A Message from our CEO: Adelia thompson

Family is on my mind a lot these days.
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I live a long, long way from my immediate family, which makes me sad. We are a close-knit, small, proud clan. My Mom, our matriarch (absolutely), is 90-plus years young, and every day with her is a day not to be taken for granted. I am lucky that my brother and I really like each other. My nieces still act like they think I am a little bit cool, and while that may be misplaced on their part—for me, it makes being 62 a tad more palatable. I miss them.

​Missing them makes me all the more thankful for this community—family. To quote two wise friends: “There are friends who are family, and family who are friends,” and “Friends are the family we choose.” Yep.

As part of the team—family—at the Peninsula Community Foundation for a year now, I am learning that within our community there are all kinds of organizations that operate like families in all the best ways—sometimes as families for our neighbors who perhaps have never had a real family before.

In this edition of “The Peninsula Perspective,” we are pleased to tell stories about families of all kinds and invite you to think about the families that are part of your life, too.

• Our feature article announces a new partnership—family—built among the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of the Virginia Peninsula, the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters Foundation, and the Peninsula Community Foundation. We are still figuring out how everything is going to work, as families do. But our goal is to step up, together, to help Peninsula nonprofits in new ways. We hope the new Peninsula Nonprofit Partnership can help our nonprofits do more to help more of our neighbors.
• The Donor Spotlight shines on the Hopkins family legacy of community service and giving—treating neighbors like family—that lives on through their Hopkins Family Charitable Fund, and the next generation of Hopkins family members living into that grace-filled history.
• The Grantee Highlight tells the story of Housing Partnership, Inc. A recipient of one of Impact 100’s grants for 2025 (see their story in our newsletter last fall!), this marvelous group (HPI) lives its mission every day: providing vital home repair services for families experiencing low-income or disability situations, ensuring that “…every neighbor—no matter their circumstances—has a home that is truly safe, warm, and dry.”
• Peninsula Community Foundation is home to 23 education funds—20 scholarships and 3 teacher support funds. Did you know that? In this “Service Check,” we share more about those funds: the difference they make, the opportunities they offer, and how to learn about and access them—as well as how to explore putting new funds in place.
• And—Give Local 757… We are “Going to Towne!” in our Partnership Perspective! TowneBank is our presenting sponsor for Give Local 757 for 2026—and friends, their reach, relationships, capacity, creativity, and reputation mean new opportunity and possibility for all the nonprofits in the 757 who sign on! We are blessed that they picked up the mantle that Old Point assumed last year—the best is yet to come! 

Families are a trip—they are complex, messy, tricky, surprising, frustrating, redemptive, and beautiful. But when allowed to be defined with flexible edges, they invite all of us to be the best versions of ourselves. 

If you are viewing this message, you are already part of our family. Please help us seek others who should be, too.

And hold tight. Family matters.
Adelia

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