We funded for the thirteenth consecutive year our firm's Traveling Fellowship program for four architecture students attending University of Maryland, University of Notre Dame and Yale University. The award allowed each student to travel to a place of their choosing for architectural study and to spend a ten week period working in our office over the summer.
We organized and sponsored our seventh annual gathering of professionals from the local building industry community to construct Gingertown. This year's theme was Gingertown University and included confectionary renditions of academic buildings, frat houses and sports facilities, to name just a few. The completed Gingertown was divided and shared with several local charities, including Children's National Medical Center, Deanwood Rehabilitation & Wellness, Martha's table, My Sisters Place, Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, So Others Might Eat, The Washington Home and The Wendt Center for Loss and Healing. Contributing sponsors for this year included Page Southerland Page, WDG, Walter P Moore, Davis Construction, ZGF Architects and Faithful & Gould. We collected over $20,000 that will be given directly to the charities mentioned.
For the 6th straight year we took part in the Washington Architecture Foundation's CANstruction, where teams formed by local architecture firms design and build constructions made from non-perishable food goods. At the end of the 
event all food items as well as cash donations from firm participants and sponsors are donated to the Capital Area Food Bank. The WAF states that ‘The Washington, DC CANstruction competitions have donated more than 250 tons of food in the last 12 years’.
We continue to be a major supporter of Food and Friends, having purchased a table to their annual Chef's Best Benefit for over twenty five years. This is a local charitable organization whose ‘…mission…is to foster a community caring for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses by preparing and delivering specialized meals and groceries in conjunction with nutrition counseling’.
We made the second installment towards a 5 year pledge to the Child Life Artists in Residence Program at The Cook Fort Worth Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. Cook has been a major client of our firm for over 25 years and this pledge goes to their Health Foundation to provide enhancements for patient programs and services.
We reached out to Phelps High School on two separate occasions this year. First, we gave a contribution as part of the 2012 AIA Convention Legacy Project. Second, we sponsored a student as part of our participation in the School's internship program. Phelps is a Washington DC magnet public high school whose curriculum focuses on architecture, engineering and related construction professions. The funds donated will be used to purchase equipment and software for the School's Visual Language Lab.
We also continued our 5 year pledge commitment to the Washington DC AIA's District Architecture Center, which celebrated its first full year of service in 2012 providing educational opportunities, including classes, lectures, workshops and exhibits for the public and the local architecture community.
