Year-End Celebrations of Good Works

The holiday season has prompted numerous magazines to laud philanthropists and others who have made a big difference in 1997.

Town & Country (December) named a dozen people “Earth Angels” for their contributions. Among them:

* The Cable News Network founder Ted Turner, whose “gift of $1-billion to the United Nations — probably the largest single charitable donation in history — is a maximum-voltage jolt to encourage other wealthy people to give.”

* Sharon Darling, founder of the National Center for Family Literacy in Lousiville, Ky. (The Chronicle, February 6).

* Mel and Martha Gebhardt, who met as Red Cross volunteers and are now senior officials of the charity’s disaster-recovery unit. “So much do they enjoy the hands-on work — she directs health services and he is in charge of food and shelter programs — that both have turned down promotions, because moving up would mean moving to a desk and away from the field,” says the magazine.

Fast Company (December-January) named 19 people to its list of business leaders who have made outstanding contributions of time and money to good causes.

Among them:

* Paul Brainerd, founder of Aldus Corporation, who started the Brainerd Foundation in Seattle to support grassroots environmental projects (The Chronicle, July 25, 1996).

* Ami Dar, president of Aladdin Knowledge Systems’ North American subsidiary and executive director of Action Without Borders, a New York City non-profit group that uses the Internet to link volunteers with charities worldwide.

* Abby Siegal, account executive at the Philadelphia Business Journal and co-founder of Working Wardrobe, a charity that provides business attire to poor women who have completed job-training programs and need outfits when they interview for employment.