Foundation

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet - one-tenth the size of the average new American house - and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap - that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

While most high school seniors spend their last few days planning end-of-the-year parties, reminiscing with friends or trying to fit in one last prank on the freshmen, Nicolas "Cole" Holocker is accepting the 2013 Ravens Scholarship awarded to students committed to improving their community. Holocker, a Century High School senior, along with five other Baltimore area students, will receive a $5,000 renewable scholarship (up to $20,000 over four years) to put toward college. The program, funded by the Ravens All Community Team Foundation, is in its fourth consecutive year awarding local students for outstanding achievements.

DALLAS -- The family of Mickey Mantle yesterday carried out his last wish, unveiling a new "organ donor" trading card with the baseball great's picture and autograph that will be passed out at major-league stadiums."

Working with Anne Arundel County schools, an independent foundation helped feed needy children and their families for more than five years. But that came to an abrupt halt a year ago, after a member of the Journey Foundation reviewing the organization's bank records saw that more than $3,700 was missing. Within months, the foundation was defunct, and one of its founders, then a teacher a Corkran Middle School in Glen Burnie, was charged with stealing from it. On Tuesday, a tearful Pamela Fowler pleaded guilty to felony theft from the foundation that was the brainchild of her and her brother, jazz musician Norman Evans, whose annual spring concerts raised thousands of dollars for Journey.

President Obama said in his State of the Union address that we need to restore trust in the government. Our country was founded on distrust of government. Read the Declatation of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the writings of the Founding Fathers. Distrust of big government is the basis of freedom. Ted Hartka, Phoenix

Mission: To champion the preservation of Maryland's capital city through museum programs, restoration, public advocacy, research, archaeology, collections, protective easements and conservation of historic sites. The foundation's flagship museum, the William Paca House, is the restored home of William Paca, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary-era governor of Maryland.Latest accomplishment: More than 1,000 people participated in HAF's seventh annual "Annapolis by Candlelight," a two-evening tour of 15 historic private homes and public buildings.

The Marriott Waterfront mezzanine was a mob scene. About 800 folks filled the floor for the cocktail hour of the fifth annual Aspire Gala benefiting the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. "It warms my heart that, in an economy like this, we still sell out," said foundation executive director Steve Salem. "That's not an easy thing to do." Among the guests were almost 50 current and former pro baseball players and coaches, including the evening's honorees, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer and former University of Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz.

A foundation aimed at cultivating leadership qualities in high school sophomores is considering Columbia as its Maryland chapter's permanent home.The Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation, founded by 1950s television actor Hugh O'Brian, has held several of its annual Maryland Leadership Seminars at the Columbia Inn. Members of the foundation's state board of directors are considering making that the permanent location and setting up a state chapter office in...

Louis F. Linden has resigned after more than three years as executive director of the Constellation Foundation, which is conducting a $9 million restoration of the historic 1854 warship."

In the three years that she battled leukemia, Kamryn Lambert spent more time at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore than she did at home with her family. When she was home in Pasadena, Kami, as she was called, would often accompany her maternal grandmother, Debi Katzenberger, on shopping trips for pajamas. "She rarely ever got to go to school, so her way of expressing herself and being able to always be fashionable was to always buy really fun or cool pajamas when she returned to the hospital," Katzenberger recalled last week.

The Casey Cares Foundation, http://www.caseycares.org , which provides uplifting and ongoing programs to critically ill children and their families, will host a Soccer Camp for a Cause June 21 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. U.S. National Team Soccer Player Sergio Flores will host a two-hour soccer camp with all proceeds benefiting Casey Cares. The camp includes training and refreshments with the evening culminating in a kids versus parents game. The registration fee is $30 and participants can register at http://www.sergiossoccertraining.com .

Bel Air High School graduate Xuan Bui said she was really excited to learn she was selected as a recipient of a Jimmy Rane Foundation scholarship. It felt like her hard work of finding and completing scholarship applications had paid off, especially because the competition for scholarships has always seemed daunting to her. Biu plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology; however, she has yet to declare a major. She says that 10 years from now, she hopes to have a job related to math or science.

Running Ripken Foundation sets 7K 'Streak' Sept. 6 The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation announced that it will host its inaugural "Streak Thru Aberdeen" 7K Run at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen on Sept. 6 - the anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig 's record for consecutive baseball games played. Proceeds from the 7K (4.3 miles) will support Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation programs, which help build character and teach life lessons to underserved youth residing in distressed communities through sports-themed programming.

Dr. Martin Helrich, a pioneering anesthesiologist who had headed the department of anesthesiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, died Sunday of complications from heart disease at his Pikesville home. He was 91. "Martin was so devoted to his department and his profession. He molded and shaped the anesthesiology department at Maryland and made it what it is today," said Dr. Mark S. Etter, an anesthesiologist and former longtime chairman of the anesthesiology department at Abington Memorial Hospital in Abington, Pa. "Marty expanded the department and brought in a lot of high-powered people and received national recognition for his work," said Dr. Morris Roseman, a former Summit Park neighbor, who retired from the Veteran Administration's Outtake Center in downtown Baltimore, where he had been chief psychologist.

We wholeheartedly agree with The Sun's recent editorial urging the Baltimore City school board to seek a superintendent whose strategy will take into account the "issues of poverty, violence and family instability" that affect student performance ("Whatever it takes," June 2). If children arrive at school hungry, needing eyeglasses, fearful of walking home or worried about family problems they cannot focus fully on learning. Indeed, if they miss school because of these or similar issues, their prospects of a bright future are dim. We know that these are the realities for far too many of Baltimore's students.

The Charlie Riley Community Service Scholarship Foundation held its 7th Annual Golf Tournament May 10 at Geneva Farm Golf Course.

Unimpressed with the elementary school in her Baltimore neighborhood, Bobbi Macdonald set out to create her own. She founded the City Neighborhoods Foundation in 2003, the year her oldest daughter started kindergarten and the state of Maryland began allowing charter schools. Ten years later, the nonprofit is running three schools: City Neighbors Charter School, City Neighbors Hamilton and City Neighbors High School. All are known for student engagement and attendance rates that top 90 percent.

While Baltimore schools CEO Andrés Alonso deserves thanks for six game-changing years in Baltimore, the transformation he presided over owes as much to the vision and resolve of a city school board that insisted on fostering choice and accountability while also investing more in the schools. The board must now stay the course on institutional reform and move forward with an even sharper focus on academic achievement. First, it should maintain a strict focus on the core principles of our turnaround: school choice and the "fair student funding" that undergirds this market-oriented approach to opening and closing schools.