IT IS EASY TO UNDERSTAND how fortunate we are to have Lois Pope as a member of our community. South Florida philanthropy would not be the same without her generous support. This nationally recognized philanthropist is not only concerned with local causes, which she wholeheartedly supports, but also gets involved with national and international projects that make her a true humanitarian in every sense of the word. As one of America’s leading philanthropists, Lois Pope is the Founder and President of Leaders in Furthering Education [LIFE] and President of the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation. She is a trustee and a member of the board of the University of Miami’s School of Medicine, Dean’s Leadership Cabinet and serves on the boards of the Palm Beach Opera, the Armory Arts Center and Florida Atlantic University, among many other charitable and philanthropic commitments.
When visiting Jackson Memorial Hospital, one cannot help but notice the great development the area has experienced with new facilities built for the medical field. The most impressive one is perhaps the Lois Pope LIFE Center, a gleaming new building, home to the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Her $10 million gift to the University of Miami was one of the keystones that turned this institution into one of the top neurological research center for spinal cord injuries and neurological diseases in the world.
Her advice and leadership fall in the right ears. Politicians, business leaders and philanthropists come to her to help alleviate the suffering of the less fortunate, to eradicate disease and to bring peace to the most remote corners of the world. In 2006, former Secretary of State Colin Powell appointed Mrs. Pope to the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at the City College of New York. The LIFE Foundation annually awards four outstanding but needy inner city students with $25,000 medical scholarships to the Sophie Davis School of Medicine at City College. In South Florida, the LIFE Unsung Hero Awards Program has given more than $1 million in college scholarships for Palm Beach County alone. The foundation also raises money to send underprivileged and special needs children to summer camp. In Palm Beach the number of children and teenagers who have attended these camps exceeds 13,000, a program that encourages young people to become leaders by participating in meaningful endeavors to help the less fortunate. President George H. W. Bush named her a Daily Point of Light recipient.
In the national scene, Mrs. Pope co-founded the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation, leading a successful campaign to raise funds to erect the first memorial in Washington honoring the more than three million living disabled veterans and all those throughout American history, including more than 53,000 who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mrs. Pope donated $5 million as a challenge grant, and the memorial will be located on two acres located across from the Botanic Garden in full view from the Capitol building.
But a true philanthropist is not only concerned with what happens in her own backyard. Lois Pope is a longstanding benefactor of Magen David Adom, Israel’s Red Cross, and has donated five ambulances. After Hurricane Mitch devastated Guatemala, the LIFE Foundation spearheaded the construction of a new, clean and safe water system in the village of El Triunfo. A cooperative spirit was born, which led to the creation of a new sanitation system, new school, and stronger homes for hundreds of people in this village. The Lois Pope LIFE Foundation also pledged an annual grant of $50,000 to create the Sudan Genocide Response Team. This is the worst humanitarian disaster of the last generation and has received scant attention. This grant allows women at risk from the Sudan to come to the U.S. where they will have a chance at a better life.
Mrs. Pope has received countless awards and accolades. She upholds the philanthropic torch for all the members of our community. One day that torch will pass to the younger generation, and the best recognition we can give this incredible woman is to continue her work, to commit ourselves to the success of the causes she has embraced and to follow her example. Her untiring dedication to these causes has made her exceptional. She has rallied the philanthropic troops more than once to victory. Our support will make her vision of a better world more effective and real. SA

Photographed by Lucien Capehart Photography