was her idea to put together a committee," she said of Bapst. "Everyone is so gung-ho to get together and help with this."
She agrees with Bapst that living in McLean creates a sort of "bubble" that insulates some people from the poverty that lies just a few miles inside the Beltway.
"It's good to give back," she said. "It's good to see people get excited about helping others."
A former member of the Choral Arts Committee in Washington, Piper Gioia has served as chairwoman for some large fund-raisers in the past.
"I've also done a lot at my children's school here in McLean and worked on the INOVA gala. I've been on that board for five or six years," she said. "This time, everyone on the committee is a young woman with children, so it really hits home."
Other fund-raisers have been more established, with specific calls to make and a certain timeline to follow, she said. This event, being the first of its kind for the women involved, has allowed for a different sort of organizational theory.
"My mother is going to be the keynote speaker," Gioia said.
The children being helped through Fox's generosity are at the center of the women's thoughts, she said. "This is a group of local moms trying to help a great guy do things for children. It's a great cause to support," she said.
Gioia was in charge of selling tickets for the 20 tables of 10 seats, a mission she's already accomplished.
"We're having the event outdoors, so if more people show up we should be able to squeeze them in," she said. "Cindy's got a big backyard."
As a realtor with Weichert, Victoria Stelljes said she has used her community connections to contribute to the Diamonds and Boots event.
"We work so much in the community that we feel it's important to give back," she said.
A member of the Choral Arts Society, lending her hand to such a grassroots fundraiser as this one was a bit of a challenge.
"The Choral Arts Society is such an established Washington tradition that things were always in place," she said. "This is a lot about inventing the wheel. It's a lot more entrepreneurial than established."
But as a published author of two books about children's catechism, Stelljes said it was her love of children that motivated her to join Bapst and Thompson in their endeavor.
"We are so blessed in this community," she said. "It's nice to know we'll be able to help out in some small way."