January 2008: Alexandria, Virginia - Matt and ‘Dad’, Greg Davis, in editing session for Volume-I “The Inaugural Edition” BEST OF DC, ‘Defining Change’ in American Leadership (photo by Frank Nguyen)
January 1988: Alexandria, Virginia - Matt Davis edits Volume-17 “Holding Back This Year” TC Williams CERBERUS (photo by Charlie Mitchell)
success stories, our business ethics of hard work, investment in the local and national infrastructure, and ultimately, our ‘Giving-Back’ to the community through charities or community service to help others less fortunate live their dreams and potential. The BEST OF DC has a dual theme: The first is the ‘Man in the Arena’; companies and organizations which demonstrated leadership by succeeding through blood, sweat, and tears, overcoming immense obstacles to carve their success out of the regional and national economic fabric; the
second theme consists of these very same leaders using their success as a means to ‘Give Back to the Community’ in which they’ve prospered. Our government agencies follow this theme, led by the National Archives and Library of Congress which preserve and share our national knowledge base, the Patent and Trademark Office which sponsors and rewards innovation, and the Peace Corps, which sends its generous volunteers abroad into our global village to help those in developing countries achieve their dreams.
Our myriad of charities support thousands of worthy causes and derive their substance from the contributions of both successful corporations and from the actively involved citizens. Corporations donate millions of dollars through community outreach programs every year to help the less fortunate and also to sponsor the arts – which bring pleasure to the widest of audiences from all levels of the cultural and economic spectrum. In the end, we sought out ‘success stories’ through peer and constituent assessments which led us to some exceptional individuals and organizations. We also found some extraordinarily helpful people who provided us support in our research and who opened doors for us. Fran Counihan of Maryland’s ICC Project was very helpful, as was Trevor Wrayton of the Virginia Department of Transportation was very helpful with his dynamic photographs of highway and bridge construction, and Helen Worth of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory provided us with superb photos of a variety of national defense projects they have worked on. The firms, organizations, and government agencies we selected have shown remarkable leadership and demonstrate a cultural and economic impact, but more importantly, they set an extraordinary example for the region and the world to follow. We expect Teddy Roosevelt would approve.
to be definitely continued... Prologue
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It is also our pleasure to ‘Donate & Contribute’ 10% of our time/efforts/resources to foundations and charities that support the development their communities and causes.