His One Single-Minded Purpose in Life: DO GOOD!

In the early days as publisher of a group of newspapers owned by the Washington Post Company, a community leader, Lon Dring, called and asked if he could stop by my office and bring along breakfast — a cup of coffee and a bagel.

I had not meant Lon, but I knew that he had helped cobble together a wide range of social services into a non profit organization, InterFaith Works, that provided emergency shelter, supportive housing, and assistance with clothing, food, and employment assistance for long term self-sufficiency.

He was also a fixture when the county council held its regular meetings. If there was a social issue that needed to be addressed, Lon was always present as the “Advocate-in-Chief” for the 35,000 lives touched by InterFaith Works.

After a few swallows of coffee while nibbling at the bagel and listening to the InterFaith story, I asked Lon to tell me about his life story. The short answer was that he was a Presbyterian clergyman who found his mission outside of the traditional church with the support of all manner of faiths — protestants, catholics, jews, muslims, and other religions.

That prompted two questions.

First, how could our newspapers help?

His request: Figure out a way to get the corporate leaders of the community behind InterFaith Works.

We responded by creating an annual “Companies Care” breakfast when busy corporate leaders gathered for 90 minutes for…