Our Dream
We contacted several major museums and were told the same thing. They would love
to have the parachutes, but were not willing to commit to putting even one of them on display
permanently. They just wanted them. Our family would like to see them on display where children
can see and learn about them and science in general. We now believe the best way to do that is to
disperse them as much as possible, so that hopefully some of them will be put on display
somewhere.
It's very rare to have an opportunity to significantly help a lot of people, but that's
what we can do, if these truly are worth what we have been told. We have decided to auction all of the
parachutes except #177.13, which Bill is keeping. The auction will be at Goldberg Auctions in
November 2010. The parachutes have already been consigned to them and are in their vault. Feel
free to contact them with questions or any info about the parachutes you may have. They are in the
process of recording the history of all of them from various
people.
We're being told this collection could be worth $100
million. Or more. No one needs this kind of money. We keep being told this is like winning
the lottery and we agree. Ohio's lottery guarantees $3 million to the winner. So, here is our
"dream" if this really does happen...
The first $12 million would go into a trust for Red's two
children and two grandchildren. We can each "retire" on $3
million.
The rest would go into a family foundation and be
distributed to non-profit organizations. We'll be updating
our Family History page soon, but it already says we are descendents of John Ludlow, brother of Israel Ludlow
who was one of Cincinnati's three founders and the surveyor who laid out downtown Cincinnati, Columbus and
Dayton. We have a lot more history in this
region, too. To honor this
history and help the region finally recover from the devastation of our Civil War, we would like to
support students in the public school systems in the cities of Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton &
Springfield, Ohio and Bellevue, Covington, Dayton, Ludlow & Newport, Kentucky. There are
approximately 120,000 students attending these
schools. We believe we need to take better
care of our children. They are our next generation. Everything about the future of our society
depends upon them. So, in order of priority, here is what we would like to see
happen:
Big Joe Duskin Music Education
Foundation
Bill founded this organization
several years ago after Big Joe's passing & is director. Our only mission is to pay local musicians
to go into schools, do educational presentations and encourage children to learn to play at least one
instrument. The first $6 million would indefinitely fund a presentation in every school every
year.
Africa
We have a cousin, Brandy Witthoft, who is highly involved
with sustainable relief efforts in Africa. More details to come, but $1 million would be hers to spend
as she sees fit. No strings attached.
Sarah Luella & Theodore
Hulsizer Field Trip Fund
We would like to send every student in the schools we are
supporting on an arts, humanities or science related field trip every year. $25 per
student every year requires an endowment fund of $60 million. We realize this is a huge goal, but
we're hearing it may be possible. Businesses and other foundations should be willing to match
funds toward this goal. We searched for everything we could think of for field trips and came up
with this list. We believe all students should visit the top three places at least once while in
school. The rest are in alphabetical order.
Underground Railroad Freedom
Center
Cincinnati Observatory
Center
Gorman
Farm
Aviation
Trail
Boonshoft Museum of
Discovery
Carillon Historical
Park
Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts
Center
Center of Science &
Industry
Cincinnati Art
Museum
Cincinnati Museum
Center
Cincinnati
Zoo
Columbus Museum of
Art
Columbus
Zoo
Daniel Hertzler
House
Dayton Art
Institute
Fort Ancient Archaeological
Park
Heritage Center of Clark
County
National Afro-American Museum & Cultural
Center
National Museum of the U. S. Air
Force
Ohio Historical
Center
Pennsylvania
House
Springfield Museum of
Art
Taft Museum of
Art
Westcott
House
For those who don't know, Cincinnati was the fastest growing
city in North America just prior to the Civil War. Some people were actually advocating moving the
nation's capital here. Cincinnati was expected to be the largest and finest city in North
America. Until the Civil War. From September 2-11, 1862, Cincinnati was under martial
law. 12,000 soldiers and 60,000 volunteers from throughout Ohio & Indiana crossed a makeshift
bridge made of coal barges and started Fort Mitchell, Fort Wright and Fort Thomas. The Confederate
army came within a few miles before retreating. The city of Florence, KY was under their
control. Having the enemy that close caused businesses to move to Detroit and Chicago, which were
much smaller at that time. Then poor, under-educated people of all backgrounds from all over the south
moved here looking for jobs. The rest is Cincinnati history, "the good, bad and
ugly".
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