Today is November 18, the debut of The Virtuous Mob. We shall, together, do many things:

3) demonstrate the power of social media to disseminate a rapid, measurable call to action
2) create opportunities for individuals, en masse, to take important matters into their own hands -- for e-good, not e-vil
1) benefit a worthy cause.

We are unaware of any cause worthier than the Stone and Holt Weeks Foundation, a non-profit charitable foundation that did not exist four months ago. It did not exist because four months ago, Stone and Holt were then two extremely active, extremely accomplished young guys in Houston, Texas -- where each was a research assistant to a prominent Rice University professor.

Stone had just completed two years of work for historian Douglas Brinkley's book on Theodore Roosevelt, "The Wilderness Warrior." Holt had just transferred to Rice from Florida's Eckerd College, and was assisting Christopher Bronk, a Baker Institute fellow in technology, society and public policy.

The world is, of course, awash in ambitious, successful young men. What greatly distinguished Stone and Holt was their parallel dedication, in their extracurricular lives, to the lives of others.

Both guys devoted countless hours to serving meals to the homeless, building houses for Habitat for Humanity, raising money for the Leukemia  & Lymphoma Foundation (and other charities), organizing blood drives and even founding philanthropic fraternities at two colleges. They cared deeply about the world in which they lived, not only an an academic matter, but as a matter of daily existence. Oh, they sang and they partied and they dated and everything else 20-somethings do, but  they also rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

Then, in late July on a Virginia interstate highway -- as they traveled to their Maryland home for a party celebrating the publication of Brinkley's book -- they were killed in a collision. Their car was rear-ended by a tractor trailer and in an instant two lovely boys, two fine men, were gone.

The Stone and Holt Weeks Foundation was chartered to keep their work, and their memories, alive. It is dedicated to the same causes as embraced by the boys: education, the environment and the fights against disease, homelessness and poverty. It's single goal: to make the world a better place for all.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK AND FOLLOW TO THE "DONATE NOW" TAB. WE SUGGEST A DONATION OF $11.18 (commemorating the first-ever Virtuous Mob) MUCH LESS IS SWALLOWED UP BY CREDIT-CARD FEES, BUT OF COURSE ANY SUM IS APPRECIATED.

Mob up! This is our time.

I don't want to identify the URL yet, but I do want to talk more about Stone and Holt Weeks, in whose memory this first Virtuous Mob is dedicated.

In some ways, the idea of folks converging on the website of a charitable foundation to make donations is not a perfect fit for their legacy, because their philanthropic work for Habitat for Humanity, for the homeless, for the environment, for leukemia & lymphoma and their many other causes was mainly done with their sleeves rolled up -- serving meals, building houses, giving blood, securing volunteers, leading fundraising drives and so on.

The foundation in their name itself is dedicated as much to fostering volunteerism as it is to raising money.
It's founding principle: To make the world a better place.

In that spirit, be assured, that subsequent Virtuous Mobs will swarm with no need for a credit card. But for this first event, it was important to try something simple and measurable. Hardly anything's easier to measure than numbers of donations and dollars and cents. And your modest donation will help the foundation stage events to recruit young volunteers like Stone and Holt. I can tell you, to the parents of those fantastic kids,  the idea of more fantastic kids following in their boys'  footsteps means most everything right now.

I'll post the URL Tuesday night. Meantime, please tell EVERYBODY!  Tweet #mobsters.

Stone and Holt Weeks were just getting started in their adult lives when they died, in an instant, on a Virginia Interstate in late July.
But their legacies are nonetheless inspiring.

 Both Stone, 24, and Holt, 20, were student athletes and campus leaders in high school and college. But what distinguished them was how they spent their off hours: in service, feeding the homeless on each Sunday, building houses with Habitat for Humanity, raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, volunteering at the Muscular Dystrophy Association  -- all as quietly as could be.

When their car was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer on a stormy summer night, their parents lost their only children and the world lost two lifetimes of selflessness. On November 18, we'll converge on the charitable foundation chartered in their memory to carry on their dedication to service.

URL to follow. Meantime, tell everybody about The Virtuous Mob.

 #mobsters

 

Mob #1 forms Nov. 18 at a URL to be announced.
Since it's the first time out, this will be a simple exercise: visiting a charitable foundation website and making a small contribution. Not just any foundation, however. It is one dedicated to the memories of two wonderful young brothers killed in a summer highway chain-reaction collision, leaving behind distraught parents and an inspiring legacy of service - a legacy formidable for anyone but especially for guys in their early 20s.
More about them to follow on this blog. Meantime, tell everybody about VirtuousMob.com and Tweet #mobsters.