April 2015

                   
  Living Legends of Alexandria  
 

April 2015

 
     
             
   
 
 

In This Issue:

 
     

 
 

Calendar

Through February 28, 2016

2015 Living Legends of Alexandria Photos

Alexandria City Hall

Market Square lobby

301 King Street

Alexandria, Va. 22314

 
     

 
 

Prints Available

You’ve seen them exhibited at City Hall.
Now you can have your own Portrait of a Legend
(or give one as a gift).

Custom Framed Prints

Signed by the Artist

16×16: $325; 11×11: $250

Smaller print sizes and Gift Certificates Available.

Call 703-838-8098 for details.

 
     

 
 

LLA Logo Golf Shirts & Caps

Wear your support for Living Legends over your heart (and on your head)! Order your LLA Logo Golf Shirts ($45) and caps ($25) today. Download an Order Form.

 
     

 
 

Holy Cow Donations!

Remember to support Living Legends when get your burgers at Holy Cow Burger Joint, 2312 Mt. Vernon Avenue.

In an innovative partnership with ACT for Alexandria, 2014 Living Legend Mike Anderson gives back to more than 75 local nonprofits by donating $.25 for every burger sold at Holy Cow, Del Ray’s Gourmet Burger Joint. Living Legends is #045 on the list. And yes, they serve veggie-burgers.

 
     

 
 

Board of Directors

President

Joe Shumard

Vice President

Bill Kehoe

Secretary

Mary Anne Weber

Treasurer

Rodger Stephens

Members

Audrey Davis

Linda Hafer

A. Melvin Miller

Pam St. Clair

Director Emeritus

Nina Tisara

 
     

 
 

Connect with us on Social Media

Follow us on Twitter @Alexlvnglegends

Find us on Facebook: Living Legends of Alexandria

 
     
   
     
 

Message from the Founder

We’ve caught our collective breaths following the very successful Meet the Legends reception and are focused now on recruiting leadership for the coming years. Some of our board members are retiring at the end of June and we’re looking for some very special people to replenish our ranks.

It is a low-key board, a very collegial group, which meets about six times each year. Primarily, the board works to recruit nominations for Living Legends, helps in the selection process and helps fundraise. Through committees it assists in the production of the catalog, organizes events, helps with exhibitions and generally promotes the enterprise in the Alexandria Community. Everyone serves on at least one committee that focuses on one of the listed elements.

Serving on this board would be time consuming, but not all consuming. We are looking for very special kinds of people who are well-connected in the City and who are willing and able to contribute some of their special talents to this enterprise. We need do-ers and donors, people who can be responsible for taking on a project and seeing it through to a successful conclusion and/or people who are able to support us financially or who can successfully fundraise for us.

If you would like to be considered for board membership, please contact Joe Shumard, [email protected].

Very best wishes,

Nina Tisara

 
     
 

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2015 Living Legend of Alexandria — Fred Parker

by Diane Bechtol

Fred Parker, Living Legend of Alexandria

Photo by Steven Halperson/Tisara Photography

Frederic Goodfellow Parker is recognized for his pioneering spirit and the economic value it contributed to upper King Street and the entire City of Alexandria.

Prior to 1980, someone with a hankering for a “bowl of red” on upper King Street would have had a hard time of it. There were few restaurants or attractions and many tired buildings needed rehabilitation.

“It was a rough area,” recollects Parker. When he and his now deceased brother and business partner Jim picked this location for their legendary chili parlor Hard Times Café, early customers sometimes had their cars broken into while dining inside. “But they kept coming back.” Thirty-four years later, they’ve served an estimated 1.1 million bowls of chili. Aside from the Alexandria location, the Hard Times brand has been franchised to include 15 more venues. Parker manages chili products sales on the company website and stars in You Tube videos to spread his passion to the online world.

James Beard and Julia Child have tasted and praised Hard Times chili. The Zagat restaurant ratings guidebook named it “Best Chili in the Cosmos” and in 2005, USA Today declared it “One of the Ten Best Places” in the country for a bowl of chili. The Parker family has earned more than 100 chili-cooking competitions awards and Fred is an advisory board member of the International Chili Society and on the judging panel of the World’s Championship Cook-off. Fred still judges local chili competitions. One of Fred’s proudest chili booster moments occurred when the chili lobby was founded at Hard Times Café with the mission of making chili America’s official food. A copy of the “Chili Bill” with a picture of its sponsor hangs in Hard Times.

Concurrently, upper King Street grew a Metro station, brick sidewalks, a park, sleek office buildings, elegant hotels, small businesses and national associations, and an array of quality shops and restaurants that make it a desirable destination for locals and tourists, and an income generator for the City.

Read More Here: alexandrialegends.org

 

 
     
     
     
 

2014 Legend Video Interview on YouTube

Video interviews of all the 2014 Living Legends of Alexandria have been uploaded to YouTube and may be viewed on our website at www.alexandrialegends.org/Videos. The 2014 Legends are Mike Anderson, Char McCargo Bah, Rose Enovoldsen Berler, Lee Fifer, Charles Eugene “Tony” Gee, Richard “Rick” Allyn Glassco, Ramona K. Hatten, Gregory “Gregg” L. Murphy, Tricia Rodgers, Shirley N. Tyler, Converse “Connie” West and Donnan “Donnie” Chancellor Wintermute.

The 2014 Legends were interviewed in January and February 2014 by Northern Virginia Community College volunteers Dario Baguena and Paul Shalonis under the direction of Joe Small, then Assistant Professor of Photography and Media. Paul Shalonis did an excellent job of editing and post production with input from Nina Tisara.

The video interviews are an important addition to the story of Alexandria’s history and talks are currently underway for storing them at the Office of Historic Alexandria.

 
     
     
     
 

Legends in the News

Marga Fripp, 2015 Living Legend of Alexandria, has announced “After thirteen exceptional years of building Empowered Women International, EWI, I am stepping down as the Executive Director at the end of June 2015….My family and I will be relocating to Geneva. My husband, Jesse, will continue his work in international development. I plan to work on writing a book on the story of EWI, and to also continue my life’s mission to empower women globally.

John Porter, who has served since 2009 as president and CEO of ACT, is Volunteer Alexandria’s 2015 Nonprofit Leader of the Year. Under Porter’s leadership, ACT successfully created an online day of giving to support more than 100 local nonprofit agencies raising almost $2 million within its first three years. Porter was named a Living Legend of Alexandria in 2010.

2015 Living Legend of Alexandria Nina Tisara is exhibiting her mosaic art at Convergence, 1801 N. Quaker Lane, through May 31. Although Tisara is best known for her photography and most recently as founder of Living Legends, she has been creating mosaics of porcelain tile for the last six years. The exhibition, “Intricacies,” is open to the public Fridays 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Saturdays 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Convergence, a 501C(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2006, is a creative community of people who value diversity, exploration, and spirituality. Believing that imagination, creativity, and the arts are spiritual matters and their cultivation is of benefit to the church, the local community.

Intricacies by Nina Tisara

 
     
     
     
     
 

Living Legends Continuing Collaborations

Living Legends will have a tabletop exhibit and display the 2015 Legend portraits at Volunteer Alexandria’s Philanthropy Summit on May 6. The Summit is a breakfast event that brings together businesses and nonprofit organizations to discuss community needs and celebrate local philanthropy.


As part of its ongoing collaboration with the Alexandria Singers and the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association, the 2015 Living Legend Traveling Exhibition will be shown at the joint production of “Beatles to Broadway!” The show celebrates the Alexandria’s Singers’ 40th anniversary and the WMPA’s season finale. Alexandria performances will take place at the George Washington Masonic Memorial, Friday, June 5, 2015 at 7:30 pm, Saturday, June 6, 2015 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, June 7, 2015 at 3:00 pm. The memorial is located at 101 Callahan Dr., Alexandria, Va. 22301. Tickets are available online.

 
     
     
   
           
  Living Legends of Alexandria |
400 North Washington Street | Suite 300 |
Alexandria, VA 22314

Phone: 703.683.4035 |
www.AlexandriaLegends.com