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that made him the world’s greatest cyclist. He wanted to give other people with cancer a better chance to survive by empowering them with the same skills he brought to the battle. Since 1997, the Lance Armstrong Foundation has given millions of dollars to support cancer-survivorship programs and initiatives, including survivorship centers across the United States; collaborations with organizations focused on addressing the special needs of young adults with cancer; educational and outreach programs with more than two hundred partners like Fertile Hope, CancerCare, and the Office of Native Cancer Survivorship; a national action plan with the Centers for Disease Control to help the public health community work with survivors; and support and education to people facing the disease through its Web site and direct assistance program, LIVESTRONG SurvivorCare. In addition to the money Armstrong himself has contributed, the foundation’s activities are supported by 15,000 volunteers who help raise funds and by individuals who buy the famous yellow LIVESTRONG wristbands. Fifty-five million people across the world have worn one to support people living with cancer. Armstrong has made the most of his harrowing brush with death, not only by giving his money and knowledge, but by giving millions of people like you the chance to help by purchasing the little yellow band for a dollar.

My next example is not young in years, but his enthusiasm and imagination would do credit to someone half his age.

Lewis Cullman, eighty-eight, pioneered the leveraged buyout more than forty years ago. As one of America’s first venture capitalists, he amassed a sizable fortune, much of which he and his wife, Dorothy, decided to give away during their lifetime. So far they have given more than $200 million to causes they care about. Many are established initiatives that can always use more money, like the New York Public Library, the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Modern Art, the Neuroscience Institute, Human Rights Watch, the Enterprise Foundation (for low-income housing), and his alma mater, Yale. But one of his causes, Chess-in-the-Schools, is a classic example of a very good idea with no chance of becoming a reality without private support.

In 1986, a couple of fellow chess enthusiasts started Chess-in-the-Schools, believing that the game’s complex rules and requirements of strategy and imagination could stimulate intellectual growth in students in low-performing schools. The program was first introduced into a few New York City schools. When the Chess-in-the-Schools kids were tested on national standardized exams, they showed significant gains in reading, outperforming not only the average scores in their school districts but the national average as well. The participating students were not selected for aptitude. If the program is introduced into the second grade of a school, all second graders are taught chess.

Playing chess helps students develop thinking and analyzing skills, concentration, greater self-control, and self-confidence. The program costs about $100 a student per year. Today, Chess-in-the-Schools involves about 27,000 elementary and junior high school students in 109 schools in New York City neighborhoods with incomes low enough to qualify for the federal school lunch program. It also operates after-school programs in more than 110 schools, and sponsors weekend and holiday tournaments and four citywide tournaments with up to one thousand participants. There is an alumni program that helps high school students prepare for and gain admission to college.

Early on, Lewis gave the program $1 million. Now he helps raise money for it from corporations, foundations, and individuals, and convinces people like me to attend events to increase its visibility. Despite the growth of Chess-in-the-Schools, there are almost one hundred schools on a waiting list. Every year, results of national reading tests show poor students behind their more well-off contemporaries, without the reading skills necessary to succeed in an information