The 2013 Blue Star Museums program will kick off on May 21, just one week from today. Now in its fourth year, the Blue Star Museums program offers free admission to more than 1,800 museums around the country to active duty military members and their families. Participating museums can be found in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and American Samoa. It began with 600 museums in 2010, and added 627 museums in 2012 alone. The summer program will begin with a kickoff party to be held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Blue Star Families has partnered with a number of national service organizations including the American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Children’s Museums, the American Association of State and Local History and the Association of Science-Technology Centers to grow and bring publicity to the program.

Connie Milstein serves as a member of the Blue Star Families Board of Directors. She is also a resident of Washington, D.C., home to four museums participating in the Blue Star Museums program and 18 Smithsonian museums that are always free to the public. Visit the National Endowment for the Arts website to see participating museums near you.

Back in December of 1900, two individuals named John L. Elliott and Mary K. Simkhovitch started the Association of Neighborhood Workers in New York City as a way to foster cooperation between settlement houses and to promote social causes important to those individuals and families living in settlement houses. Nineteen years later, the Association was incorporated as United Neighborhood Houses of New York.

Today, UNH works to improve the lives of New Yorkers and the communities in which they live. United Neighborhood Houses supports 37 settlement houses in the City through policy development, advocacy and capacity-building activities. Examples of the program’s capacity-building activities include arts and literacy training, job training and employment programs, food preparation, legal counseling, and early childhood and youth services. Through these activities individuals are empowered and, in turn, strengthen the community as a whole.

Alain Kodsi is a member of the Board of Directors and has been an active member of United Neighborhood Houses since 1998. While in law school at Harvard, Kodsi worked with former UNH executive director Emily Menlo Marks to create an organization called Code Critical, which would raise awareness and funds for non-profits like United Neighborhood Houses. He also encouraged law firms to donate time and funds to adopted settlement houses. In 2011, Kodsi received the UNH annual award for lifetime contribution.

Established in 1997 under the name Washington Storytellers Theatre, Speakeasy DC is an organization that empowers individuals to share their experiences through the rich traditions of storytelling. Not only does the group produce 25 original live storytelling shows each year, but it also offers both public classes and private coaching to those who wish to improve their skills.

SpeakeasyDC’s goals are simple: to produce high quality storytelling performances; provide ongoing storytelling training and performance opportunities to the public, and preserve the oral tradition in a way that speaks to and enriches contemporary life. Through these goals, SpeakeasyDC allows ordinary people to share their authentic experiences, promotes understanding and builds community.

The rules for performances are simple: every story must be true, under seven minutes, and adhere to the night’s theme (if there is one). The group’s monthly open mic storytelling series takes place on the second Tuesday of every month. SpeakeasyDC also has special performances throughout the year, like a Valentine’s Day Sucker for Love even or a performance at Sixth & I titled My So Called Jewish Life. This non-profit is able to continue the art and instruction of traditional storytelling through donations, sponsorships and the support of DC locals and visitors at its performances.

Starting with Memorial Day on Monday, select museums across the country are offering free admission to active duty military personnel and their families through Labor Day as part of a partnership with Blue Star Families, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Department of Defense.

Three hundred museums will participate in the event for the first time this summer, bringing the nationwide total to 1,600 museums. It is the third year that Blue Star Families has organized the event.  Last summer, more than 300,000 service members and their families took advantage of the program. To obtain free admission, visitors are required to present a valid piece of identification proving active duty in one of the military branches or National Guard and Reserves. One piece of identification will grant up to five family members free admission. Spouses of deployed personnel are also eligible, but must present a piece of valid identification for active duty family members.

According to the Blue Star Museums website, there are 27 participating museums in the Washington, D.C. area, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Building Museum and the National Museum of the United States Navy. D.C. resident and well-known philanthropist Connie Milstein serves as a member of the Blue Star Families Board of Directors. She is a supporter of this program and has a long-standing interest in veterans and concern for the well-being of military families.

In June of 2000, Frank Peterson was busy with his work as the Director of the Propulsion and Hydrodynamics Department at the U.S. Navy Department. In July of 2000, Peterson gave it all up, choosing instead to help Guatemalans gain access to surgical care offered by volunteer medical teams.

Frank’s son, Todd, spent two years in Guatemala as a Peace Corp volunteer. During his time there, he realized that there was no communication or infrastructure between the rural Guatemalan communities and the volunteer international surgical teams that would visit the country hoping to aid those who needed surgery and healthcare the most. When the elder Mr. Peterson visited his son, he saw a way the pair could help. That visit grew into Partner for Surgery. Now, Frank splits his time between Guatemala, where he oversees operations, and the United States, where he raises funds and recruits volunteers. Last year, Frank was honored with the highest honor bestowed by Rotary International, the Service above Self award.

Based outside of D.C. in McLean, VA, Partner for Surgery aims to improve health, reduce poverty, overcome barriers and empower communities around Guatemala. Due to the hard work of Todd and Frank Peterson, along with numerous volunteers, the program has grown and flourished in the past 11 years. Through several grants, the program was able to give medical supplies and equipment to over 55 North American medical teams and, altogether, the program has helped improve the lives of over 40,000 patients from the Mayan communities.

Her awards include: Mayor’s Spirit of Neighborhood Action Award, the Augusta Savage Arts Leadership Award, the Monica Davis Show Award for Community Service, the 2007 Washington DC Economic Partnership Innovators Awards. She is a member of the Leadership Great Washington class of 2009 and the Board of Directors for See Forever Foundation/Maya Angelou Public Charter Schools and the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative. She serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts. She has been inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Sponsors at Morehouse College. Clearly, philanthropy and community service are important in the life of Mary Brown; but what really matters to Brown is the non-profit organization that she serves as Executive Director, Life Pieces to Masterpieces.

In 1996, Brown, along with two others, Larry B. Quick and Ben Johnson, founded Life Pieces to Masterpieces to help young and under-served African American males in Washington, D.C. For young adults who have grown up without fathers or in families plagued by poverty or substance abuse, Life Pieces to Master Pieces serves as an escape. By combining arts instruction and human development skills, Brown and her staff encourage their “apprentices” to find beauty in their lives through art, be it pain, storytelling, poetry or rap. The organization’s success is overwhelming; of the 150 participants each year, close to zero percent father an illegitimate child or become involved in the District’s juvenile justice system and 100 percent graduate.

This past Sunday was a joyful day for the wounded soldiers and their families at the Walter Reed Medical Center. Connie’s Bakery and General Store, a bakery founded by local philanthropist Connie Milstein that donates 100 percent of its profits to charity, partnered with Blue Star Families for the holiday event. Wounded warriors, their families and volunteers from the Washington, D.C. area joined Blue Star Families in the Tranquility Hall at Walter Reed for an afternoon of crafts, games, raffles, presents and a special visit from Santa. The event allowed soldiers to take a break from the stress of healing to focus on family and the holiday spirit.

“For the wounded warriors and their families at Walter Reed, Connie’s Bakery made the holidays a reality,” said Mark Smith, Executive Director of Blue Star Families. “Connie’s sets the bar for businesses who deliver on the promise to support both our military community and the community at large.”

Connie’s Bakery, which was started in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., is dedicated to using the finest, most wholesome ingredients to create delicious cookies, cakes, pies and tarts. Not only does the bakery support small farmers and craftsmen, but it pays employees a living wage and provides help to neighbors in need. The bakery also runs an apprenticeship program to train participants in the art of pastry cooking, entrepreneurship and business management. All of the bakery’s net profits are donated to charities selected by the bakery.

After working in the child welfare and foster care system for several years during the 1990s, Elin Ross was disheartened by the lack of community commitment to helping youths in foster care learn skills that would help them succeed after they have aged out of the system.

In 2008, Ross combined her passion for baking and culinary arts with her expertise in non-profit management and social services experience and started Cakes for Cause. Cakes for Cause is a nonprofit social enterprise bakery and bistro based in Frederick, Maryland, that offers an eight-month program of vocational and job readiness for young adults between 16 and 21. In addition to learning about restaurant operations, the students will learn skills like punctuality, appropriate dress and interview protocol and how to secure a job in the hospitality industry.

“For me, it is a sense of responsibility … as I feel we, as a society, have failed these kids,” she said in a 2008 interview. “There is a sense of wanting to create a program that doesn’t sustain levels of poverty, but instead gives young people options and finds ways to lift them up.”

Before she began Cakes for Cause, Ross worked for the D.C. nonprofit Nonviolence International for eight years. In 2004 she attended L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, where she honed her skills learned from her baking hobby as well as gain skills in bakery marketing. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University in liberal studies and a master’s in applied anthropology from American University. She also is an active participant in her Neighborhood Advisory Council and is raising funds for the beautification of the Laboring Sons Memorial Ground in Frederick.

One can’t speak of philanthropists in D.C. without mentioning Ted Leonsis, a powerful businessman who has turned his hobbies into outreach efforts and has touched the lives of many in and around the nation’s capitol. Born to Greek parents in Brooklyn, NY, Ted’s life has followed a trajectory that has allowed him to participate in business ventures in various private sectors.

After graduating from Georgetown University and starting a marketing company called Redgate Communications, his career really began when AOL purchased the start-up. Until he retired in 2006, Ted held multiple positions including the audience group’s president and vice-chairman. But the well-known businessman did not stop there. Ted is founder, majority owner, chairman and CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals, Washington Mystics and the Verizon Center. Owning a sports franchise is just one of the items on Ted’s list of 101 items he would like to complete in his lifetime, a list he compiled after he survived a plane crash in 1983.

Philanthropy is certainly one of Ted’s biggest passions. Several years ago, Ted entered the world of film investment as a means of philanthropy, something he has termed “filmanthropy.” In 2008, he launched Snag Films, a social media website where viewers can watch and submit documentary films. Several of Ted’s films have won awards and have appeared in well-known film festivals like Sundance. Titles include Nanking, which won an Emmy for Best Historical Programming in 2009 and won a Peabody Award in 2008, and Kicking It, a film about the 2006 Homeless World Cup.

Ted is also a mentor through the Hoop Dreams program and scholarship fund which uses basketball and other programs to raise money to send underprivileged D.C. public school students to college. He also contributes to YouthAIDS and the See Forever Foundation. Ted has also started his own philanthropic foundation, the Leonsis Foundation, which creates opportunities to help children overcome obstacles and achieve goals through creativity, skills and dedication. In 2010, he was inducted into the Washington Business Hall of Fame for his work with AOL, D.C. sports teams and donations to local charities.

Connie Milstein’s long-standing interest in veterans and concern for military families prompted her to join Blue Star Families, her dedication to the organization’s causes persuaded her to join the Board of Directors. Passion like this from its members is one of the reasons Blue Star Families was recently honored as a Champion of Change by the White House as part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative.

Each week, the White House chooses and individual or group that is working to transform their communities, in innovative and educational ways, into more positive places to live. Blue Star Families, a national non-profit organization, was chosen for its recent work with Creative Coalition to create a series of suicide prevention public service announcements aimed at military families and veterans.

The PSAs, titled “I don’t know what it’s like…” recently premiered during a reception held at the American Red Cross Great Hall of Service in D.C. and was attended by senior military officials, business and government leaders, members of the entertainment community and military family representatives. In the coming months, the spots will air on network and cable television stations, movie theater screens, radio stations and taxi cabs.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from the White House,” said Mark Smith, executive director of Blue Star Families, Inc. “The suicide rate among our soldiers and their families is at a record high. We hope this public service campaign will help military families realize they have somewhere to turn for confidential help.”