October 27, 2005 | Read Time: 2 minutes
For 14 years, John A. Johansen had dreamed of a monument that would pay tribute to individuals whose deeds had largely gone unsung in the nation’s capital: nonprofit leaders.
This month, Mr. Johansen — an official with the Points of Light Foundation — saw his dream become reality in the form of 20 bronze medallions embedded in the sidewalk along a busy street in downtown Washington. The sculpted medallions, which are slightly larger than a manhole cover and weigh more than 150 pounds each, include short biographies and the likenesses of men and women who founded charities and championed social causes.
“If you look at the monuments, they are largely tributes to war or military and political leaders, and yet the whole idea of charity, philanthropy, and volunteering are uniquely American institutions,” he says of the project, known as the Extra Mile-Points of Light Volunteer Pathway.
The honorees — only three of whom are still living — include the civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and several other famous individuals, but also more-obscure nonprofit officials, such as Edgar F. Allen, the founder of Easter Seals, who dedicated his life to charity after his 18-year-old son died from injuries sustained in a streetcar accident.
A nine-member committee comprising government officials, nonprofit leaders, and a Washington television news broadcaster chose Mr. Allen and his peers from hundreds of nominations from the American public. The group has also selected 11 additional honorees and plans to choose 39 more to complete the mile-long pathway.
So far Mr. Johansen has raised $1.5-million for the project, largely from corporations, with the ultimate goal of $3-million.
Here, Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity International, in Americus, Ga., crouches near the monument that pays tribute to him and his wife, Linda. Habitat for Humanity’s board fired Mr. Fuller as president in January, but he said being selected as an honoree was not bittersweet because the medallion pays tribute to the social cause, not the organization he established.
Looking down at the bronze picture of his face in the medallion, he points out another aspect of the monument he likes: “This slows down the aging process,” he says with a smile.
