She was a shining light in our community.

-Betsy Taylor, Founder, Crisis Nursery, Inc.

Virginia agreed to serve on the Crisis Nursery board but was always far more interested in the practical good her money was doing for children than in attending board meetings. For many years, she underwrote the entertainment for our annual fundraiser. I would bring videotapes of that year's potential entertainers to Virginia's house, where we would watch them. Virginia would then choose whom she wanted to underwrite. She was insistent on the high quality of the entertainment, but she couldn't have cared less about the visibility of her name in the community. "My name is on too many things," she once complained.

Virginia was a tremendously thoughtful, modest, shy, beautiful woman. She was one of the most outstanding persons to have ever come through my life.

Her commitment to making sure she gave back, not only in her lifetime but after, is something we can all aspire to.

-Marsha Porter, Executive Director, Crisis Nursery, Inc.

I met Virginia Piper only once, at the Boys & Girls Club of Scottsdale, now called the Virginia G. Piper branch, at a breakfast for twenty-eight invited charities. During that breakfast, Virginia announced that she had funded the lead gift for a new capital campaign. Seeing all the different charity groups assembled, from the arts to youth groups to religious-related organizations to homeless shelters, I realized that this woman had an unbelievable impact on our community. Virginia gave, by herself, and later through her bequests to us, over a million dollars to Crisis Nursery, Inc. Virginia's generosity allowed us to purchase our two new buildings in 1998 and move into them in 1999. She came many, many times to visit our shelter on 27th and Roosevelt, and I'm sure she visited our original shelter, a little cottage on the corner of 24th and Fillmore. She had been involved with us since 1978. We were one of the first organizations, shortly after her death, to use her name. At her memorial service, I remember the whole city of Phoenix turned out.

Virginia's philanthropy raised the bar for the whole community.

-Jim Stratton, former President/CEO, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale

Virginia was a very pleasant, astute person, and she definitely had her pulse on the community, on families, and children. She had a great deal of interest in south Scottsdale, and she asked a lot of really good questions. Virginia was aware of the changing demographics, the shift in populations, the influx of Hispanic families into that area, and she wanted to know how we (the Boys and Girls Club) would be changing our program offerings in response to these families.

When she was ready to make her gift of a million dollars, and I've never had this happen to me before,Virginia leaned forward in her chair in the living room and said, "Now Jim, now that I'm doing this, you're not going anywhere, are you?" It was her way of understanding the relationship between her charitable investment and the leadership/stewardship of that gift. I looked her square in the eye and said, "No, ma'am, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be right here." This exchange stood out as important in my mind,because I think a lot of people that give to institutions don't really stop to think about the impact to the institution when the leadership changes regularly. Virginia, however, wanted to make sure I'd be there for the long term. And of course I still am, which would have made her happy.

When Virginia started making larger gifts in the later 1980s, it challenged the other board members, and all of a sudden they had a whole different idea of what a significant gift was. That legacy still lives on. A lot of the phenomenal gifts we're seeing today are a direct result of Virginia's philanthropy,her example of giving.