HOOP DREAMS SCHOLARSHIP FUND
www.hoopdreams.org
For Immediate Release 
Contact: Meghan Ray
January 25, 2001
202-414-4774 

Newport native Susie Kay named Washingtonian of the Year
Announces $1M Scholarship Fund Drive for Inner City D.C. High School Students

Washington, DC -- Susie Kay, a Newport, Rhode Island native, has been named a ‘Washingtonian of the Year’ for her dedication as a teacher and social entrepreneur working to help deserving high school students in Washington, D.C., prepare and pay for college. Kay has been a teacher in the District of Columbia public schools for 10 years and founded her nonprofit effort, the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund, in 1996 to provide mentoring and academic college scholarships to outstanding inner-city D.C public high school students. She is praised as "a local hero” for her community service efforts along with 15 other DC area honorees, in the January 2001 issue of Washingtonian Magazine.

During an awards luncheon that honored the 16 Washingtonians of the Year on Thursday, January 25, at the Willard Hotel in downtown Washington, DC, Kay gave special thanks to her mother and father, the late Captain Howard Kay, former Commandant of the Naval War College. Kay credited the inspiration for her work to her father and mother’s life-long commitment to service and education. She also thanked U.S. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who has been a long time supporter of Kay’s efforts and is now on the Board of Advisors for Hoop Dreams. Reed joined Kay’s mother Liliana, still of Newport, RI, and other supporters at the prestigious event.

Kay began the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund as an outgrowth of her efforts as an American Government teacher at the H.D. Woodson High School in Anacostia, one of the more resource and opportunity challenged schools in the Washington, DC region. After first organizing what was to be a one-time charity-basketball tournament in June of 1996, Kay joined with a few key volunteers to create a year-round, volunteer-driven organization that now provides academic college scholarships, educational tools and professional internship opportunities for hundreds of Washington students. The program has grown dramatically since 1996, from $3000 raised at the first tournament to over $250,000 in scholarships awarded in 2000.

The Washingtonian of the Year honor brings important attention to Susie Kay’s efforts as her Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund enters its 2001 season. Kay is also starting the new year by recruiting some of Washington's technology and business elite on to a new Board of Directors and Advisors to help reach a goal of $1 million in academic college scholarships for the 2001. Along with other past sponsors who are renewing their support, the new Hoop Dreams Board of Directors and Advisors include the following leaders from the D.C. region: Frank Ross of KPMG; Kathy Clark of Landmark Systems; Jonathan Ledecky of The Ledecky Foundation; Bruce Levenson of United Communications Group; Al Lord of SallieMae; Reggie Aggarwal of Cvent.com; Bill Dvoranchik of EDS Federal; Pat McGettigan of the McGettigan Foundation ; Paul Singh of Primus Telecommunications; and Marie Johns of Verizon.

The full Board of Directors represent a group of new and existing supporters and advisors to Hoop Dreams: Frank Ross of KPMG; Kathy Clark of Landmark Systems; Donell a Brockington of Lockheed Martin; Kevin Chavous of the DC City Council; Dan Cohen of PrimeShot.com; Steve Boyd a public relations consultant formerly of The White House; Bill Dvoranchik of EDS Federal; Chris Greene of SallieMae; Michael Hines of OneMediaSpace; Susie Kay of the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund; Bruce Levenson, United Communications Group; David Ruffin, AFL-CIO; Jerry Sachs of the Smithsonian Institution; Devin Shain of On Campus Marketing; Dori Silverman of Coca-Cola Company; Paul Singh of Primus Telecommunications and T. Clark Weymouth of Hogan & Hartson. The new Advisory Board includes the following leaders: Reggie Aggarwal of Cvent.com; Mark Ein of Venturehouse Group, LLC; Ari Fleischer of The White House; Marie Johns of Verizon; Jonathan Ledecky of The Ledecky Foundation; Al Lord of SallieMae; Pat McGettigan of the McGettigan Foundation; George Newstrom of EDS Asia Pacific; and the Honorable Jack Reed of the United States Senate.

For more information about the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund, please contact Meghan Ray at (202) 414-4774.