Generosity Inc.

Washington area physicians, foundations and businesses teamed to provide hurricane relief in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Here workers remove debris at a badly damaged college. (By Spencer Platt -- Getty Images)

Most Washingtonians haven't heard of Bay St. Louis, Miss. But down in that hurricane-ravaged area, I suspect they are feeling pretty warmly these days toward our region's business community.

Three weeks after Katrina struck, the Loudoun Medical Group, the largest physicians group in Northern Virginia, teamed up with the Loudoun Foundation and a dozen other local businesses -- including America Online, Independence Air, Inova Health System and Seitz Technologies -- to open a medical relief mission at the old train depot in Bay St. Louis, providing free medical services and medications. Doctors, nurses and administrators from Loudoun and Fairfax counties, along with other volunteers, have been rotating through the community ever since, treating more than 8,000 people.

Katrina tapped into a rich vein of corporate generosity this year, much of it unheralded but all symptomatic of a renewed determination by businesses to "give something back." Every year at this season, I highlight a few extraordinary acts of corporate philanthropy. The list is woefully incomplete but still captures the breadth and depth of charitable activities by Washington area firms and their employees.

Also in this year's Katrina file is the story of Project Performance Corp., a mid-size IT consulting firm based in McLean. Bob Lohfeld at PPC got the ball rolling by proposing to get some relief supplies to the gulf, rounding up a 28-foot moving van and driver, which pulled up in front of the Sam's Club in Woodbridge to load $6,000 in supplies donated by PPC. But when local bystanders found out, many went into the store and bought additional items for Lohfeld's mission of mercy. In all, 38,000 pounds of food, water and other necessities arrived on Sept. 5 in Waveland, Miss., population 7,000, which had been virtually leveled by the storm. It would turn out to be the first of five trips to Waveland organized by PPC, which equipped the town with tents, sleeping bags, shovel, front-end loaders, Thanksgiving turkeys and hams and Christmas toys.

Over the Labor Day weekend, Dittus Communications loaded 13 volunteers and 6,000 pounds of supplies donated by staff and clients on a chartered bus bound for the Gulf Coast. After she returned, owner Gloria Dittus organized an event for Washington political types that raised more than $400,000 for relief organizations.

Countless other businesses contributed funds for hurricane relief, among them: marketing firm Worldwide ERC, the Mortgage Bankers Association, ICF Consulting and NEW Customer Service, all of which delivered big checks to Habitat for Humanity; and Booz Allen and its employees, who contributed $600,000 to the Red Cross. Freddie Mac and its foundation made $10 million in Katrina-related contributions, mostly to provide housing for displaced families in the Gulf Coast region. And the Dupont Grille raised $25,000 by donating 100 percent of its sales one weekend to the Salvation Army's hurricane relief fund.

In this Year of the Disaster, an Asian tsunami and a Pakistani earthquake also demanded attention. Abe Pollin and the Washington Wizards raised $80,000 for UNICEF. The Akridge development firm contributed $35,000 for tsunami victims while collecting needed items in the lobbies of its office buildings. The consultants at McLean-based LMI chipped in more than $14,000 for Red Cross relief efforts.

Here at home, businesses have realized that keeping kids out of trouble is a lot more cost-effective than dealing with them after they get into it.

The D.C. United has been working with a program called DC Scores to provide an after-school program for 700 children of the D.C. schools. The program mixes soccer instruction by United players with language instruction and community service.

Freddie Mac has been doing some interesting work with the Healthy Teen Network that helps pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers who are leaving foster care. The investment firm of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey took its support for the Boys & Girls Clubs to a new level this year (in excess of $100,000) by helping to finance a new facility in Southeast D.C. that includes a computer clubhouse and gym with two full basketball courts. Scheer Partners, Hughes Network and Lockheed Martin were there when the Germantown branch needed $1 million to complete a new gymnasium.

Verizon Communications has made a special commitment to public education. Employees donate thousands of hours of their time each year for the District's adult literacy initiative, supplemented this year by a $100,000 contribution to launch a Web-based curriculum. And thanks to Verizon's contribution, more than 400 D.C. public school students are photographing friends and family, and writing essays to go along with them, as party of the Literacy Through Photography program.

The Thurgood Marshall Academy charter school has long relied on the support of blue-chip law firms such as Jenner & Block, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Vinson & Elkins and Williams & Connolly. But none does more than Clifford Chance, whose partners and associates provide tutoring and once-a-week dinners, summer internships, scholarships to graduating seniors and underwriting for the school's annual fundraising gala. There's an equally close relationship between Foley & Lardner and Wilkinson Elementary in Southeast Washington, where the lawyers have supported construction of a new playground and library, sponsored field trips and provided tutoring and mentoring.