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VOL. 10, NO. 42*
PUBLIC NOTICES
29
AUGUST 28, 2025
from the napkin: Claude Moore Scholars Continues to Expand Medical Job Opportunities BY NORMAN K. STYER nstyer@loudounnow.org
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t started with notes taken on a restaurant napkin in 2005. Today, the Claude Moore Scholars Program has helped some 35,000 students in 56 Virginia school divisions and 14 community colleges begin careers in health and medical fields. And it is still growing, now fueled by the nonprofit Claude Moore Opportunities and the newly established J Hamilton Lambert Endowed Fund. The scholars program is a cornerstone of the Claude Moore Foundation’s mission of educational and charitable service. The foundation was established in 1991 by Dr. Claude Moore, a Sterling physician and real estate investor, to ensure his estate would be used for the community’s benefit. He recruited Lambert, the then-recently retired county executive in Fairfax County, to get it set up and rolling, and eventually take over as executive director. Lambert retired from that role earlier this year. During his decades of leadership, the foundation nurtured the initial $17 million in assets to distribute over $100 million in grants to more than 345 organizations. In a story recounted many times over the years, the concept for the scholars
CLAUDE MOORE continues on page 43
Patrick Lewis/Loudoun Now
Staff and families from the Aurora School protest in downtown Leesburg on Aug. 21.
Amid Protests, Paxton Trust Explores Alternative for Aurora School Offerings BY NORMAN K. STYER nstyer@loudounnow.org
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s teachers and parents of students at The Arc of Loudoun’s Aurora School were protesting in the streets of Leesburg last week, another school was exploring options to provide those services. After a years-long effort to establish a
new lease failed, The Arc was locked out of its campus by the Paxton Trust on Aug. 8. The nonprofit’s lease expired last year. The Arc, which provides special education services to students from around the region, has operated on the campus rentfree for the past 17 years. The lease dispute is rooted in an effort by the Paxton trustees to bring other child-service nonprofits onto
the 16-acre campus, a concept that would limit The Arc’s use of the land. The Arc has announced plans to move the school to The National Conference Center in Lansdowne but is seeking to continue operating on the Paxton Campus until that transition is complete. The Arc is AURORA continues on page 17
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