Donor Stories

Fred LaValley & John Whitenight 
The generosity of the LGBT community is never ending.  DVLF has and will benefit from numerous deferred gifts from people of all corners of the LGBT community.  Everyone who makes a deferred gift to DVLF is inducted into the Legacy Society, which now has 44 charter members with expected bequest gifts totaling $8 million.
 
Two of our newest charter members are Fred LaValley and John Whitenight.  Fred and John met just shy of nine years ago by chance due to their mutual interest in antique collecting.  It was a Sunday afternoon and Fred had some out-of-town friends visiting.  They had heard of John's collection of Victorian decorative objects, or as Fred described, "anything under a glass dome."  They drove to his home in Newtown to see the famed collection, and immediately Fred fell for him.  The rest is history.
 
This past April, Fred and John informed Ted Greenberg, DVLF Board Member, and Perry Monastero, DVLF Executive Director, of their intention to make a bequest to DVLF.  While they made the decision together, they each did it for a different reason.
 
During a recent DVLF event at their home, John spoke of one of his proudest accomplishments.  He was asked to be a founding sponsor of one of the first Gay-Straight Alliances in Bucks County.  At a time when you had to keep your sexual orientation quiet, John decided that providing students with a safe environment to express themselves was the most important thing to do.
 
Fred's reasoning is highly influenced by his experience with other charitable endowments serving in the capacities of advisor and trustee.  He saw first hand the impact that well managed endowments can have on a community.  All great hospitals, schools, science foundations, and research organizations are successful because of their endowments, and he wanted that success mirrored in our community.  Their gift comes at a time when, in Fred's own words, "our community is coming into our legitimate place in society," and he thinks other members of our community should make a similar gesture of support.
 
"John and Fred are tremendously generous in their spirit and of their commitment to build the community.  One of the many things I thoroughly enjoy about this couple is helping them to meet other community members and leaders with similar commitments.  DVLF's board and I are most grateful for their impressive gifts to the organization," said Perry Monastero, Executive Director.
 
Fred and John have been extremely supportive of DVLF and of other organizations and their contributions will positively impact the LGBT community for many years to come.   The couple, through their contributions today and tomorrow, are securing our community's future.