Reflections on how we started.
John Hoyt Stookey, inspirational founder and president of Landmark Volunteers, reflects on how the program started.

In the summer of 1990, a group of us participated in a week of choral singing in Canterbury Cathedral in England. While there, we noticed a group of young people hard at work painting a very long wrought-iron fence. At week's end we gave them tickets to our concert and in return they gave us t-shirts identifying them as "Cathedral Campers."

The following year, we sang in Rochester Cathedral, and there was a similar group restoring a wall. We learned from them that there are teams of Cathedral Campers working each summer at various British Cathedrals. On the airplane home that second summer, we talked about what a wonderful opportunity it would be for young people if there were a similar enterprise in this country.

And so it was that Landmark was organized and started in 1992 with 93 volunteers serving 11 institutions. It has grown ever since. In 2007, over 600 students served 58 non-profits all over the United States.

John Hoyt Stookey
President, Landmark Volunteers