Double Duty: Scholarship Honors Attorney’s Parents, LGBTQ+ Group

Attorney Michael Hamar wanted to honor his parents. He also wanted to pay tribute to Hampton Roads Business OutReach (HRBOR), which he cofounded as the region’s LGTBQ+ business chamber.

Hamar did both by creating the permanent endowment fund at the community foundation for the George D. and Marian Phelps Hamar HRBOR Scholarship. He started the scholarship in 2011 shortly after his mom, a retired cytology technician at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, passed away. His dad, a retired stockbroker from Virginia Beach, died in 2006.

Hamar set the selection criteria to be for self-identifying lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students from Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, or Virginia Beach. Scholarship recipients have demonstrated involvement in the LGBTQ+ community and need financial aid to attend a four-year college or university.

The Hamar HRBOR Scholarship is among about 90 scholarship funds administered by the community foundation.

Many people do not know all that is involved in properly starting and managing scholarship funds. We appreciate professional advisors recommending the Foundation to clients interested in leaving a legacy to forever help others. We are especially grateful to the accountants, bankers, wealth managers, and attorneys — like Hamar — who entrust the Foundation with their own charitable gifts.

Learn more about how the community foundation can help advisors or your clients find ways to honor a special family member or organization.