“It’s a lot to me, but small potatoes to some donors,” says longtime Mount Vernon donor and volunteer Captain (Ret.) Jim Froid, USN, of Alexandria, Virginia. Downplaying his extraordinary gift made in October 2007, the native North Dakotan has created a legacy to this organization that represents a labor of love buttressed by years of donations made from the heart.

After volunteering here for a lifetime total of almost 8,000 hours, the 30-year ex-Navy engineer and management consultant donated generously to Mount Vernon from his Individual Retirement Account (IRA) this fall. To take advantage of the tax deduction Congress authorized through December 2007 he gave funds from his IRA for this charitable donation without generating taxable income through the IRA withdrawal.

Jim says he received “very helpful information” about the IRA opportunity when assisted by the Mount Vernon Gift Planning staff and that “the donation was inspired by the Development Office’s materials that suggest various ways to donate through planned gifts.”

He made his extraordinary gift in memory of his wife, Marie, who served in the Navy Nurse Corps for more than 13 years. She was “a fabulous wife and mother,” he notes, “and she also introduced me to volunteering at Mount Vernon in the early 1990s.”

“Marie loved volunteering here. After she died, I was asked to pick up her duties and to take over the George Washington Community program for the Mount Vernon Bicentennial. Since I was the president of the local Fort Belvoir chapter of the Retired Officers Association at the time, I asked the members for volunteers to help and received 95 responses. About 65 stayed on with the program and some are still loyal volunteers.”

With tenure as the Chairman of the Mount Vernon Neighborhood Friends Steering Committee and as the “Olde Lamp Lighter” for holiday candlelight tours, Jim has worked on projects as diverse as supporting the restoration of the Blacksmith’s Shop, forest regeneration, restoration of the Gardener’s House, establishing the Volunteer Information Desk, auction support, and envelope stuffing for the Development Office.

Commenting on his amazing volunteer record here, he says “I stay involved because I get satisfaction out of completed tasks with results that I can see benefiting Mount Vernon. My favorite activities have been events like the candlelight tours and wine tasting festivals.”

Jim stays involved with a number of organizations besides Mount Vernon and supports many of them – including local theater and arts organizations, museums, his grandchildren’s schools, disaster relief organizations, and those working to fight the effects of various diseases.

“Would you believe from a Navy man,” he laughs, “I also support The National Museum of the U.S. Army.”

But Mount Vernon, Jim emphasizes, will always come first – for potatoes and otherwise.