The Bradford House needed a stone foundation and chimney from the 1700s. Amazon doesn’t stock that, so they asked Pete Cameron.
Cameron’s farm in Greene County had exactly what was needed. Working only in dry months because of the mud, he brought up stone after stone, making dozens of trips over three years. If you go behind the Bradford House, you’ll see the stones; they make up the chimney and foundation of the summer kitchen.
It was work, sweat, and muscle. It was also philanthropy. But the Camerons were already familiar with using their time and energy for the betterment of others.
Kathy Cameron’s life changed the day her son told them he was gay. “He had nowhere to go in this town,” she said. When he told her about a gay/straight alliance at his college, she thought, Wow, we should do this so that kids in Washington County can have a place to go. So, she founded the Washington County Gay/Straight Alliance.
That’s also philanthropy.
Pete and Kathy Cameron serve as perfect examples that philanthropy isn’t just about giving away money—although they do that, too. They generously support their favorite causes in Washington. Just ask the Historical Society, Food Helpers, or the LeMoyne Center.
But it wasn’t just their financial support that inspired the Washington County Community Foundation to award them the Northrop Family Excellence Award for Community Philanthropy. They embody the award’s standards, particularly the criterion that emphasizes “documented efforts to improve the quality of life in Washington County.”
Pete comes from a family that emphasized serving the community. They owned Cameron Coca-Cola.
“We were an essential part of the community,” he said. “We received 10-20 asks a week—churches, ball fields, football teams, scoreboards, food pantries, you name it. I grew up donating through the company, and that’s how we learned to give back.”
Their most visible impact on community is the couple’s unwavering support of the LGBTQ community.
Kathy created the Washington County Gay Straight Alliance (WCGSA) with help from Mary Jo Podgurski of Teen Outreach and Jennifer Newman from First Presbyterian.
“We had a sex educator, a faith leader and a mom—three straight, white women,” said Kathy. “Who would think we would start something like that? But over the years, the kids found us.”
They realized they needed their own space. What better place than the land Pete's grandparents once lived on? They bought the lot and started construction.
“In 2016 we built the Center on Strawberry so that we could grow, allowing us not only to serve young people but also to include more ages and diversity, to build a community that is welcome to all,” she said. “Most of our programming now is based around the transgender and the senior LGBT + communities.”
Raising money is always a challenge.
“Most nonprofits,” she explained, “don’t have to deal with people saying, ‘We don’t like what you do.’ We’re here to meet the needs of the community to come and grow with us.”
Pete explained Kathy’s superpower: “She connects people with services, people and other organizations.”
Why be so involved in the community?
“We’ve been here forever,” Pete said. “We’ve been all over the world, but southwestern Pennsylvania is home. We try to do good things. People respect what we’ve done as a team to make this community a better place.”