LEF History
It all started during a car ride…
…to an out-of-county function in 2009. In the car were the Superintendent of Schools at the time, Deborah Pettit, and Wallace Tingler, CEO of the William A. Cooke Foundation, a major supporter and donor to Louisa County Schools. Over the course of the trip they talked about forming a Louisa County Education Foundation — a non-profit which would provide scholarships to graduating seniors, grants to teachers, and help fund capital improvements for the school system.
Tingler paid a local attorney to set up the documents for the non-profit and filed the documentation with the various governing agencies. On an unusually cool raining day in October of 2009, the first organizational meeting of the Louisa Education Foundation (LEF) was held in the Board Room of the William A. Cooke Foundation. Governing Documents were presented, the first set of Officers were elected, and a Board of Directors was established. The first elected President was James Smith, a Louisa County Public School product and a former college and Canadian League Football player.
One of the first brilliant moves by the new Foundation was to engage a newly retired high school business instructor as its executive director, the late Ava Pippin. Pippin immediately launched into organizing, raising funds and enlisting board members for LEF.
LEF faced a seismic shift (pun intended) in August 2011 when a 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit Louisa County. Three schools in the system were damaged beyond repair: One of the four elementary schools, the Historic Louisa County High School built in 1948, which was being used as an Eighth Grade School, and the current high school.
Ava Pippin led LEF to take on the task as a fundraiser and conduit for donations, which came in from all over the U.S. In fact, country music star, Alan Jackson, held a concert in Louisa and donated the net proceeds to LEF, who in turn gave the funds to help build a new state-of-the art “Alan Jackson Theatre” at the new high school. Over $230,000 was raised or donated through LEF and given to the school system for earthquake repairs.
Since the earthquake, the LEF has focused fundraising on “Investing in Our Future” through Senior Scholarships and Creative Teacher Grants. One of our largest fundraisers has been to sponsor an annual Golf Classic. In 2023, LEF issued 22 Senior Scholarships and 12 Creative Teacher Grants.
You can help the Foundation continue its growth by donating to LEF’s General Fund, Scholarships or Teacher Grants.