Stephanie Deutsch · 2007 Honoree

In 1995, Stephanie Deutsch, her husband David, their three children and a couple of dogs moved to a big, gracious house on East Capitol Street. But it was never just the Deutsches’ house. It quickly became a community asset, housing various nieces and nephews, foreign students, friends in need. If any group needs a large space for a dinner, this is it. Stephanie will usually offer to cook.

Stephanie comes from a large, close-knit family, but doesn’t limit her generosity and time to those related by blood. The Capitol Hill community has been included in her extended family since she moved to the neighborhood 30 years ago.

After graduating from Brown University with a degree in Russian Studies, Stephanie spent a year in Moscow: She continued her Soviet studies at Harvard where she received a master’s degree. Then she changed gears and went to work at WETA-TV where she met a young director, David Deutsch. They moved to the Hill in 1975, right after they married.

Since then, there are few people who live here she hasn’t touched either directly or indirectly.

The most public impact is through her work as chairman of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation’s Grants Committee, through which she helps distribute $250,000 each year to Capitol Hill projects.

Grants have enabled students from Stuart Hobson Middle School to visit the United Nations and students at Watkins Elementary School to build a garden. Money has gone to the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, the Computer Corner and Trees for Capitol Hill. One of Stephanie’s favorite grants put large sculptures in the front yards of about 20 houses on East Capitol Street for several months.

“I recruited Stephanie to come on the board,” says Nicky Cymrot, president of the Foundation board, “because she's a sympathetic person. I thought she would take an interest in getting to know people in the community... It has far exceeded my wildest imagination.”

It was a natural fit. “I love meeting all the people involved in these activities.” Stephanie says. “They are people with energy and vision, dedication, imagination and talent.”

But Stephanie’s generosity to the community happens in quieter ways as well. As a representative of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, she has been a leader in the Capitol Hill Group Ministry’s shelter program, which provides lodging and meals to homeless families. sometimes extending her relationship with a family beyond the program.

She acted with the St. Marks’ Players and Capitol Hill Workshop, serving on the boards of both. “Community theater can be filled with people who are only there to flex their egos,” says an actor who performed with her. “Stephanie was there to make a better theater for Capitol Hill. Everything she did with the Players was about the rest of the cast, the audience, and the community.”

This same community spirit inspired, “Capitol Hill: Beyond the Monuments,” a book of photographs Stephanie organized and edited. It’s all about the streets, homes, children, dogs and gardens of the neighborhood she loves.

Stephanie grew up in Arlington, Va., Paris, France and Lower Hutt, New Zealand. But it wasn’t until she moved to Capitol Hill, that she felt she had found the right home.