After her husband died, Amy Marasco Newton created the Newton Marasco Foundation, a local nonprofit group that works to recruit young people into environmental activism.
For Earth Day, the foundation will unroll a program it’s calling “enGauge It,” in which Loudoun County high school students will hand out tire gauges to residents to encourage them to save gas by inflating their tires.
What inspired you to create the foundation?
My husband [David Allen Newton] and I had a very large consulting group in Arlington. When we sold it … it was a $50 million company. Then my husband’s lung cancer and heart complications came back. We had 18 months. I thought, “Well I’m only 49. What kind of legacy do I want for him and for me?”
What’s your best moment so far in the foundation?
That’s a really a good question. There’s a range. [Wednesday] night, we gave out the 2009 Green Earth Book Awards. It’s a national program. We give it out at Salisbury University during their children’s literature festival. Then last year I was in a schoolroom and met a student who was on a farm out in western Loudoun. He said, “Ms. Newton, I’ve been listening to all this and I’m wondering if my cows are causing problems because they’re ranging near the open water.” About six months later, I was there again, and he raised his hand and said, “I talked to my father, and we’ve fenced off the cows.” I thought, “That’s it. That’s why I do it.”
Where do you see this going?
Nonprofit is new to me. I’ve always been in the private sector. I think we’re going to home in on a few strong programs and refine them in the Washington area. And then we’ll roll it out nationally if it has legs. It might be enGauge It. That’s an easy one. Once you get the word out that you’re wasting 1.2 billion gallons of gas each year due to [improperly inflated] tires, it’s a no-brainer. – Bill Myers
