The Piedmont Community Foundation and the Loudoun Education Foundation have received a gift from Lewis Parker, owner and winemaker at Willowcroft Farm Vineyards, of over $100,000 to establish a Science Endowment Fund to support Loudoun County's Annual Public School Science & Engineering Fair. The Willowcroft Science Endowment Fund will permanently endow the annual Science Fair. Parker has been passionately involved with the Fair for over seventeen years and is a firm believer in the importance of science education.

"I really believe that science is the future for our county and our country," he said. "We need to motivate and support the kids who have an interest in science and the teachers who help them. I hope to be able to add to the fund in the future, and I hope others will also contribute directly or through this endowment."

Parker also serves on the Loudoun County Science and Technology Cabinet, the key forum that encourages the development of Loudoun County and the region as a global center of science and technology.

PCF Executive Director Karen Krei and LEF Executive Director Dawn Meyer were delighted to receive Parker's gift. It was Ms. Meyer and her team who approached the PCF to handle the endowment for their foundation. "This is exactly the type of community support gift our Foundation was designed to facilitate," Krei elaborated.

"The Loudoun Education Foundation is excited and honored to be involved with The Willowcroft Science Endowment Fund," added Meyer.

The annual science fair is produced under the direction of Ms. Odette D. Scovel, science supervisor for Loudoun County Public Schools. "Mr. Parker feels it is extremely important to keep open an outstanding, creative path for high school students who excel in the sciences and also to reward their mentors," said Mrs. Scovel. "The competition is stiff and has several levels of achievement that are judged with qualified and serious deliberation. The new endowment will support student scholarships and awards for educators who inspire and guide the science work submitted in the competition."

Parker was lauded for his support of the fair over the past 17 years, and for his generous gift and understanding of the importance of the sciences for future generations and civilization as a whole.