Cooperative Living March/April 2019 - 7

HistoryMystery
The theme for this
column is " Famous
People Born in
Virginia. " You are
invited to make your
best guess as to the
identity of the person
pictured at right and
submit it in writing,
along with your
name, address and
phone number, via mail to History Mystery, c/o
Cooperative Living, P.O. Box 2340, Glen Allen, VA
23058-2340 or guess online at co-opliving.com under
" Contests. " The deadline for this month's entries is
March 20, 2019. Correct entries will be placed in a
drawing and the winner announced in the June 2019
issue. The winner will receive a check for $25. n
fun family activities and useful information
about going green.
If you're in the Shenandoah Valley, stop
by Woodstock's Historic Courthouse on
April 20 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. for Earth Day
Shenandoah!, sponsored by environmental
non-profit Sustainability Matters and Lord
Fairfax Soil & Water Conservation District.
There'll be a huge Community Plant
Swap, sustainably sourced food and
vendors, electric car test drives, games,
talks, nature photography classes, and even
a Llama Kissing Booth.
 DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS?
Our January History Mystery subject was
Lucy Randolph Mason (1882-1959). Born near
Alexandria, Mason was a descendant of George
Mason, author of the Virginia Declaration of
Rights that served as a model for the Bill of
Rights in the U.S. Constitution. She grew up in
Richmond and began her social reform work
there, seeking more humane conditions for
working people and an end to racial injustice.
As a young woman, she supported herself by
working as a stenographer and devoted much
of her free time to volunteer social service work
and political activities on behalf of women's
suffrage. She later served as industrial secretary
for the Richmond YWCA from 1914-1918 and
1923-1932, taking a five-year break to care for
her father. Mason stimulated YWCA involvement with economic
advancement in the African-American community and generated
public support for state laws to raise minimum wages, shorten
work hours, end child labor and ensure safer workplaces. She also
traveled throughout the South promoting voluntary employer
agreements and using pressure from consumers to raise labor
standards. Throughout her life, she lobbied to ensure that labor union
organizers throughout the South were guaranteed the rights to free
speech, free assembly and due process called for in the Bill of Rights.
Reader Stephanie Houghton of Winchester was our $25 winner.
Congratulations, Stephanie! n
For more information, contact
sustainabilitymattersVA@gmail.com or
Sustainability Matters on Facebook
(@sustainabilitymattersVA).
- Sari Carp
Edinburg
PAINTED ROCK LIFTS READER'S SPIRITS
In the October 2017 issue of Cooperative
Living magazine, there was a story about a
group of people who painted small rocks
with bright colors and wrote sweet messages
on them. They would hide a finished rock
in a place where an unsuspecting person
would find it, giving an instant uplift as
well as a smile to the one who found it.
That's exactly what happened to me
while shopping in February. There, leaning
against a wooden post, was a beautiful blue
rock with a heart outlined in bright neon
colors with the message, " Do all things
with love. " I had found one of the
treasured rocks!
When I turned it over, there was a sticker
on the back that said ― KINDNESS
ROCKS ― Shenandoah Valley Rocks or Port
Rocks. Keep or re-hide. I have decided to keep
it as a reminder that sometimes the smallest
of gestures yields the greatest of pleasures.
I just might paint a few of my own rocks
from Love, Virginia, and hide them where
someone else will be as surprised as I was!
- Lynn Coffey
Love
co-opliving.com
March-April 2019 | Cooperative Living | 5
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Cooperative Living March/April 2019

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