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HISTORY OF LSF
The Lloyd Symington Foundation was launched in 1986 as a memorial to Lloyd Symington, a distinguished Washington, D.C. lawyer and community servant. Both his living and dying from lung cancer were an inspiration to his wife and children, who served as the original members of the Foundation’s board of directors. Because he gained so much during his illness from a variety of holistic, patient-centered approaches, the core intent of our Foundation has been to extend comparable benefits to other individuals facing cancer.
In 1987 the Foundation issued its first series of grants to three pioneering organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since that time it has funded programs in every section of the United Sates, including Hawaii, as well as Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Many of these programs have been seed ventures - in some cases one-person operations - for which the Foundation has served as sole or principal funder.
Over the more than 20 years of its history, the LSF has supported a comprehensive set of healing practices - everything from sea kayaking and Healing Touch to mandala therapy and poetic medicine - which in many instances have been transformational. We have commissioned books by distinguished artists and writers on subjects ranging from the therapeutic power of dance to the theory and practice of Brazilian Spiritism. We have also underwritten CD’s which offer inspirational music and messages to caregivers as well as those diagnosed with cancer. And for 11 years, from 1988 through 1998, the Foundation sponsored a yearly, invitational conference at Commonweal in Bolinas, California - a forum which brought together leading innovators in the healthcare field from around the globe and which has facilitated the diffusion of mind-body approaches into the mainstream of American medicine.
More recently we have devoted special attention to programs featuring energy medicine and the expressive arts. As a result of LSF grants, pilot projects in Reiki and Healing Touch have been pioneered in North American hospitals. We have also funded a variety of programs which encourage creative self-expression through music, poetry, theater, and the visual arts. And recognizing the need of caregivers for emotional and spiritual sustenance, we have increasingly made care of health practitioners in the cancer field a high priority.
Lloyd Symington Foundation. Copyright © 2005-2011. All rights reserved.