As we start a new year, I have a few to offer to all of you. This past November, I attended a National Philanthropy Day luncheon honoring some of the area's most creative and hard-working philanthropists. They are certainly worthy of imitation!

Ben and Candy Carson were named Individual Philanthropists of the Year. This award is presented to an individual or family with a proven record of exceptional generosity who, through direct financial support, has demonstrated outstanding civic and charitable responsibility, and whose generosity encourages others to take philanthropic leadership roles on a community or regional level.

Many of us know about Ben's groundbreaking work in the field of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. His wife, Candy, is a musician and realtor. Both are exceptionally active on boards in the community.

Due to Ben's incredible journey from child living in poverty to world-renowned neurosurgeon, the Carsons' mission in life is to motivate all young people to push themselves through their perceived disadvantages and use their intellectual and leadership skills to contribute to society.

They are the co-founders of the Carson Scholars Fund and the newly formed BEN Fund. The scholarships are available to exceptional students in grades 4-12 who demonstrate humanitarian qualities, and apply to college tuition. The BEN Fund provides grants to children who are in need of serious neurosurgical care and do not have adequate insurance.

Mac Passano, in his introduction of the Carsons, stated “From rough beginnings, beautiful gemstones come. And, we have a marvelous matched pair in Ben and Candy Carson.”

Passano and his wife Helen were the 2001 Outstanding Philanthropist Award Recipients.

Also honored was the Goldseker Foundation as Outstanding Foundation of the Year. To qualify for this award, a foundation must demonstrate outstanding commitment through financial support and through encouragement and motivation of others to take leadership roles toward philanthropy and community involvement.

Last year, the Goldseker Foundation spent $4.1 million improving life in Baltimore. The foundation has many accomplishments in its 27-year history: providing leadership in the founding of the Baltimore Community Foundation and the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers; helping develop the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative, which focuses financial support, leadership development and technical assistance in Baltimore neighborhoods that are neither affluent nor abandoned (the vast majority of city neighborhoods “in the middle”); and jump-starting the East Baltimore Development Initiative, which has goals to create thousands of jobs and rejuvenate one of the nation's poorest and most distressed neighborhoods, to name but a few.

Walter D. Pinkard, Jr., chairman of the Baltimore Community Foundation, had this to say about the Goldseker Foundation: “Leadership and vision are the two words that jump to mind when I consider the Goldseker Foundation's impact. They have exercised their leadership through grantmaking, convening, formal studies of high impact areas as well as by marshalling other philanthropic resources around significant initiatives. With their strategic approach to all aspects of philanthropic leverage, they have tremendously enriched the Baltimore community since opening their doors in 1976.”

Of course, awards are very nice to receive. But it's my hope that hearing about these awards inspires all of us to dig a little deeper and be even more philanthropic ourselves.