Overview

The LPC Endowment is an investment account created to generate annual income for LPC’s operating expenses, scholarships and special projects. Funds in the Endowment, whether contributed by LPC supporters or transferred from other cash accounts at the direction of LPC’s governing body, are invested in socially responsible investments in accordance with LPC’s Investment Policy.  The principal placed in the Endowment is subject to self-imposed withdrawal restrictions to allow the fund to grow and generate more income over time. You may make a contribution and specifically designate its application to the Endowment here.

The LPC Family Initiative

The LPC Family Initiative is a fundraising campaign designed to raise the “seed money” to establish the LPC Endowment.  Families where two or more siblings had attended camp were asked to get together to contribute a requested minimum amount.  The result to date has been the creation of the Endowment with a starting balance in excess of $70,000.  Each of the participating families was asked to honor the ones who first introduced them to LPC and made their camp experience possible.  We offer some of their responses below and thank all of those who have participated in the LPC Family Initiative to date. We also acknowledge the generous contributions to the LPC Endowment, through the Family Initiative, by the Agulló Samaranch family and others.

The Bartholomew Family

In 1953, when she was 22, my mother Ann Sarolea was a counsellor in the fifth LPC camp, in Oberwölz Austria.  This experience moved her deeply, and she told us stories of the close community they created with the campers, Armin’s inspiring violin playing, and her lasting friendship with Natalie.  My sister Kate, brother Jamie and I each attended LPC, and later my own children, Tessa and Lucas.  (Mum was so excited to bring Tessa to Kiidi Estonia in 2002!)  We are grateful that Mum introduced us to this unique community, and our lives are richer for it. 

Sara Bartholomew

The Beckman Family

Born to a Czech Jew and a German Catholic in the midst of the war, then living amongst post- war emigres in Brazil and the US, our mother Elisabeth Heep Beckman bore the scars that LPC sought to heal. She hoped to connect her children with the culture she had fled as a child. So throughout the mid-70s she researched discount airfares and wrote countless aerogrammes to the LPC community, arranging extended stays for us in Europe before and after camp. Each summer she would eagerly return the favor by hosting foreign campers in our home in Providence, where she was delighted to be able to converse in any of the six languages she spoke fluently. Elisabeth was an active member of the LPC Board and enjoyed many work weekends in Freedom, where she enjoyed the camaraderie of the LPC community.

Claire Beckman, Kenny Beckman and Adam Beckman

The Drew Family

Bob and Thea Drew never went to LPC.  They were active members of the LPC-US Board, especially Thea who served as Board President and Treasurer for many years.  Above all, they supported the mission of LPC and emulated the goal of international understanding in their own lives.  They often hosted foreigners in their home and did important volunteer work in the developing world.  In terms of LPC, they faithfully attended Freedom work weekends, hosted counsellors and campers in their home in Barrington Rhode Island before and after camp, and even attended the Christmas Conferences several times.  Their children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren have attended LPC and we five offspring remain inspired by the lives they led.   We salute their lifelong commitment to international understanding and a more peaceful world, which is an important mission of LPC. 

Debby Drew, Helen Drew, Loie Drew, Tom Drew and Walter Drew

The Fock Family

We’d like to honor 3 great moms: Mien Remmelts, Mary Ann Boumeester and Inès Fock. These great Dutch ladies instantly saw the chances and charms presented by LPC, opened their homes to many LPC related get-togethers and sleep-overs and – most importantly – sent all their off spring to many 8 week camps in the 1970s – the norm back then – convincing their dear husbands that it was fine to ship their kids off for entire summers. Or maybe the convincing wasn’t too challenging? Certainly in the Fock household in Oegstgeest, peaceful summers without 3 teenage boys hitting each other over the heads made for a welcome change. Each and all enjoyed the LPC experiences thoroughly – we all relished the life style and discovered so much. Upon return we would eat mom’s kitchen empty but in less than 72 hours we all wanted to go back to Hegnes, Freedom, Buochs, Birch Point,  Hurdall, Charlottesville, Mooseney and what not. We all loved it so much – it’s awesome to see so many grandchildren of these 3 great ladies also in camps again and again. Nothing changed. Keep it up – and thank you, great (grand) moms!

Arent Fock

The Lockwood Family

My mother Irene, Natalie Peterson’s older sister, was on the train home to Barrington, RI after her first year at Wellesley College. She was in conversation with a friend of her mother’s and mentioned that she didn’t yet have a summer job. The woman suggested activities for children, as their mothers were all busy working for the war effort. Irene related this story at the dinner table and Natalie, who was still in high school, exclaimed, “Can we? Please, Irene, can we do a summer camp?!” And so they created the Barrington Day Camp. The rest is history.  

Sarah Lockwood Miller

The Luethi Family

  

All four of us Luethi kids were lucky enough to go to LPC from an early age – before we were born in fact, as Natalie and Armin timed the pregnancies so our arrivals wouldn’t interfere with camp. Most summers, from the year we were born until our late teens, we’d pack the duffle bags and set off by train, boat or plane to whichever camp we’d been assigned to in Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, France, Italy, England, ex-Yugoslavia or Freedom N.H. Some summers we were together, other times the family split up and didn’t reassemble until the end of summer, requiring a couple of days of intense swapping of camp stories before we were ready to transition into post-camp “normal” life. Clearly we chose our parents well, unimaginable not growing up with LPC and its people in our lives. Although Mona Renman wrote in one camp report: “Maybe they should skip camp one summer and experience something else besides LPC and the Ecole!” We didn’t follow her advice until years later.  

 Piet Luethi, Chris Luethi, Molly Luethi, Doey Luethi

The Sculley Family

Kira de Long and I met when we were three years old, lived two houses away from each other, and went to the same nursery school. Sometimes it seems that we spent as much time with each other’s family as with our own. I think I was seven or eight when Andy de Long (father of Maggie and Kira de Long) and Francine Connolly (mother of Andrea, Michelle, Heather, and Bethany Place) started bringing me along to work weekends in Freedom. It wasn’t until I was thirteen that I worked up the courage to try six weeks away from home at camp. Like so many of you reading this – I was hooked. I’m so grateful for Kira’s family for introducing me to LPC, but it was really my mother who supported my camp habit for many years. Well into my adulthood, my mom scraped together the resources and generously made it possible for me to attend LPC as a camper, counselor, and director, and also attend the Ecole. She saw the impact that camp had on my life and encouraged me to stay involved well past the time it was financially realistic for me to do so. She was even on the Board for many years herself. I’m lucky in a lot of ways that I met Kira, and that my mom is so giving – but the generosity of sharing LPC with me, and making it possible for me to be part of LPC, has had such a lasting impact on who I have become and how I try to raise my own daughter. It’s impossible to thank them in just this paragraph, but I hope that this LPC endowment gift in their honor is a start to show my profound appreciation to them. 

Jessica Evans Sculley 

The Streit Family

We honor our parents, Victor and Mary Streit.  Vic and Mary were thoroughly engaged world citizens, teaching European languages, traveling to over 120 countries, and committing themselves and their children to the ideal of international understanding long before they had heard of LPC. In the early years Mary and Vic hosted a number of LPC gatherings at their home and many counsellors coming to Freedom from abroad spent a day or two with the Streits on Long Island.  Through their life-changing school experience at the Ecole d’Humanité, the 5 younger Streits found a deep, decades-long connection to the Luethi-Peterson Camps, for which we will always be grateful. 

Rob Streit, Andy Streit, Dan Streit, Tom Streit and Lydia Streit Kennaway